Love Me Deadly

Lindsay, a pretty blonde in black complete with veil sits in one of the back rows for a funeral service. She remains after all others have left, and goes up to caress and kiss the dead man, though without quite making contact. The opening credits appear over sepia-tinted scenes of a young blonde girl playing with her loving father.

Lindsay has a party, and a blonde male friend of hers follows her upstairs, but she fights him off. She continues visiting funeral parlors. At one, she bumps into the deceased's brother, an art gallery owner, and they take a mutual liking to each other. He reminds her a little of her father, and innocent sepia-tinted scenes of her with her father are interspersed throughout the film.

Another man cruises by a gay film theater, and picks up a young hustler. He takes him back to his office, saying it's a veterinarian's office, but after he straps the young man down, it's clearly an embalming room.

Lindsay is approached by the cruiser at one of the funerals, and he tells her about necrophilia. She tries to throw herself more deeply into her relationships with her blonde friend and the gallery owner, but she can't handle much more than an arm around the waist or a quick kiss.

She tries joining a group of necrophiliacs at the funeral parlor, but the group activity scares her off. The group does dress in black robes, and use red candles, but they don't seem to be devil worshipers as some others have said.

Her relationship with the gallery owner deepens, but she still can't handle a physical relationship. She also has a couple other secrets no one except her maid knows.

The movie moves fairly slowly, but I found it pretty involving. It is quite sad. I was surprised to see H.B. Halicki (Gone in 60 Seconds, The Junkman) was one of the associate producers! There's also a good musical score. Over the opening credits, the theme song "Love Me Deadly" is sung, and the musical theme is repeated instrumental in different variations throughout.

Just having a film with the subject of necrophilia would turn most viewers off, yet this film does a fairly "tasteful", if the term can be used in this context, job with the subject matter. The films major liability is a story which swings between chilling horror and sappy 70's romance. But, the film is well-directed and for those who decide to sit all the way through to the surprise ending, probably won't be terribly disappointed.

I have a theory that this film got Lyle Waggoner dismissed from The Carol Burnett Show (he left the series the following season, by mutual agreement).

Regardless, by today's standards, it's not that shocking. The copy of the film I have seems to have been carefully edited, and not as violent or graphic as I recall it being in the theater production.

By 1973 standards, it was quite a shocker...very graphic and gory, complete with a gay subtext. As I recall, it was loosely based around a real-life Los Angeles "cult" of funeral home "lovers of dead" psychos. The story is fiction, but, who knows what goes on behind the closed doors at funeral homes? The acting isn't too bad, and it's fun watching Lyle play against type. The star is quite pretty, too, and she plays her role well. Her hunky boyfriend does a good job of...well, being prepared for cold sex (and so does poor Lyle).

In the right frame of mind, this comes across well. In fact, I'd love to see the original, uncut version one day, on widescreen DVD, but I ain't holdin' my breath. This is lurid stuff, and it ain't likely to see the DVD "light of day".

If you do see this "sicky", just don't take it too seriously, and it might be fun to watch.

This movie had great promise. The theme was very off-beat & interesting - homosexuality (remember, it was made in 1973) and necrophilia. Unlike what the IMDb movie description says, I didn't find any trace of satanism in the story (there is a cult, but it is necrophiliac, not satanic ). There is decent amount of blood & gore (I saw the uncut version). Unfortunately, the plot is not tight and fails to keep viewers attracted throughout. Acting is passable - the main character (Mary Charlotte Wilcox) is very wooden & it's hard to feel any emotional attachment with her. Overall not a bad movie, if you enjoy off-beat horror movies, this might work for you.

Traumatized by the death of her beloved father, a young woman compulsively attends the funerals of strangers. After she is caught sucking face with a male corpse by a creepy mortician, the mortician inducts her into a bizarre cult of people who enjoy making love to dead bodies. But then she falls in love with a living man and the real drama develops.

This is one of the few movies about necrophilia where there is really an equal emphasis on the "necro" and "philia". There's a very disturbing scene where the creepy mortician picks up a male prostitute and proceeds to embalm him while he's still alive(!), but generally this movie isn't nearly as gruesome as stuff like "Der Mosquito", "Lucker", "Beyond the Darkness" or "Nekromantic". It does, however, have one of those sappy 70's love plots (complete with a syrupy 70's soundtrack) that is definitely odds with the more gruesome content. But, in my opinion anyway, it also makes the film more interesting than if it had just been a pure gorefest.

This film is also yet another entry in strange series of 70's exploitation films (i.e. "Dream No Evil", "Toys Are Not for Children", "Baby Rosemary") all focusing on female Norman Bates-types whose obsessive love for dead or absent fathers results in severe adult sexual dysfunction, and ultimately tragedy. The most recent movie it resembles is the "indie cult" film "Kissed" with Molly Parker. But while others may disagree, I definitely prefer 70's exploitation to modern-day "indie" quirkiness. This is definitely worth seeing.