Word Balloon Comics Podcast Martha Ivers: A Scene Missing Noir Deep Dive w/ Gabriel Hardman & Ian Brill
Nov 20, 2025
01:02:03
On this edition of Scene Missing,I'm joined by filmmaker/artist Gabriel Hardman and writer/critic Ian Brill for a sharp, no-nonsense look at the 1946 noir classic The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.
We dig into the film’s ruthless psychology, its tangled relationships, and how the performances from Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, a young Kirk Douglas, and Lizabeth Scott still punch hard today.
Hardman breaks down the visual language and shadow work that make the film so uniquely tense, while Brill dives into the screenplay’s moral ambiguity and the twisted power dynamics at its core.
From the opening “accident” that sets everything in motion to the film’s bleak, pressure-cooker finale, this is a deep, character-driven postmortem of a noir that doesn’t get enough modern attention. Perfect for fans of classic Hollywood, noir obsessives, and anyone who loves watching a great movie picked apart by smart people who know how the machine works.
We dig into the film’s ruthless psychology, its tangled relationships, and how the performances from Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, a young Kirk Douglas, and Lizabeth Scott still punch hard today.
Hardman breaks down the visual language and shadow work that make the film so uniquely tense, while Brill dives into the screenplay’s moral ambiguity and the twisted power dynamics at its core.
From the opening “accident” that sets everything in motion to the film’s bleak, pressure-cooker finale, this is a deep, character-driven postmortem of a noir that doesn’t get enough modern attention. Perfect for fans of classic Hollywood, noir obsessives, and anyone who loves watching a great movie picked apart by smart people who know how the machine works.