Luna di miele fatale

Nightmare Honeymoon (1973)

** (out of 4)

Low budget drama about newlyweds David (Dack Rambo) and Jill (Rebecca Dianna Smith) who witness a mob hit and then the real terror begins. David is knocked out by Jill is raped by one of the men. Ashamed, she refuses to go to the cops so David decides to track the men down himself and kill them. OK, this is being sold as a horror film so it's fair warning to let you know that it isn't. The murders, rape and everything else happen off screen so if you're buying into the rape/revenge thing then you're going to be disappointed. The film is pretty much a straight drama that plays it way too safe to really work. There's nothing really bad here but at the same time there's nothing really good either. One thing that didn't work was the direction, which was just too laid back and it was to the point where it really slowed the movie down. There are countless scenes that just go on and on and in the end these too slow the film down. I'm not sure what it is but we also have the same conversations throughout the movie as the characters can't make their minds up on what they want to do. You could say this is realistic but it doesn't work on film here. The same conversations get very boring after a while. Both Rambo and Smith are decent enough in the film with character actors John Beck, Pat Hingle and Jay Robinson offering up support. One really annoying thing about this movie is its soundtrack, which is just overbearing at times because of how high they turn in up to try a show when danger is about to happen. After a while it gets tiresome. Apparently Nicolas Roeg (DON'T LOOK NOW) started directing this but dropped out after the first week and I'm curious to know if he shot the scenes at the hamburger joint because there are a couple stylish camera moves here that look like his and don't match anything else in the movie.

Does anyone know where I may obtain a DVD of Nightmare Honeymoon? I am curious about one of the possible locations used for this movie. In 1972 I was planning a new golf course residential community and the owner of the land allowed a production company to shoot some scenes under the moss-draped oaks. The site was close to the Tchefuncte River near Mandeville, Louisiana. A decrepit mansion on the property was the perfect eerie location for a horror movie. This large home built in the 1930s is now beautifully restored, however. The director of the film I saw in production was badly injured when the boom chair collapsed onto him. Production was halted for a while and then another director showed up to continue the filming. Nightmare Honeymoon may not be the movie I watched being filmed but the title rings a bell. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

With the current UK trend of showing old so-called horror movies that were banned at the time I was just hoping that this one might be shown on TV here. I saw it in Kuwait in 1975 (well you have to do something on a Saturday night in a dry country)and don't remember when I've laughed so much. From the squealing southern belle bride and oh-so-clean-cut groom to guys really called Bubba this film just made my day. The accents are straight out of Gone with the Wind, but with stars sadly lacking Clark Gable's looks or charm. Since I laughed just as hard at Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Evil Dead recently I'm sure I'd bust a gut at this one. (The 5 score is for humour only).

A young groom goes on a vengeance after he witnesses a killing and then has his wife raped, by some rural thugs, on his wedding night. Pretty much loses all relevancy when he tracks down the killers by remembering the names said during the killing and then using the TELEPHONE BOOK!!! To use a exact quote by it's super hunk star Dack "It's a magic detective book filled with the names of murderers and innocent victims. All the names, all the addresses." Has anyone ever heard of UNLISTED number. Oh well somebody better go tell the police and F.B.I. this so they can quit wasting so much money on their sophisticated networking and computer systems. Actress Smith has one of those 'put on' southern accents that almost immediately becomes annoying and after she is 'violated' has a look of constipation for the rest of the time. So mind numbingly standard that it makes a episode of THE A TEAM look creative. As memorable as spending ninety minutes cleaning between your bathroom tiles.

That's not the Elliot Silverstein's film that we'll remind the most, compared to A MAN CALLED HORSE, CAT BALLOU or THE CAR, but that remains a good film, solid and typical of the savage and loose seventies period. It needs to be discovered again. I found it late actually, not in the eighties. The film itself is not an astounding one, not DEATH WISH nor STRAW DOGS, but I repeat, it's worth the watch. I would have prefered something more brutal, grittier, more gloomy and downbeat. I don't remember this film mainly because there is no known actors; for instance Dack Rambo; never heard of him. I know however another Rambo, not this one.