The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

Van Heflin: Sam Masterson

Photos 

Quotes 

• Sailor : [after Sam has crashed his car]  What happened?

  Sam Masterson : The road curved, but I didn't.

• Toni Marachek : You know what probation is?

  Sam Masterson : Oh sure, a knife stickin' in your back.

• Sam Masterson : Look! I don't like to get pushed around! I don't like people I like to be pushed around! I don't like anybody to get pushed around!

• Martha Ivers : You've killed, it says so in your record.

  Sam Masterson : I've never murdered.

• Bus Driver : What happened to you?

  Sam Masterson : [cut, bruised and disheveled from a beating]  Not a thing. I'm just made up for Halloween.

• Martha Ivers : A sure thing is never a gamble.

  Sam Masterson : No? What odds you give that that's a fact?

• Sam Masterson : [recounting the time he was away from Iverstown]  Well, that brings us up to my 21st year, when I became a man... officially.

  Martha Ivers : How did it feel to become a man, officially?

  Sam Masterson : I'd felt I'd been there before.

  Sam Masterson : How did you feel about becoming a woman, officially?

  Martha Ivers : I felt I'd been there, too.

• Sam Masterson : [seeing she has married Walter]  Aren't you glad now you missed that circus train?

  Martha Ivers : I don't know.

• Martha Ivers : It would have been so different if you hadn't run away. It would have been you instead of Walter. Or if you had stopped me. When I lifted the cane, why didn't you stop me? You know how much I hated her! Why didn't you stop me?

  Sam Masterson : I wasn't there, Martha.

  Martha Ivers : And then I stood there after it was over...

  [realizes] 

  Martha Ivers : You... you weren't there?

  Sam Masterson : No, Martha. I wasn't there. I left when your aunt came into the hallway. I didn't want to stick around. I was in enough trouble as it was. I never saw what happened. I never knew until tonight about your aunt or that man. The one they hung. The man that you and Walter killed.

• Sam Masterson : You fell down the stairs.

  Walter O'Neil : I remember. You... carried me in here?

  Sam Masterson : Yeah.

• Walter O'Neil : I wasn't going to shoot.

  Sam Masterson : I wasn't gonna wait and see.

• [repeated line] 

  Sam Masterson : Dont look back, baby. Don't ever look back. You know what happened to Lot's wife, don't ya?

• Sam Masterson : [looking at a campaign poster of Walter O'Neil]  Hey, I want to ask you something. Does that guy look like a scared little boy to you?

  Toni Marachek : He looks like he's going to cry any minute.

• Toni Marachek : Maybe you think I've been trying too hard to get acquainted.

  Sam Masterson : Maybe you have.

  Toni Marachek : Maybe you think that's wrong.

  Sam Masterson : Maybe it's too soon to tell.

  Toni Marachek : I wonder what you're thinking.

  Sam Masterson : I don't think you'll take up too much room in my Stanley Steamer.

  Toni Marachek : Maybe you're all right.

• Detective #1 : Good morning, Mr. Masterson.

  Sam Masterson : [realizing he's a detective before he's shown a badge]  You don't have to show me who you are. I can tell by the smell.

  Detective #1 : My nose isn't that big.