OTR Noir » Drama

Film Noir: The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

gestroud — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:15:58 +0000

Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, and Kirk Douglas star in this 1946 film noir about a husband and wife who share a dark secret from the past.

Stanwyck is Martha Ivers, a cold-hearted woman who killed her overbearing aunt years earlier on the night Martha was to run away with her impovershed boyfriend, Sam Masterson.

The aunt’s killing was witnessed by the son of a family employee. The father joins Martha in a lie about what actually transpired. He then uses the knowledge against her, forcing her to allow him to move into the family home. Years later, he coerces her into marrying his son, Walter O’Neil (Kirk Douglas in his motion picture debut), now a district attorney.

Sam Masterson (Van Heflin) reappears in the town setting the stage for doublecross, duplicity and death.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is available for full screen viewing on Google Video and can be purchased in DVD format in our OTR Shop.

Screen Director’s Playhouse: (74) The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

gestroud — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:35:38 +0000

Barbara Stanwyck reprises her role as Martha Ivers in this radio adaptation of 1946′s The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, a tragic story of love, murder and deception. Also appearing in this show is film, radio and television actor Gerald Mohr (Philip Marlowe, The Whistler, Maverick, Perry Mason.) This show was first broadcast on June 23, 1950

Academy Award Theater: The Informer

gestroud — Mon, 25 May 2009 00:45:41 +0000

The Informer is based on the 1935 movie by the same name. The screenplay was written by Dudley Nichols from the novel The Informer by Liam O’Flaherty. It was directed by John Ford. The radio broadcast originally aired May 25, 1946. It is the ninth episode in the Academy Awards Theater series.

The plot concerns the underside of the Irish Civil War set in 1922. It stars Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel, Preston Foster, Margot Grahame, Wallace Ford, Una O’Connor and J.M. Kerrigan. McLaglen, Grahame, Ford, and Kerrigan reprise their roles in this radio episode.

The Informer was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. McLaglen won the Academy Award for Best Leading Actor, beating out Charles Laughton and Clark Gable for the better-remembered Mutiny on the Bounty. Ford won for Best Director. Dudley Nichols won the Oscar for Best Writing, but turned it down because of Union disagreements. It was the first time an Oscar was declined.

This article is based on information from Wikipedia.