# The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is a 1946 American film noir about a ruthless, domineering woman who is married to an alcoholic D.A., her childhood companion and the only living witness to her murder of her rich aunt seventeen years earlier.
    Directed by Lewis Milestone. Written by Robert Rossen and Robert Riskin (uncredited), based on the short story "Love Lies Bleeding" by playwright John Patrick.

## Sam Masterson

* Look! I don't like to get pushed around. I don't like people I like to be pushed around. I don't like anybody to get pushed around.

## Toni Marachek

* Go ahead and hit me, Sam. I've got it coming.
* I missed a bus once and I was lucky. I wanted to see if I could be lucky twice.
* [Offering a hotel room Gideon Bible] I'll loan you a book for a couple of cigarettes if you don't mind what kind of book it is.

## Other

* Hotel clerk: There's half as many baths as there is rooms. Half the rooms has a bath and half hasn't; that's one way of looking at it. Another is - for each two rooms one has a bath in the middle and the other hasn't - or - you might say - there's a half a bath to each of two rooms.
* Mrs. Ivers: [to Mr. O'Neill] I know why you offered to tutor Martha. I know why you've made Walter do his daily lessons with her. I know why you want him to live here. A scholarship for Walter, that's why! But I'm not a foundation, Mr. O'Neil. I don't care if Walter drives a truck or goes to Harvard. Probably be a lot happier driving a truck.

## Dialogue

    Sailor: [after the car crashed] What happened?
    Sam Masterson: The road curved, I didn't.
    Sam Masterson: [Recounting the time he was away from Iverstown] That brings us up to my 21st birthday when I became a man officially.
    Martha Ivers: How did it feel to become a man - officially?
    Sam Masterson: I'd been there before.
    Walter O'Neil: I wasn't going to shoot.
    Sam Masterson: I wasn't gonna wait and see.
    Martha Ivers: A sure thing is never a gamble.
    Sam Masterson: No? What odds you give that that's a fact?
    Toni Marachek: You know what probation is?
    Sam Masterson: Sure! A knife stickin' in your back!
    Martha Ivers: [Upon letting herself into Sam's hotel room unannounced, seeing Toni modeling a new swim suit] The sun suit looks very well on her Sam, she's got just the figure for it. She's a very pretty girl.
    Toni Marachek: I give another show at 8 o'clock.
    Martha Ivers: In your room or here?
    Martha Ivers: Why didn't you stop me, Sam? You know how much I hated her! Why didn't you stop me?
    Sam Masterson: I wasn't there.
    Martha Ivers: Why didn't you stop... [realizes] You weren't there?
    Sam Masterson: No, I left as soon as I saw your aunt enter the room.
    Toni Marachek: Maybe you think I've been trying too hard to get acquainted.
    Sam Masterson: Maybe you have.
    Toni Marachek: Maybe you think that's wrong.
    Sam Masterson: Maybe it's too soon to tell.
    Toni Marachek: I wonder what you're thinking.
    Sam Masterson: I don't think you'll take up too much room in my Stanley Steamer.
    Toni Marachek: Maybe you're all right.

## Cast

* Barbara Stanwyck - Martha Ivers
* Van Heflin - Sam Masterson
* Lizabeth Scott - Antonia "Toni" Marachek
* Kirk Douglas - Walter O'Neil
* Roman Bohnen - Mr. O'Neil
* Judith Anderson - Mrs. Ivers
* Janis Wilson - young Martha Ivers
* Darryl Hickman - young Sam Masterson
* Mickey Kuhn - young Walter O'Neil

## External links

* The Strange Love of Martha Ivers quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* The Strange Love of Martha Ivers at Allmovie