STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (DVD)

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is a 1946 American film noir drama starring Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin and features Kirk Douglas in his first film debut. In 1928 in a Pennsylvania town named Iverstown a thirteen-year-old girl Martha Ivers (Barbara Stanwyck) tries to run away from her domineering guardian aunt, Mrs. Ivers (Judith Anderson). Martha is retrieved and brought home to be scolded by her aunt as Martha proclaims her surname is not Ivers, but Smith after her father's name. Sam Masterson (Darryl Hickman) is a small child also under the control of Mrs. Ivers. During a power failure Sam comes for Martha, but Martha's aunt hears her calling to him from downstairs. Mrs. Ivers begins to beat Martha's kitten with her cane, but Martha wrestles the cane away and strikes Mrs. Ivers across the head with an iron poker, causing her to die. When the power comes back on Martha lies about the incident, and Sam backs her up. Seventeen years later Walter Jr. (Kirk Douglas) is now Iverstown's