Just A Long time of Waiting And Forgetting

Peter Weller is a much more versatile actor than the majority of the roles people know him for. Even with that acknowledgment I’d probably never think he’d be right for the male lead in a romantic comedy. Carey Lowell never really got a shot at the career her talent promised because she was in a Bond movie that flopped.

The plot is extremely contrived. Which, I’m comfortable with, it’s a Rom Com, the genre prone to being the most formulaic. Just give me some stakes and let the two hot people have some chemistry and get into some hijinks.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) is a sprawling domestic melodrama but one with a good deal of heart. There’s a thin line between love and hate. And a thinner line between marriages of passion and those of convenience.

I’ve seen folks take issue with the pacing and particularly with the fact that Stanwyck doesn’t show up until about a quarter of the way through the proceedings. But, I enjoyed that the story breathes. It helps both clarify character motivations and enhances the messiness of these dynamics.

This is apparently a remake of the Alan Ladd film This Gun For Hire (1941) and uses the same script adapted from the Graham Greene novel A Gun For Sale.

I have read neither the book nor, have I seen the original adaptation. But this is solid. It looks incredible. Robert Ivers is pretty terrifying in the lead.