they spend the night in adjoining rooms in a hotel. She is later picked up for violating her probation by not returning to her hometown. Sam asks Walter to use his influence to get Toni released. Walter is convinced Sam has blackmail in mind. Sam then learns that Walter Sr. had presented Martha's version of the 1928 accidental murder to the police: that an intruder murdered Martha's aunt. With his leverage, Walter Sr. had made Martha marry his son. When the police identified a former employee of the aunt as the murderer, the two Walters and Martha helped convict him, and he was hanged. When Martha reacts joyfully to seeing Sam, a jealous Walter forces Toni to set him up. Sam is beaten up and driven out of town, but he is too tough to be intimidated. When all else fails, Walter makes a halfhearted attempt to kill Sam himself but is easily disarmed. Walter inadvertently blurts out his fears of blackmail, only to learn that Sam had not witnessed the death. Martha breaks down and laments that he left without her all those years ago, taking her only chance for love and freedom with him. Sam is torn between his old love and his new one with Toni. Although he eventually forgives Toni for betraying him, he and Martha spend an idyllic day together, rekindling his feelings for her. Walter arranges to meet Sam to settle matters. Before Sam arrives, Walter gets drunk, and Martha finds out about the meeting. When Walter falls down the stairs, Martha urges Sam to kill her unconscious husband. Sam instead brings Walter around. Martha pulls out a gun and threatens to shoot Sam in "self-defense" as an intruder. Sam tells her it would work if she could get Walter to corroborate her story. Sam turns his back on her and leaves. Walter embraces and kisses Martha, then points the gun at her midriff. Oddly relieved, she puts her thumb over his finger on the trigger and presses. As she is dying, she defiantly states her name is not Martha Ivers, but Martha Smith. Outside, Sam hears the shot. He runs toward the mansion but sees Walter, holding Martha's body, shoot himself. Sam and Toni drive away together. Cast Barbara Stanwyck as Martha Ivers Van Heflin as Sam Masterson Lizabeth Scott as Antonia "Toni" Marachek Kirk Douglas as Walter O'Neil Judith Anderson as Mrs.