Review of The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) by Antonius B — 27 May 2017
There are a few good moments in this noir film from 1946, and it's a fine cast with Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, and Kirk Douglas, but overall it's overwrought, muddled, and I have to say, about 30 minutes too long.
It starts off strong enough, with a young girl accidentally killing her cruel aunt during a thunderstorm in a house without power, in front of a boy who is a friend of the family and her boyfriend who she had intended to run away with.
Flash forward 17-18 years, and Van Heflin (the boy who ran away on his own) returns to find the other two (Stanwyck and Douglas) married and in positions of great power in the town. Perhaps one character who confuses the script more than she's worth is Lizabeth Scott, playing a love interest of Heflin's.
The film degenerates into melodrama, a confusion of motivations, dramatic music that will remind you of the old Star Trek series, and poor dialogue. It is interesting towards the end as Heflin tries to determine who the evil mastermind is between Stanwyck and Douglas, but the ending itself is poor.
This one is overrated, and it's hard to understand the high review scores.
This review of The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) was written by Antonius B on 27 May 2017.
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers has generally received positive reviews.
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