Cinema Cycle - The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE: 07/11/2014

TITLE: The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

FORMAT: LaserDisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 56 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 27.9 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 367 miles

SYNOPSIS: Three teenagers are involved in a murder and go their separate ways.  One returns 17 years later as an adult and re-awakens the truth and old passions with devastating results.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: You can try and forget the past, but eventually it catches up with you if there are unresolved issues.  Bad parents raise bad children.  

PROS AND CONS: This is one of the reasons I started collecting LaserDiscs. When I started collecting them, movies such as this were almost impossible to find on television.  With the advent of Netflix and Hulu this may no longer be the case, but at least I have no buffering or connectivity problems when I want to watch them.  

This is a very good film.  I found it engrossing and could not wait to get to the end to see what happened.  The film stars four old Hollywood heavyweights in Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, a young Kirk Douglas, and an alluring Judith Anderson in all their Film Noir goodness.  

This is an intimate work set in the fictional small Pennsylvania town of Iverstown.  Pretty much the entire film takes place at night or during thunderstorms which sets the mood with long shadows and dark hallways.  All of these characters have a past that they are trying to run away from.  Figuring out the motives and desires of each player is what keeps you on the edge of your seat until the end of the film….and I did not see the ending coming.  It was not what I expected.

I lament that films such as this are not made anymore.  With the advent of big budget special effects and simplistic plot lines, writing and direction like this are becoming a thing of the past. Watching this film is akin to reading Tolstoy or Hemingway.  It shows a different world, a different time and a different way of living.

To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.