Barbara Stanwyck is Martha Ivers, the femme fatale par excellence. Stanwyck may be remembered best for her femme fatale role in Double Indemnity, but how many of these types of ruthless characters get their start in childhood? Martha Ivers does, and she makes the most of her dubious talents from that point onward.
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is available online for free. Click here to see it at the Internet Archive.
The narrative starts in Iverstown, in 1928, when Martha Ivers is still a child and living with her very wealthy and very unforgiving aunt. Martha has run away from home once again, and Sam Masterson, a childhood friend, helps to feed her and her cat, both stowaways on a boxcar in a railroad yard. He and Martha are no match for Mrs. Ivers, the aunt. She has so many adults in town currying her favor that she has no shortage of people willing to track down Martha and bring her home, whether Martha wants to be home or not. And she definitely does not. The moment she is back at her aunt’s house, Sam climbs back into the house through a window, and Martha begs him to help her escape once again.
Walter O’Neil is also with Martha that night. His father brought him to the Ivers house because Mr. O'Neil claims that Walter was the one who had the information leading to the return of Martha to her aunt’s home. Detective Londine is also at the Ivers house and wants Mrs. Ivers to know that he was the one who “caught” Martha. In addition to currying her favor, no one wants to be seen as standing in Mrs. Ivers’s way.
On this same night, when the aunt is particularly peeved with her niece, Mrs. Ivers finds Martha’s cat on the long and wide front staircase of her home and kills it. Martha kills her aunt in retaliation and then lies about what happened. Mr. O'Neil goes along with Martha’s version of events about a man breaking in with the intention of robbing the house and killing her aunt. He’ll keep quiet if Martha agrees to marry Walter when they are older. When the film jumps to 1946, that’s exactly what has happened. Martha and the other children are surrounded by adults who really couldn’t care less about them, their welfare, or their feelings.
(This article about The Strange Love of Martha Ivers contains almost all the spoilers. The examples in the previous paragraph happen early in the movie. It’s almost impossible to write about this film and not give something away.)
Sam Masterson, now an adult, is driving through Iverstown and accidentally hits a pole. His DeSoto needs repairs so he is forced to stop in Iverstown, although he doesn’t want to. He spots Antonia (Toni) Marachek after dropping off his car at an auto body shop and introduces himself. After a brief conversation, she decides to ride west with Sam. Toni and Sam get adjoining hotel rooms in Iverstown to wait out the car repairs. Toni has just been released from jail, and she tells Sam about it after they are already registered at the hotel.
Martha O’Neil comes home, the same home with the same staircase that her aunt once owned, to find her husband Walter drunk and passed out. They talk about his need to keep up appearances if he wants a political career. Martha is practical and in control, and Walter is plagued by guilt. He knows that Martha killed her aunt because he was there to witness it when it happened. In spite of what she did, Walter loves Martha, and his love and desperation leave him powerless to do anything but continue with the status quo, which includes getting drunk to forget his desperation.
The next morning, Toni is arrested for violating her probation. One condition of her release was that she return to her hometown of Ridgeville, but she cashed in her bus ticket instead because she would rather ride west with Sam. Sam goes to Walter O’Neil for help getting Toni released from jail, and Walter agrees because he knows that Sam was also at the Ivers home the night that Martha killed her aunt. Martha O’Neil shows up at Walter’s office and is thrilled to see Sam, who is still there finishing his deal with Walter. Martha is attracted to Sam and doesn’t seem to care if Walter knows about it, but Sam doesn’t return her affections. She does her best to persuade him otherwise, and maybe he does care about Martha because of some fond childhood memories. She had always relied on him when they were children to help her escape from her aunt. Walter, on the other hand, is not nearly as pleased to see Sam again. He is obviously a complication for Walter.
Toni is brought to Walter O'Neil’s office to make a deal. So many things in everyone’s lives are transactions made and waiting to be fulfilled. Walter will order her release and wipe her record clean if she informs on Sam Masterson. Sam is already known to police, but they never seem to have enough evidence to detain him. Walter wants to be rid of Sam, to keep him out of town and out of his marriage. Toni faces an almost impossible choice, and her subsequent betrayal of Sam results in Sam being taken away by men working for Walter. He is beaten and dumped twenty-five miles outside Iverstown, with a warning not to return. He ignores this, of course: He needs his car, for one thing, and being back in town gives him a chance to square things with Toni. He includes Toni in his plans when he hears her side of events because he doesn’t like to see anyone pushed around.
This begins a cycle of one-upmanship played out between Martha, Walter, and Sam. Each one takes turns trying to get the upper hand until the final confrontation at the O’Neil home, in which Martha pushes Sam to kill Walter so that both of them can finally be together. Sam Masterson is the character that is the hardest to figure out. He’s capable of skirting the law and using violence to defend himself, but he champions the underdog. Viewers get a glimpse of that when he declares to Toni that he doesn’t want to see anyone pushed around, but at that point, it’s not clear exactly what he means. It’s not until the end of the film, when Sam saves Walter and puts his own life in danger, that viewers realize his true strength.
Perhaps another clue to Sam’s character is his familiarity with the Bible. Sam’s and Toni’s stay in the Iverstown hotel is a chance to introduce the Bible as reading material. (There’s one in every hotel room, at least in 1946.) Sam seems to be well acquainted with many of the stories in the Bible and alludes to some in the course of the narrative. At the end of the film, he specifically refers to Lot’s wife turning to a pillar of salt because she dared to look back at Sodom. After what has happened in Iverstown, he uses it as a sort of warning to Toni that she should never look back on the past. Sam’s childhood acquaintance with Martha has certainly led to trouble for all the main characters in the film. But his warning leads to a more positive outcome for him and Toni as they drive out of town:
• Sam: “Don’t look back, baby [Toni]. Don’t ever look back. You know what happened to Lot’s wife, don’tcha?”
• Toni: “Whose wife?”
• Sam: “Sam’s wife.”
• Toni: [she leans her head on Sam’s shoulder] “Sam’s wife.”
Lizabeth Scott has a reputation for playing femme fatale roles, but she plays against type in this noir. Barbara Stanwyck is the one in the femme fatale role, and she is clearly good at it. But it’s Kirk Douglas who is the real surprise. Walter O’Neil was his first film role, and he plays the pushover husband so well that it’s easy to forget all the other roles that Douglas is more famous for. Kirk Douglas may be remembered for exuding strength and command, but his true forte may be exuding anything at all on-screen in the first place. It may not matter what the role demanded of him; he would have given it everything, every time.
The title of this film noir troubles me a bit, which may be the reason behind the writer’s block that seemed to crop up every time I tried to write about The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. Who (or what) is Martha’s strange love? Does she love Walter? Does she really love Sam? Or does she simply use both men because of her love for money and power? Martha Ivers is capable of evil, but I’m not sure that love of money and power is all that strange, to be honest. It’s certainly a feature in many films, not just noir.
Maybe the title refers to Walter O’Neil. His devotion to Martha since they were children is laudable, unless you recall that he was the one on the staircase who witnessed Martha beating her aunt to death. He seems incapable of doing anything that would destroy his love for Martha—until the end, that is, when the two of them engage in an unplanned murder-suicide. I think The Strange Love of Walter O’Neil would have worked much better as the title.
Either way, the film rewards repeat viewings, with its complicated plot, underhanded dealings, and multiple betrayals. Some of the plot and the characters’ motivations are told only through dialogue, which can make details hard to follow at times. Like many films noir, viewers must pay attention, or some of the details might slip by. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is worth the effort. It is a powerful film that is hard to forget.
July 24, 1946 (New York City), September 13, 1946, release dates • Directed by Lewis Milestone • Screenplay by Robert Rossen and Robert Riskin • Based on the short story “Love Lies Bleeding” by John Patrick • Music by Miklós Rózsa • Edited by Archie Marshek • Cinematography by Victor Milner
Barbara Stanwyck as Martha Ivers, neé Ivers • Van Heflin as Sam Masterson • Lizabeth Scott as Antonia (aka Toni) Marachek •Kirk Douglas as Walter O'Neil • Roman Bohnen as Mr. O'Neil • Judith Anderson as Mrs. Ivers • Janis Wilson as the young Martha Ivers • Darryl Hickman as the young Sam Masterson • Janis Wilson as Martha Ivers as a child • Ann Doran as Bobbi St. John • Frank Orth as the hotel clerk • James Flavin as the detective • Mickey Kuhn as Walter O'Neil as a child • Charles D. Brown as McCarthy • Blake Edwards as the sailor • Robert Homans as Gallagher • Gladden James as John
Distributed by Paramount Pictures • Produced by Hal Wallis Productions
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