Looking for a heartwarming romance? Be warned: This is very much film noir, a genre in which "strange" typically doesn't work out for the better. Even examples with relatively happy endings will probably not raise your opinion of humanity.
Most of the movie takes place in its year of release, but the opening events of 1928 do a lot to put the rest in perspective. Early teen Martha has been suffocating under a strict aunt. Her efforts to run off with the help of Huckleberry Finn type Sam have failed repeatedly. On the night that Sam plans to leave town forever with or without Martha, her aunt provokes her into a mortal blow. (It's not clear to me -- maybe not even to Martha -- whether she meant to kill or just hurt.) Her tutor-turned-guardian, Mr. O'Neil, and his timid son, Walter, join her in perjuring against an uninvolved criminal to defend her. But this is no pseudo-familial kindness: Mr. O'Neil covets the Ivers fortune (they live in Iverstown, for crying out loud) and wants Martha and Walter to marry even if neither likes it. Nothing like a secret scandal to make them more receptive to the idea.
In 1946, Sam (played at this point by Van Heflin) just so happens to crash his car at the Iverstown outskirts. (Maybe part of him willed it to happen.) After stopping at an inefficient auto body shop, he learns that Walter (Kirk Douglas in his screen debut!) has become both Martha's husband and the district attorney. He also makes the rapid chance acquaintance of comely Toni Marachek (Lizbeth Scott), who's in legal trouble for an alleged misunderstanding. Sam pays a visit to Walter and asks him to pull strings for her, but Walter and Martha (Barbara Stanwyck) suspect that he has other reasons to be in town: blackmail...and unresolved feelings for Martha.
You might say it's a love quadrilateral. Walter has gradually fallen in love with Martha, but she's cheated on him many times and rekindles a special interest in Sam. Sam isn't sure quite how to feel about her or Toni; both have moral failings that are hard to overlook. (He might actually be the most principled of the four, sad to say.)
In fact, probably the greatest thing about TSLoMI is its emotional and moral complexity. The major characters almost constantly convey more than one emotion at a time, typically in conflict. Martha and Walter have reportedly performed unsavory actions for the greater good. Both continue to resent their dead guardians and would like to have taken much different paths, but they have more in common with each than they ever wished, rather like Citizen Kane. As for Sam, the brief summary we get of his past indicates both considerable improvement and new vices.
As you can imagine, several ugly things happen in addition to what I've described. But if you're like me, you'll find the story satisfying in the end. Leave it to director Lewis Milestone to know how to combine the bleak and the beautiful, from one genre to another.
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