The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

“It’s not your fault. It’s not anyone’s fault. It’s just the way things are.” The film debut of a young actor named Kirk Douglas, Lewis Allen’s The Strange Love of Martha Ivers tells the story of three childhood friends who share a criminal secret and the conflict that extends well into their adulthood. Van Heflin plays Sam Masterson, one of the three who returns back to Iverstown after many years away to learn that the other two, calculating businesswoman Martha Ivers (Barbara Stanwyck) and insecure attorney Walter O’Neil (Douglas), are now married and maintain a power grip on Iverstown: Martha runs the town’s largest company, which she inherited, and Walter is the district attorney. Masterson’s arrival represents a significant threat not only to Martha and Walter’s already unstable marriage (Sam was Martha’s childhood sweetheart) but to their longtime cover-up of the crime (an innocent man was convicted and executed). Her screen time sadly too short, the great Judith Anderson plays the cold and clinical Mrs. Ivers, whose tumble down the stairs sets up the film’s central tension (admittedly, the cane assault is the weakest moment of the film) while Lizabeth Scott plays ex-con Toni Marachek, who wins over Sam and provides the romantic subplot, violin music and all. Milestone establishes a big town atmosphere under one family’s grip very effectively and makes abundant use of night skies and thunderstorms. Watch for a beautiful, final image of Martha through the window.