'The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers' (1946)

'The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers' (1946) May 6, 2018 23:08:47 GMT spiderwort, teleadm, and 2 more like this

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Post by petrolino on May 6, 2018 23:08:47 GMT

The intimate crime drama 'The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers' is based on the short story 'Love Lies Bleeding' by playwright John 'Jack' Patrick of Louisville, Kentucky. Bruiser Sam Masterson (Van Heflin) returns to the house where he grew up in Iverstown, Pennsylvania and finds it's now a boarding house for wayward women. Sam's childhood sweetheart Martha Ivers (Barbara Stanwyck) has grown up to be a powerful industry chief who claims sole responsibility for increasing production at the local mills. Martha is married to Sam's old friend Walter O'Neil (Kirk Douglas), a district attorney running for Governor. Sam's disillusioned to see what his friends have become and takes up with Toni Marachek (Lizabeth Scott), a troublemaker on probation. Despite his best efforts to maintain distance, Sam can't shake his lust for Martha which causes complications for Walter and Toni too.

'IVERSTOWN : AMERICA'S FASTEST GROWING INDUSTRIAL CITY'

"Little girls grow up. They never get through playing with dolls."

Lewis Milestone & Lizabeth Scott

'Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding' - Elton John

Lewis Milestone's crime picture 'The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers' begins in 1928 as a creepy gothic chiller and becomes a political melodrama when the action jumps forward to 1946. It's literary by nature with suggestive dialogue hinting at deeply troubling childhood experiences. The tragic backstory colours everything that follows as Milestone explores the grey areas in life. All four protagonists are shown to be persons willing to gamble everything if they feel the odds are right, even if it's not their's to give.

"The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is melodrama with all the stops pulled out. A tale of greed, lust, revenge and psychopathic murder, it is – in the words of Noël Simsolo – “worthy of the worst libretto in Italian opera”. This may be a tad unfair to Italian opera. A hybrid of film noir and the Gothic women’s melodramas of the 1940s, a movie like this had to be in the worst of possible taste: if not, it might not work at all. With the Second World War over – and the United States high on idealism and its messianic sense of its place in the world – there was a low-down and dirty need to show how violent, vulgar, grasping and downright sordid America could actually be."

- David Melville, 'Open Game – Our Strange Love For Martha Ivers'

"The screenplay, written by future director Robert Rossen and Robert Riskin (uncredited), based on John Patrick’s short story, “Love Lies Breeding,” is dominated by greedy schemes and nasty, immoral figures on both sides of the law. The tale begins in 1928, centering on the central figures as children and a family tragedy, before switching after 15 minutes or so to 1946, when most of the tale is set.
On a rainy night in September in the Pennsylvania factory town of Iverstown, we observe Martha Ivers (Janis Wilson), a young girl yearning to escape the control of her wealthy and domineering aunt. Unfortunately, she is caught trying to run away with her friend, the poor street-smart Sam Masterson (Darryl Hickman). Later that night, Sam and Martha decide to try again."

- Emanuel Levy on 'The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers', Cinema 24/7

"Barbara Stanwyck’s range is part of what makes her one of my Holy Trinity of screen divas (with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in the other spots), but so is her willingness to play the most awful characters with 100 percent commitment, never worrying about whether or not she’s likable. Fred MacMurray understandably swore off playing bad guys after his fans reacted with shock and anger at his incredible portrayal of Jeff Sheldrake, The Apartment’s cad, philanderer, and office blackmailer, sticking after that to affable guys, Disney guys, My Three Sons guys. I don’t blame him, but I do give props to Stanwyck for her embrace of characters that are radically unsympathetic. It shows a real commitment to acting, to digging into the depths of human behavior, rather than protecting her star image by staying on the likable side of the street."

- Lesley Gaspar, Second Sight Cinema

"The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers is a complex treat, a great film. I've always loved Barbara Stanwyck but never knew about this gem."

- Naima Havilland, Noir Of The Week

Barbara Stanwyck & Kirk Douglas

Lizabeth Scott & Van Heflin

'Adam Raised A Cain' - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

There are life-changing revelations for the four main characters in 'The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers'. Barbara Stanwyck is cold and clinical as Martha Ivers, a capitalist titan harbouring a dark past. Van Heflin is determined, resolute and virile as hard-drinking, chain-smoking gambling man Sam Masterson who possesses a killer's instinct. Lizabeth Scott shifts gears as Antonia Marachek, a tough cookie with a weeping heart, and she's highly authentic within this blue collar, industrial setting, coming from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Kirk Douglas will make your skin crawl as spineless worm Walter O'Neill whose alcoholism compounds an impotence that makes him extremely dangerous.

"The younger set of movie goers might not be familiar with Lizabeth Scott, but ask senior citizens, and they’ll tell you she’s the dark blond woman with the husky voice who starred in film noir movies, including “Dead Reckoning,” with Humphrey Bogart. People who love old movies will also tell you Scott was born and raised in Scranton and attended Marywood College and Scranton Central. Her real name is Emma Matzo, and she is of Ukrainian descent. The family lived in the Pine Brook section of Scranton where Mr. Matzo owned a grocery store."

- Robert Curran, 'Scranton’s Grand Lady Of The Silver Screen : Remembering Lizabeth Scott'

"Born Emma Matzo to immigrant parents on September 29, 1922, Lizabeth Scott was raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania. To erase any vestiges of European influence from her speech, her parents paid for private elocution classes. Speaking properly was considered necessary to give one’s children a way out of coal towns like Scranton in those days. The lessons, along with the natural deep resonance of her voice, gave Scott her distinctive vocal quality, what Bernard F. Dick (author of 'Hal Wallis : Producer To The Stars') termed a “baritonal purr with a creamy huskiness.” At the age of 19, an affection for the stage took her to New York, where she attended the Alvienne School of Drama. Taking the name Elizabeth Scott, she started her stage career with the national tour cast of Hellzapoppin’. With a comely shape and a face capable of expressions ranging from exotic vamp to the girl-next-door, Scott found she could augment her work on and off Broadway with modeling layouts in magazines, such as Harper’s Bazaar."

- Alan Hanson, 'Lizabeth Scott In "Loving You" : Elvis's Second Leading Lady'

"Louella Parsons interviewed Van Heflin in promotion of MGM's 'Tulip Time' aka Seven Sweethearts (1942). She writes that Heflin started out as a farmer in his native Oklahoma before spending three years at sea as a merchant marine. "I hated the stage at first," Heflin told her, "and I returned to the sea for a time. I felt as an actor I was a good sailor." Heflin talks about how he always seems to be playing reporters yet happily assures Parsons that he is a sober one in 'Tulip Time'. She asks if he does not like playing drunks: "On the contrary, I liked the inebriated youth in 'Johnny Eager' better than anything I have ever played. That young man interested me. He was so intelligent, with nothing evil in his makeup. He got mixed up with gangsters because of his one failing -- his love of drink."

- Cliff Aliperti, Immortal Ephemera

"After serving in World War II, Van Heflin jumped into a complete change of pace: as Sam Masterson, a slangy tough guy from the wrong side of the tracks, he is in total command of his Bogart-type role and seems to be having the time of his life opposite his ideal acting partner, Barbara Stanwyck. When he gets badly beaten up so that he’ll leave town, this barely fazes Sam: “I don’t like to get pushed around,” says Heflin, simply and forcefully, with no fake toughness. For genuine movie toughness, it’s hard to top the moment when he looks over weakling Kirk Douglas, in his film debut, and says, “Don’t try it, sweetheart,” as Douglas reaches for a gun. It’s an outrageous part, really, and Heflin just squeaks by with it, in the process proving just how versatile an actor he is."

- Dan Callahan, 'The House Next Door'

Lizabeth Scott (born Emma Matzo, September 29, 1922, Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.)

Carroll Baker (born Karolina Piekarski, May 28, 1931, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, U.S.) playing chess with Elias Thomas Kanarek

'Spy Boy' - John Hiatt

Hungarian romantic Miklos Rozsa's damaged musical underscore uses harrowing orchestration and harnesses the full range of notes to express emotion, often swelling into being in his trademark style. 'The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers' unveils kinkiness when you least expect as it unfurls life's long lament, permanently winding its players, like a punch in the gut from Sonny Liston. It's one of the most potent noir melodramas of the 1940s.

'Lust For Living [1930s - 1950s]'

Kirk Douglas has recalled how Van Heflin helped him out during the production of 'The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers' which was his first major film role. Heflin had 10 years of film acting under his belt and was establishing himself as one of Hollywood's keen thinkers. It was around this time that Heflin got involved in setting up a production meeting designed to interest Jean Renoir in making a film based on Irving Stone's biographical novel 'Lust For Life' (1934) about Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh. The project never materialised but Heflin and Renoir were still keen to work with each other. Heflin almost took the role of Captain John in 'The River' (1951), but once again, things didn't work out.
With his French ancestry, it's a shame Heflin never got to make a picture with Renoir, whose last feature film was released in 1962. Renoir returned only to direct the television portmanteau 'The Little Theatre Of Jean Renoir' (1970) with Jeanne Moreau. Heflin did work in Italian cinema for a few years and said he enjoyed his time in Europe. Stone's book was eventually filmed by Vincente Minnelli as 'Lust For Life' (1956), with Kirk Douglas earning strong notices for his Oscar nominated performance as Van Gogh.

"Before 1946, Kirk Douglas spent his time in New York working in stage productions, radio and various commercials under the name of Izzy Demsky. It wasn’t until his close friend Lauren Bacall who had studied theatre with him years earlier suggested to Hal Wallis that he attend a play that featured Douglas in it that Wallis witnessed his acting potential and wanted him for the role of the jealous and insecure husband of the manipulative Martha Ivers, played by Barbara Stanwyck in 'The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers'. For Kirk Douglas this was the beginning. It was the inception of a career that would pave the way for a myriad of success and would change his life completely. The result of this life changing event for Kirk Douglas was effective from the start. On the set of 'The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers', he had developed a warm rapport with Van Heflin who helped guide his way through the production."

- Crystal Kalyana, In The Good Old Days Of Classic Hollywood

"During my college years, my Navy service during World War II, and my years as an actor on Broadway, I never smoked. Then Hollywood beckoned, and I answered. My first picture was ''The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers,'' with Barbara Stanwyck and Van Heflin, in 1946. I was intimidated, but proud to be playing the role of Miss Stanwyck's husband. I arrived at the set, very excited, to do my first scene with her. But I had spoken only a few lines when the director, Lewis Milestone, stopped the action and said, ''Kirk, you should be smoking a cigarette in this scene.'' ''I don't smoke,'' I replied timidly. ''It's easy to learn,'' he said, and had the prop man hand me a cigarette. I continued with the scene, lighting and smoking my first cigarette. Suddenly, I began to feel sick to my stomach and dizzy. ''Cut,'' yelled the director. ''What's the matter with you, Kirk? You're swaying.'' I rushed to my trailer to throw up. But Mr. Milestone was right. It's easy to learn to smoke. Soon I was smoking two to three packs a day. At that time everyone smoked, and the cigarette was the favorite movie prop.

- Kirk Douglas, 'My First Cigarette, And My Last'

"Along with Lewis Milestone and Jacques Tourneur, Jean Renoir was a director Dana Andrews got to know well and considered a friend. His daughter Kathy remembered her father taking her for a visit to Renoir. Renoir was very happy about using Dana and Anne Baxter and considered them two of his "finds."

- Carl Rollyson, Silver Screen Oasis

Lana Turner & Van Heflin on the set of George Sidney's 'The Three Musketeers' (1948)

Jennifer Jones & Van Heflin in Vincente Minnelli's 'Madame Bovary' (1949)

Jeanne Moreau in Martin Ritt's 'Five Branded Women' (1960)

Mylene Demongeot in Duilio Coletti's 'Under Ten Flags' (1960)

Ralph Nelson's 'Once A Thief' (1965)

'I Only Have Eyes For You' - Peggy Lee