The Strange Love of Martha Ivers/Kirk Douglas on Film - A Biography

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin Director: Lewis Milestone Dvd Release: 26th June, 2000 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Black & White, NTSC, Region 0 Encoding

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The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is a black-and-white film noir motion picture released in the United States in 1946. The movie is based on a story, titled Love Lies Bleeding by playwright John Patrick, produced & brought to the screen by Hal B Wallis. The screenplay was written by Robert Rossen & Robert Riskin & was directed by Lewis Milestone. The film opens with a rainy night in 1928, where Martha Ivers, a rich young girl, is caught attempting to run away with her friend, the street-smart & poor, Sam Masterson. The pair is caught & Martha is sent home. While there, the spoiled Martha prevents her aunt from attacking her cat with a cane by turning the cane on her aunt instead. There are witnesses to the crime commited by the young woman, including Marthas future husband Walter, son of her tutor. Walter & Martha end up fingering a known criminal for the crime instead of taking the blame. Meanwhile, wrong-side-of-the-tracks Sam takes off thinking hes in trouble enough. Eighteen years later, Distict Attorney Walter & Martha live a loveless marriage.

This has the classic elements of an interesting, enjoyable 1940s film noir, with the hero oscillating between two heroines, who appear in moral disguise. Barbara Stanwyck is wonderfully two-faced; Kirk Douglas puts in an amazingly assured first film appearance as her drunk husband; & Miklos Rozsas score manages to underline the drama at the same time as commenting coolly on it.

BUT this DVD is taken from a very poor quality print, with blurred picture & crackling, hazy sound. I regret buying it, & wish Id waited for someone to release a digitally remastered version.

Barbara Stanwyck was an American film & television actress. She was born in New York City & her mother died when she was only four. She took her stage name from the name of a play, Barbara Frietchie, about a fictional Civil War heroine. The play starred a British actress named Joan Stanwyck. Stella Dallas, Ball of Fire, Double Indemnity & Sorry, Wrong Number. She received an Academy Honorary Award for superlative creativity & unique contribution to the art of screen acting in 1982. In her later years, she also starred in television, notably in the 1960s Western series, The Big Valley. Her last starring role was in 1985, in The Colbys. During her life, Stanwyck was the subject of rumor that she was a lesbian & that her marriage to the actor Robert Taylor was a lavender marriage, designed to conceal the fact that both were homosexual. After her death, biographies began to report these rumors as fact, with several sources who had known both Stanwyck & Taylor willing to go on record & verify these claims. Peter B Flint. Barbara Stanwyck, Actress, Dead at 82. The New York Times. Posters Of Roustabout

Editors Choice: Roustabout, Meet John Doe, Forty Guns, The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers, Lady Of Burlesque, The Lady Eve, Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity, View DVDology

Emmett Evan Heflin Jnr. better known as Van Heflin was an American film & theater actor. Born in Walters, Oklahoma, Heflin began his acting career on Broadway in the early 1930 before being signed to a contract by RKO Studios. His first film A Woman Rebels featured him opposite Katharine Hepburn & although he received good reviews, RKO did not try to build his potential. Signed by MGM Studios in 1940 he was cast in Santa Fe Trail & Johnny Eager, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the latter performance. MGM began to groom him as a leading man in B Pictures & provided him with strong supporting roles in more prestigious productions. Among his film credits are Presenting Lily Mars, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Possessed & Shane. He also returned to perform on stage throughout his acting career. His stage credits include The Philadelphia Story on Broadway opposite Katharine Hepburn. His last major role was in the film Airport. He suffered a heart attack while swimming in his pool at his home in Hollywood, California & died several days later. Posters Of Battle Cry

Editors Choice: The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers, Battle Cry, Patterns, View DVDology

Lewis Milestone was an accomplished & award-winning motion picture director. He was born in Chisinau, Moldova, although at the time it was the Russian city of Kishinev & came to the United States just prior to World War I Milestone held a number of odd jobs before enlisting in the US Signal Corps, where he worked as an assistant director on Army training films during the war. After the war he went to Hollywood, where he first worked as a film cutter & later as an assistant director. Howard Hughes promoted Milestone to director & one of his early efforts, the 1928 film Two Arabian Knights, won him an Oscar in the first Academy Award ceremony. He also directed The Racket, an early gangster film & later helped Hughes direct scenes for his aviation saga Hells Angels. Milestone won his second Academy Award for All Quiet on the Western Front, a screen adaptation of the antiwar novel by Erich Maria Remarque. His next, The Front Page, brought the Ben Hecht / Charles MacArthur play to the screen. It earned him another Oscar nomination. He worked extensively in television from the mid 1950s.

Editors Choice: Oceans 11, Pork Chop Hill, The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers, They Who Dare, The Halls Of Montezuma, Rain, A Walk In The Sun, Of Mice And Men, View DVDology

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