STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS: Barbara Stanwyck is the eponymous character of this classic noir, a woman of wealth and position in her small community, and the wife of local district attorney, Walter O'Neil (Kirk Douglas), a self-loathing alcoholic whom she holds in contempt. When her old friend Sam Masterson (Van Heflin) arrives in town after an absence of many years, asking Walter's help for Toni Marashek (Lizabeth Scott), a woman unjustly accused of a crime, Martha fears that Sam will reveal what he knows about the events that transpired on the night that he left town long ago.