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The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers (1946)
American film noir drama.
In 1928, young heiress Martha Ivers (Barbara Stanwyck) fails to run off with friend Sam Masterson (Van Heflin), and is involved in a series of fatal events.
Years later, Sam returns to find Martha the power behind Iverstown and married to “good boy” Walter O’Neil (Kirk Douglas), now a District Attorney. At first, Sam is more interested in displaced blonde Toni Marachek (Lizabeth Scott) than in his boyhood friends, but they draw him into a convoluted web of plotting and cross-purposes.
This film marked Kirk Douglas’ screen debut. Producer Hal B. Wallis was on his way to New York to look for new talent when he ran into Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, who suggested that he go to a play which featured Bacall’s old drama school classmate, Issur Demsky, who later took the name Kirk Douglas. Douglas later wrote in his autobiography that Van Heflin was very helpful to him in his first time on a film set.
Future film director and producer Blake Edwards had an uncredited bit part as a sailor who hitches a ride with Sam.
Director Lewis Milestone left the film for several days in sympathy with a set decorators’ strike which was going on at the time. In his absence, the film was directed by Byron Haskin, who did not receive screen credit.
Six months after the film’s release, Milestone gave an interview in which he said he would never work for producer Hal B. Wallis again, because Wallis had wanted re-shoots in order to get more closeups of Lizabeth Scott. Milestone refused, telling Wallis to shoot them himself, and, according to the director, Wallis did.
The film’s ad campaign consisted only of teasers before its release: Newspapers ran ads reading “Whisper her name!”, while radio spots had a woman repeatedly whispering “Martha Ivers”.
The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers received an Academy Award nomination for John Patrick in the category of Best Writing, Original Motion Picture Story.
The car that Sam Masterson (Van Heflin) drives into Iverstown at the beginning of this movie is a 1942 DeSoto Custom Convertible.
| Directed by | Lewis Milestone Byron Haskin (uncredited) Hal B. Wallis (uncredited) |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Hal B. Wallis |
| Written by | Robert Rossen Robert Riskin (uncredited) |
| Based on | Love Lies Bleeding by John Patrick |
| Starring | Barbara Stanwyck Van Heflin Lizabeth Scott Kirk Douglas |
| Music by | Miklós Rózsa |
| Cinematography | Victor Milner |
| Edited by | Archie Marshek |
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Production
company |
Hal Wallis Productions
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| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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116 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $3,250,000 (US rentals) |
