MovieChat Forums > The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) Discussion > Hesitation before accepting her death

Hesitation before accepting her death

posted 13 years ago by micaofboca-836-322711
9 replies | jump to latest

I found it interesting and indicative of the theatrical taste of the times that both of the Barbara Stanwyck characters from this film as well as "Double Indemnity" behave in the same manner just before letting themselves be shot to death by their partner in crime. For some reason Martha just ultimately gave up and abandoned her strong willed and manipulative ways when she glances down at the gun Kirk Douglas has aimed at her and does nothing to prevent her demise. Her natural insouciance towards any guilt that had never been of any concern to her before suddenly vanishes and she allows herself the ultimate punishment.
It's funny but her character does the same thing in "Double Indemnity" even though the book never told that story and it ended completely different than the movie. After shooting Fred MacMurray once without successfully finishing him off she let's herself be killed by him for a host of reasons, not the least of one being her last minute falling in love with him for his matching bad" ways to hers.
Martha Ivers also had that last minute realization that she had thrown in her lot with the hopeless alcoholic weakling for better or worse and thereby allows him to perform the coup de grâce without resisting since she was also inextricably tied to him as her partner in unforgivable crimes for which she needed to be punished.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gravedigger-1 13 years ago

I like to see it as a shared act, too. Like so many decisions Walter was weak making, Martha had to help him along. She understood his weaknesses as he understood her's.

[–] VelvetTigress 12 years ago

Yes, Martha wasn't the passive recipient of the bullet at all. Walter pointed the gun at her and hesitated, almost as if he were offering her a solution. He was passive about it, as if he wanted to be sure that she wanted it, too. Martha held the barrel decisively and put it up to her chest. She silently gave him permission. The murder-suicide was a mutual decision.

Maybe Martha felt that this choice WAS an act of strength. Their whole lives as individuals and as a couple revolved around guarding the secret. Constant, paranoid fear of discovery and punishment turned him into an alcoholic and her so cold and calculating that she could shrewdly plan others' death to protect her secret. Sam made her see that she was nothing like the innocent young girl he once knew because the secret had eaten her from the inside like a cancer. She and Walter hated each other, but had to stay close in order to protect their secret. In doing so, they were destroying each other and themselves, smothering each other. Even if Martha could get Sam or someone else to free her from her pact with Walter by killing Walter, it wouldn't be a way out because it would just create a new pact of silence with someone else over the murder of Walter. The murder-suicide pact she made silently with Walter at the end seemed the only way to finally be free of the pact of silence that was slowly killing them both from the inside, anyway.

[–] GoodSOVeryVeryGood 11 years ago

She silently gave him permission. The murder-suicide was a mutual decision.

There was nothing silent there … she put her finger on top of his on the trigger and pushed it for him.

[–] IloveMuggy 12 years ago

I realize it's an old movie and all but I just sat down to watch it for the first time. Use spoilers!!

[–] DeepFriedJello 11 years ago

A belly shot? Not as messy, but surely much slower than a shot to the head.
And Walter was drunk and not thinking clearly.

[–] MsELLERYqueen2 10 years ago

I noticed that, too.

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JimHutton (1934-79) & ElleryQueen

[–] greenbudgie 9 years ago

I just have the feeling that Walter would never have pulled that trigger on his own. He's too weak. Martha has to be his strength and press his finger to execute what was on Walter's mind.

[–] Winfield_Browne 8 years ago

she glances down at the gun Kirk Douglas has aimed at her and does nothing to prevent her demise.

She put her own hand on the gun and her thumb on the trigger with Walter's and fired it.

Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.
be kind, rewind...