Undescribable Perfection

Powerful

Just perfect...

A Masterpiece!

Interesting if flawed film deserves it's cult status. Shirley Stoler plays an obese nurse who teams up with her toupee-wearing gigolo boyfriend, Tony Lo Bianco, to romance and swindle money from lonely rich women. Writer/director Leonard Kastle made this film in response to "Bonnie & Clyde," which he felt was too romanticized of a young-lovers-on-the-run crime story. Kastle instead makes this a gritty, black & white, kitchen sink drama type of film that often seems intentionally repellent and off putting to it's audience, which I quite liked. What I didn't like was Stoler's over-the-top performance, which seemed more appropriately placed into a low-budget John Waters film than a legitimate drama. Despite her over-acting, it's a fascinating tale of jealousies between the two lovers and never knowing who is going to stab who in the back first. An interesting note of trivia is that Martin Scorsese was the original director on this film, but was fired over creative differences. Overall, "The Honeymoon Killers" is a fascinating film and although French New Wave director François Truffaut called this his favorite American film, I'm not sure I'd go quite that far.

I've seen one other movie that horrified me as much as the Honeymoon Killers. It will haunt you. Based on true story, but I never researched how true it is. I give it a 10 because it succeeds so well in depicting unnerving, blase evil. The other movie starred Naomi Watts, Funny Games, and it is as ugly and evil a fictional story as you will find.Avoid both!Oh! I'm expected to write 10 lines about the evil in these stories. Let's see: Both exhibit psychopaths - in both the psychopaths come in pairs. What else? There's a special place in hell for the Honeymoon Killers? Can't say the same for the pair in Funny Games - they're made up, fictional diabolic "yutes." Moral to both movies: Distrust EVERYBODY. You never know what lurks within! Don't open your door, don't turn your back, be nice and FLEE.

"The Honeymoon Killers" is one of those films that you want to shut off because it's so damned tenebrous, but at the same time you don't really want to look away. The thin plot follows an overweight, depressed nurse who meets her prince charming after her mother places an ad in the lonely hearts section of the local newspaper. The problem? Her smooth-talking Latin boyfriend wants to take her along for the ride on a killing spree of innocent women. Among all of the drive-in grindhouse fare to come from the late 1960s-early 1970s, "The Honeymoon Killers" may be the cream of the crop; it's not sleazy enough to be shelved among its counterparts, but it's also not sophisticated enough by most standards to be thought of as anything else. It's a remarkably ugly film in just about every sense of the word— its characters are vile, its story is downright macabre, and it has one of the most downtrodden but effective endings of any of its peers of the time period. Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco turn in ingenious performances here and have a surprising chemistry with one another. Also featured is a young Doris Roberts (beloved mother on television's "Seinfeld") as Stoler's friend. Directed by Leonard Kastle (and his only feature film), it is well-shot and takes advantage of its stark black-and-white photography to create effective mood and make even daylight scenes potential threats. Other horror films of the era that feature similar use of photography (Herk Harvey's "Carnival of Souls" comes to mind) may have done so more effectively, but what the photography really bolsters in this film are its bleak depictions of violence. The murder scenes in the film are tonally flat, and that may be why they are so shocking. There is no dramatic cue music, no thunderstorms outside, no killer with a knife— just silence, screaming, and the thwack of a hammer against the skull. Released in the wake of Charles Manson, it's not surprising that "The Honeymoon Killers" was relegated to the drive-in circuit, and in some regard it deserved to be there; at the same time, it had the chops to be playing at art house theaters as well. Its straight-talking documentary style strips the film of any and all potential variation in tone, but its flatness is part of what makes it so appalling and so realistic. It's gritty and expressionless, but still masterfully done and fraught with emotion. It's a remarkably well-made film, but it's so direct that it at times feels dangerous to watch; the fact that it's based on an actual killing spree only amplifies the sentiment. 9/10.

This film, originally titled "Dear Martha" suffers a little for its low budget but ends up being a decent movie. The bad sound which at times makes it difficult to understand the dialog might turn you off at first but if you stick with it, it stops being so distracting. What I liked about the film is that the movie stuck a lot to actual facts of the true story. It is heavily rumored that this couple the story is based on killed a lot more then two people but the film doesn't speculate anything and only shows the two confirmed killings. This is the story of Martha Beck, a lonely, moody nurse, who joins a "lonely hearts club" where lonely people write to each other. Well, soon she receives letters from Ray Fernandez, a charming con- man. They meet, she falls in love with him, and he robs her and leaves. She tracks him down and is so lonely, she convinces him she will help con people as long as they marry one day. They eventually become a team where she pretends to be his sister while he cons money out of lonely women. Martin Scorsese was hired to direct but was replaced after he was taking way too long with each shot and the director feared they would go over budget. That budget was $150,000 which even in 1969 was not a lot to make a movie. Shirley Stoler and Tony Lobianco as the twisted couple are very well cast as well as a small role by a young Doris Roberts who would later play the mom in "Everybody loves Raymond". Good Stuff!