By Signal Staff
Film noir of the 1940s comes to Buzz Classic Movies this week with a Saturday night showing of “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers,” directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Van Heflin.
It’s “a gripping film noir, all the more effective for being staged by Milestone as a steamy romantic melodrama,” writes Time Out film critic Derek Adams, per Rotten Tomatoes.
The movie also features the debut film role for a young actor who was little known at the time: Kirk Douglas.
The 1946 film has earned a 100% “fresh” rating from the critics based on 11 reviews, and a 75% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes’ “Popcornmeter” based on more than 1,000 ratings.
“Young Martha inadvertently causes the death of her cruel, authoritarian aunt. Martha lies to the cops, and Walter, who saw the crime, corroborates the girl’s story,” says the Rotten Tomatoes summary of the movie. “Eventually, they wed out of convenience; the meek Walter is genuinely in love, and Martha thinks that her secret is safe since she has married the one witness to her aunt’s death. However, when her childhood pal, Sam, shows up, Martha knows her dark past may not stay a secret for long.”
The classic streams at 8 p.m. Saturday on The Signal’s streaming channel, The Buzz, available at buzzscv.com as well as streaming platforms including Roku and Apple TV.
