The Strange Love of Martha Ivers has an amazing prologue where an entitled young woman murders Judith Anderson, her wicked aunt, after she canes her kitten to death. The film then moves forward twenty years into the future and the only thing that's working in the film's favor at that point is the young woman is now Barbara Stanwyck. Kirk Douglas is totally miscast as her alcoholic husband and Van Heflin doesn't hold a candle to her either as her childhood sweetheart. There are some fun noir elements, particularly in the melodramatic finale, but a rushed romance between Heflin and Lizabeth Scott is a hindrance.
