THE HONEYMOON KILLERS (1970)

DIRECTED & WRITTEN by Leonard Kastle based on the true life case of Martha Beck and Raymond Fernández aka "The Lonely Hearts Killers".

STARRING  - Shirley Stoler as Martha Beck,  Tony Lo Bianco as Raymond Fernández,  Doris Roberts as Bunny,  Marilyn Chris as Myrtle Young,  Barbara Cason as Evelyn Long,  Dora Duckworth as Mrs. Beck,  Mary Jane Higby as Janet Fay,  Kip McArdle as Delphine Downing,  Mary Breen as Rainelle Downing.

PLOT - (Note - This film is based on a true life case - certain details of the plot where changed for dramatic effect but by and large the movie's plot is fairly close to the events that actually transpired.)

Martha Beck is an overweight lonely woman who works as a nurse. She lives with her elderly mother and desperately needs a man in her life. When Martha's friend puts her name forward for a lonely hearts agency she is reluctant at first until she meets Raymond Fernández through the dating agency.

Raymond is a charismatic charmer who sweeps Martha off her feet. He's also a conman who targets lonely rich women through the dating service. He persuades his victims to sign money over to him before he then takes off with thier cash. Ray was initially targeting Martha in this way but the two fall in love and Martha (after putting her mother away in a nursing home) becomes his accomplice.

Posing as Ray's sister Martha accompanies him on his "jobs". However Martha's jealousy begins to get the better of her and very soon Ray and Martha's motives go beyond mere greed and start heading down the dark path towards murder...

DIALOUGE  - Ray - "One woman carrying on in there, another woman carrying on in here. Christ almighty, I'm earning my $4000 tonight !"

PERFORMANCES  - For a low budget exploitation movie the two lead performances in The Honeymoon killers are exceptionally good. 

Shirley Stoler makes an excellent Martha Beck. You actually start out quite pitying this shy and unconfidant woman. She's clearly not in the best state mental health wise to begin with - she's dowdy and sullen. She waits hand and foot on her elderly mother who treats her like she's still a child and seems desperately lonely. 

Its when she meets and falls in love with Raymond Fernández (Tony Lo Bianco) that the wheels start to come off further and the monster within her starts to grow. Her first act is to jettison her mum into a nursing home so she can be with Ray. A cruel act to be sure but she becomes capable of far worse as the story progresses (the real life Martha Beck had two children that she abandoned for Fernández, I don't know why they substituted kids for an old lady in the film as to me - as bad as abandoning your elderly mother is - abandoning two young children is possibly even worse. This is one of several liberties the film takes with the real events).

From there on it becomes obvious that Martha is becoming increasingly unhinged. She starts to become jealous of the women that Ray is conning. Acting frosty and irritable around them and nearly blowing the scam in the process. At one point she has an outright breakdown in front one one of thier intended marks. Flying into a jealous and possessive rage. 

This ingrained personality flaw is what eventually drives Martha over the edge and causes her to commit murderous acts. From that point on the previously in control Ray seems to be swept along in Martha's slipstream. By the end point of the film he seems almost as fearful of her as thier many victims become. You can tell from his face and body language that even Ray thinks she's crossed a line when she murders a child in the film's penultimate scenes. Stoler perfectly captures this descent into madness - her acting style is naturalistic, adding to the film's gritty realistic almost documentary feel.

Lo Bianco is also good as Raymond. He's every inch the swarthy charmer as he seduces these sad and lonely women with his silver tongue. He's also vain and conceited, fully aware of his attractiveness to women and knowing just how to manipulate it to his advantage. Behind this flamboyant exterior lies a cold and calculating heart. Lo Bianco is especially good in the scenes where Ray allows the mask to slip and we see glimpses of the true monster that lies beneath the carefully cultivated exterior.

The character of Ray is also quite darkly funny in places - he's prone to hissy fits when things don't go his way,  he places far to much importance on the hair piece that hides his receding hairline and he even tries to justify his crimes at one point by saying that he won't allow a woman to "keep him" financially. This of course coming from a man who earns his living by ripping off wealthy ladies. Ray's a total hypocrite.

Yet even with all these factors at play Ray never seems to be quite as evil as Martha eventually becomes, OK, so there's not a lot in it but by the end of the film even Ray seems to be slightly sickened by just how far Martha is prepared to go.

SFX - None whatsoever.

SEX & VIOLENCE  - The sexual aspect of the story is alluded to but never shown explicitly.

Martha and Raymond's first victim is Myrtle Young (Marilyn Chris). Martha feeds her barbiturates and Myrtle starts to OD. Ray hurriedly packs her onto a bus and then gets the hell out of there. Myrtle dies from the drug overdose whilst on the bus. (The real-life Myrtle only collapsed on the bus and passed away in hospital later that night.)

The elderly Janet Fay (Mary Jane Higby) is the pair's next victim. She starts to feel pressurised into signing her money over to Ray and Martha's temper again gets the better of her. Martha smashes Janet over the head with a claw hammer and Raymond finishes the job by strangling her to death. (In reality Martha attacked Janet with the hammer after finding her in bed with Raymond. The filmmakers - perhaps wisely - didn't want to depict a sex scene between a man in his thirties and a woman in her mid sixties. So they went with the money being the reason for the fatal argument instead. Otherwise, by all accounts, the murder of Janet Fay plays out on screen much as it did in real life.)

The final murders occur at the end of the film. The pairs next victim is young widow Delphine Downing (Kip McArdle). Delphine is younger and prettier than most of Raymond's targets so naturally Martha is instantly on the defensive. Martha eventually finds out that Ray and Delphine have indeed been sleeping together - and worse - Delphine is pregnant with his child. Martha feeds Delphine more sleeping pills. At this point Ray returns with Delphine's young daughter - Rainelle (Mary Breen). The little girl becomes frightened seeing her drugged up mother. Raymond shoots Delphine in the head and Martha drowns the little girl in a bathtub (thankfully this happens off-camera). Raymond goes into the cellar to bury the bodies and Martha calls the police, pretending to be a next door neighbour who has heared gunshots. The police turn up and the two are arrested. In the film's epilogue we see Martha in jail a few months later awaiting execution on death row. We don't get to see Ray and Martha's deaths.

In real life - the murders of Delphine and Rainelle Downing occurred pretty much as they where depicted onscreen. The only difference being was that Rainelle was even younger than she was seen to be in the film (the real Rainelle was only two years old, the movie version looks to be about six or seven years old). In real life Martha didn't betray Raymond to the police, it really was neighbours that called the cops. I'm guessing the filmmakers thought the betrayal added more dramatic qualities to the narrative and upped the "twisted love story" factor a bit more.

The real life Beck and Fernández where believed to have been responsible for twenty different murders but these where never proven. In the end they where only charged for the murder of Janet Fay. That was still enough to get them the death sentence. The pair where executed via electric chair in Sing Sing Prison on March the 8th, 1951.

RATING - This is a really good film. It's very talky and shot in a static style but for once that only serves to draw you further into the story. Its got a straightforward and grimy documentary style. A gritty sense of realism that coupled with the naturalistic acting style and the camera's cold, unflinching gaze during the murder scenes leaves you with a very cold and unsettling movie.

Overall - 5 killer couples out of 5. A good film about terrible people.

Hollywood actually had the nerve to remake this as Lonely Hearts in 2006 starring Jared Leto as Raymond Fernández and Salma Heyek as Martha Beck. Leto I can understand, but casting Salma Hayek - one of the most gorgeous actresses there is - as the morbidly obese and plain Martha Beck ??? Why ??? 

Why do Hollywood always have to "prettify" everything up ? Do they think people won't go and watch a film with an overweight leading character ? Do yourselves a favour - don't watch the sanitised modern version. Stick with the original. 

Oh, and if you want to see how to cast an attractive actress playing a physically unattractive female murderer watch Charlize Theron as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2003's Monster instead. THATS how you do that sort of thing right...

ART - 

Below - is the "novelisation/true crime textbook" of the movie and real-life case.