The Honeymoon Killers

Released in 1969 under the guise of a low-budget exploitation film, The Honeymoon Killers is in fact one of the best American real-life crime movies ever made. It tells the story of Martha (Shirley Stoler), a lonely, overweight nurse who is entered into a 'lonely hearts' club by her friend Bunny (Everybody Loves Raymond's Doris Roberts). She receives a response from Latin lothario Ray Fernandez (Tony Lo Bianco), who is a con-man who preys on lonely women, shaking them down for their money. When he reveals this to Martha, she is undeterred, and insists on joining him on his quests by posing as his sister. Ray promises that he won't sleep with any of them, but Martha's overbearing jealousy soon leads to murder.

Based on the notorious case of the 'lonely hearts killers', first (and only) time director Leonard Kastle adopts a documentary-style approach, opting to use mostly hand-held photography, naturalistic lighting, and minimalistic editing. If sometimes the small budget becomes obvious, this only heightens the sense of realism running throughout the film, assisted by two astonishing performances from it's leads. Stoler is immense, evoking sympathy at first but then revealing her true motives are rooted in jealousy and bitterness as she becomes unpredictable and frightening. Bianco, who is still enjoying a prolific career, performs with a flawless Latino accent, demonstrating the charm and seduction that helped Fernandez dupe so many of his unfortunate victims in real-life

But the film is not without artistic merits as well. Lacking blood and devoid of any kind of shock tactics, the murders are cold and brutal. A hammer blow to the head has as much impact as Leatherface's notorious entrance in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), as the victim struggles and twitches while the killers struggle for finish her off. Another has the camera focus just on the panicking eyes of a sedated victim, as Martha and Ray argue off- camera about to do with her. A gun then appears at the corner of the screen and it's all over. It's shockingly blunt for it's era, but only serves to make The Honeymoon Killers one of the most invigorating and uncomfortable experiences I've had in recent memory.

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I went downtown to see some widescreen extravaganza at a Duplex Cinema and when I bought my ticket realized I'd been standing in the wrong line. (The story of my life.) Instead of seeing some technicolorama epic I wound up seeing this, a cheap black-and-white true crime story.

Well, felix culpa! I emerged shocked. At the time of its release there was nothing quite like it. Two small-time murdering cons deeply in love with one another in some twisted kind of way. Balding, overacting Tony Lo Bianco. Plumply menacing battleaxe of a nurse, Shirley Stoler. The photography is grainy and primitive. Indoor lamps don't simply cast light -- they glare. The movie's idea of a proper family home looks like something that might be owned by a worker in the Pabst Brewery in Newark.

Lo Bianco as Ray is a minor Latin con type, adroit with lonely women, while Stoler, as Martha Beck (great name) is the passionate one, filled with jealousy and rage. I don't know if the victims were supposed to be seen as somehow contemptible, what with their obtuseness and whining, but we never forget that we're dealing with human beings here. The first murder is relatively genteel. Death on a bus follows a poisoning. The next is bone-chilling. To appreciate the shock value of the violence a viewer needs to remember that this was filmed before all the extended gore and homicides we see now in movies like "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer," "Atlantic City," and "Torn Curtain."

Previously, when the victim was whacked hard on the head with a claw hammer, he or she slumped forward, decorously dead. Not here. As in "The Assassination of Trotsky," the victim is momentarily stunned, then recovers screaming. The second homicide involves the only use of a directorial touch unusual enough to draw attention to itself. The victim is lying on her back in bed while her two attackers discuss the best way to murder her. The camera concentrates on her uncomprehending and frightened eyes flicking from side to side, then a sharp pan to a pistol pressed against her head, and the sound of a shot. (A contemporary review of the film criticized one of the scenes because we could hear Ray urinating into the toilet bowl offscreen.)

The last duet of murders exceeds the limits of any sympathy we might have felt towards the lovers. Ray has promised Martha that he's not going to boff the last victim, whereas, it is revealed, he's been unfaithful -- to Martha, that is. Well, that's enough for Martha. After disposing of both her last rival and child she drops the dime on the two of them. If she can't own Ray exclusively then no one's going to have a piece of him. Ray writes her a love letter in jail. His ability to forgive is almost religious in its magnitude. Either that or he just can't stop telling lies.

This is a true story, and it has the digressions and non sequiturs we find in a real-life script. People get into unexpected and awkward arguments that are accidentally heard offscreen. Ray's sleep is constantly interrupted by Martha arguing with a victim in the next bedroom. The fact that this is based on real events make it all the more scary. Skip Freddy and the rest if you want to be scared out of your wits. Catch this instead.

This dark humorous thriller about a fat nurse and a Spanish gigolo who murder rich but lonely women was recently shown in the midnight program on German cable. "Honeymoon Killers" is based on a true story that happened in the 1940s and still belongs to the most peculiar cases in the history of American crime!

Beverly Stoler plays Martha, an overweight nurse, who leads a boring life with her senile mother and her pesky neighbour. One day she gets to know Ray, a marriage impostor of Spanish origin. Both become lovers as well as partners in crime and they start to cheat and to kill wealthy ladies...

A great film that seeded much too long in the archives! Only a little number of persons know this flick, although it doesn´t need to hide behind other movies about serial killers like "Henry" or even Hitchcock´s "Psycho".

But it´s more than that: "Honeymoon Killers" is a brilliant satire as well as the most bizarre love story I´ve ever seen!!!

Why did Leonard Kastle make only one movie?When so many "directors" are allowed to release mediocrities by the dozen,when almost every thriller looks like the one before?

I saw "the honeymoon killers" at the beginning of the seventies in a "art et essai" movie theater (in France,"art et essai" means non -commercial and artistical works).The movie had little impact on the "mainstream" audience ,and the TV was afraid to broadcast it.

Thirty years later,it still packs a real wallop:it has worn extremely well,even better than praised classics such as "gun crazy" and "Bonnie and Clyde".I'm sure it had a strong influence on Francis Girod's "le trio infernal"(1974)."The honeymoon killers" is unique,a work of the first order.Hats off to the two leads ,Shirley Stoler and Tony LoBianco ;their casting was ideal.Had the producers hired two stars,the movie would have lost in credibility.Because,credible,this movie is,and not because it is a true story:for instance "Bonnie and Clyde" is also a true story,but the characters are icons,some kind of Robin Hoods,far from their models.Don't get me wrong,I love Penn's movie,but Kastle's is a different matter:this director-scenarist shows the couple "au naturel".We've already met Martha somewhere:she's the fat nurse, par excellence the outcast,deprived of the thrill of it all,particularly seduction and love.Her behavior,as horrifying it may be,makes sense.The whole movie depicts her pursuit of happiness.She's full of hatred,jealousy and her contempt for these ugly ,old and frivolous women is so intense it's almost unbearable.She hates them because their money can buy anything and most of them used to be wooed,something she has never known and never will.

This is one of the most ambitious side of the screenplay:taking a subject Alfred Hitchcock partially treated in "shadow of a doubt" (1942),it pushes it to its absolute limits:all these old biddies in their" pigpen" (as Joseph Cotten's uncle Charlie said),acting as if they are twenty-something and still dreaming of Prince Charming are so hateful the audience almost sides with Martha and her partner.

Ray is a very complex character:it's a gigolo,but in several respects ,he's still a child.Martha is at once his lover,his mother and his "sister" (they are as like as two peas in a pod ,one character says,echoing the "gun crazy " heroes,as like as two bullets in a revolver).Martha seems the leader,Ray acting more as an instrument. As their crimes become more and more appalling,sexual desire is increasing."I want to make love" Ray says,after having killed Fay.

Humor (most of the time black) is constant and some of the lines are hilarious.But the last crime is so horrible it leaves the audience completely in despair.And ending the movie with a romantic love letter is a product of pure provocation.

Although by no means a violent movie (particularly when compared to today's standards),it's definitely one of the most terrifying works of American cinema.A must .

I had to add a comment after reading so many on here comparing The Honeymoon Killers to John Waters. If Waters had made a serious attempt at true crime, this would be it. Based on a true story, two sociopaths come together through a "lonely hearts" dating service and discover they are mutually compatible serial killers. Tony Lo Bianco plays Raymond Fernandez, a greasy con-man and loser preying on naive women looking for love. Lo Bianco manages to be sexy even as such a pathetic jerk. Shirley Stoler is Martha Beck, his accomplice and apparent true love. Probably best known as the evil Nazi commandant in Seven Beauties, Stoler steals the film and in my humble opinion is really the only reason to check the movie out. Stoler and Water's star Divine are so similar, they could be "sisters". Stoler eats the scenery with gusto in an angry, bitchy way and it's fascinating just to watch her mouth move. The film is surprisingly watchable with some shockers and a parade of character actresses as victims. To contrast this grim black and white film against the Oscar winner for best picture that year (Patton) only adds to it's bizarreness. The director, Leonard Kastle presents the story bleakly with no bells and whistles. Sadly this is the only film he directed, it would have been great to see how his career would have progressed.