The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers - My Favorite Film Noir!

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is the epitome of a Film Noir - rough and tough men, beautiful dames (some wicked, some not), brawls, murder, secrets, passion and suspense - everything you would expect to see in a film of the genre. But it is more than that. It has an underlying message of what hate can do to a soul if a person gives in to it. A child, especially.

It starts with three teens, two of whom, a rich girl and her tutor's son, share a terrible secret that binds them together. The third teen, a troublemaker, escapes their town, without learning what the other two did, but when he returns after they've grown up, he becomes the catalyst that reveals the secret and starts an unraveling of passions that ends in a ... well, being a Film Noir, you know there is a chance there won't be a happy ending. But I'll leave that up in the air in case you have never seen the movie.

Barbara Stanwyck, as Martha Ivers, is gorgeous, cruel, and controlling. Kirk Douglas, in his first film, is the husband complicit in her secret. And Van Heflin is the troublemaker who returns home on a whim and finds himself a pawn in a deadly game of wills. He also finds poor girl Lizabeth Scott, who practically steals the movie with her sad-faced charm.

The dialogue in this film is excellently crafted, the performances have a fire to them that is irresistible. And I promise you won't be disappointed when you reach the final fade-out! It's a great ride!