Fucked-Up Shit # 3 THE HONEYMOON KILLERS

The first time I saw this was late one night on Channel 27 way back when I was probably 13, or 14, and it made me physically ill. Well, I was already suffering from a stomach bug, but I'm sure watching it didn't help. I remember I got up during a commercial break, went to the bathroom to puke, and quickly came back because I couldn't take my eyes off of this voyeuristic nightmare that borders on snuff. I had no idea that something so sick even existed. If a movie can indeed be damaging, or hurtful, this is hard evidence. Stanley Kubrick said of his adaptation of THE SHINING, that he wanted to make a movie that "hurt people". Honestly, THE SHINING, as much as I consider it as one of the best horror films ever, is nothing compared to writer-director Leonard Kastle's low-budget cinema-verite true-crime masterpiece about "lonely hearts killers" Ray Fernandez and Martha Beck. Originally intended to be Martin Scorsese's sophomore feature following WHO'S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR?, KILLERS was handed over to screenwriter Kastle (a composer with no filmmaking experience) after Scorsese proved too meticulous for the film's limited shooting schedule and budget, and the rest is history.

For those not familiar with the strange case of Fernandez and Beck, they were two grifters, lovers posing as brother and sister, who duped lovelorn women into marriage through a mail-order lonely hearts club confidence scam, that eventually led to robbing, and in several cases, murdering them. Greasy, Latin lothario Ray (Tony LoBianco) meets the angry, overweight, still-living-with-mom, nurse Martha (Shirley Stoler) after her best friend Bunny (Doris Roberts) signs her up for Aunt Carrie's Friendship Club mail-order dating service, and they begin their courtship. Fernandez tries to break it off after he dupes her out of some cash, sending the overweight, angry Beck into a emotional whirlwind. She eventually wins his affection, is let in on his operation, and leaves her mother behind to follow Ray in his criminal undertakings. Theirs is a symbiotic relationship of manipulation, obsession, and homicidal narcissism that goes from bad to worse very, very, quickly, due largely to Martha’s jealousy.

Again, the most disturbing aspects of THE HONEYMOON KILLERS is the stripped-down, unglamorous, and painfully realistic approach it takes in telling this weird, horrible, true story. The victims range from sympathetic and pitiful, to downright annoying, to painfully tragic. This movie has no problem in flaunting the cruelty of these two people during their spree, anchored by Tony LoBianco‘s, and (especially) Shirley Stoler‘s outstanding performances. It’s a perfect reminder of how American moviemaking can be, coming in on the cusp of the revolutionary Hollywood movement of the late '60s and '70s.

"Wanna sleeping pill? I got some..."

THE HONEYMOON KILLERS. Some seriously mean, dementedly fucked-up shit.

THE HONEYMOON KILLERS - 1969 - dir. Leonard Kastle - written by Leonard Kastle - starring Shirley Stoler, Tony LoBianco - Available on Criterion DVD