Van Heflin

The Strange Lives of Martha Ivers might feel familiar in many ways, but it succeeds in carving its own special place in noir lore. Starring a bevy of actors that made names for themselves in the lauded film movement, Milestone’s picture embraces the melodrama inherent in the script, tapping into the core of the quartet of central characters. Martha’s love is indeed strange, but the word that comes to mind to describe her movie is ‘great’.

In nutshell, Joseph Losey’s The Prowler is a tragedy involving two figures that fall prey to the desperation that infects any human being when their emotional well being is put at risk for as long as is the case with the film’s protagonists at the outset. People can make rash decisions based on emotion when they aren’t in the right mindset. Said decision might feel correct on a gut level at first, but they can easily come back to haunt one in the worst possible way. It makes for a very sag, eerie movie, although a very compelling watch nonetheless.