The Honeymoon KillersThere is a special hell reserved for people who prey on the hearts of others. The Honeymoon Killers is a crime movie based on true events, namely the terrible tale of Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, a.k.a. the "Lonely Hearts Killers". Played by Tony Lo Bianco and Shirley Stoler respectively, they are two people whose own dark hearts combine into a truly horrifying union of fraud, depravity, and murder. Meeting through a "lonely hearts" magazine club, Raymond and Martha's mutual attraction drives them away from their friends and family, and down a terrifying spiral of destruction--for themselves and those unfortunate enough to cross their path.
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The Honeymoon Killers was written and directed by Leonard Kastle--his only movie; he was predominantly a Juilliard-schooled opera composer and librettist. The story goes that none other than Martin Scorsese was the film's intended director, who was fired from the production; Kastle was the third director chosen. I bring this up because it speaks to something that is inescapable when talking about The Honeymoon Killers: it isn't a very good movie. Sorry, Truffaut. (François Truffaut cited it as his "favorite American film", but one wonders if he was being facetious.) Sure, the subject matter is thrilling stuff, and to be fair, the tension is ratcheted up constantly so that by the time the killings happen, it isn't really a surprise--though it doesn't make the violence any less shocking. It's just that The Honeymoon Killers suffers from what many low-budget thrillers of the era suffer from: really poor production values. To begin, the acting. There are only the rarest of moments where leads Tony Lo Bianco and Shirley Stoler surprise you with subtle exchanges and subtext. Beyond this, virtually all of the performances are phony--like amateur theater phony. Even worse, the sound. It's often the case where dialogue is unintelligible and garbled--for the most part, it's unimportant dialogue, but it still makes for an assault on the ears. Furthermore, there's rarely anything creative happening with the cinematography, sometimes justified away as meant to embody a "documentary-like" experience. I don't buy it; this feels like it was a very rough effort. All of that said, as The Honeymoon Killers progresses, these technical failings aren't enough to keep the film from becoming an increasingly creepy, sleazy, and disturbing examination of corrupt love and vice run rampant. Raymond is a conman, who fleeces lonely women out of their money, going from town to town, promising to marry them, then running off with their savings. Ironically, this is what happens with Martha, who nevertheless manages to convince Raymond to come and live with him, despite him tricking her in the first place. She abandons her senile mother in a home and devotes herself exclusively to pleasing Raymond. She accompanies him on his cons as his "sister", but she's so jealous that she often compromises his attempts to defraud these women. It takes a while before she gets the hang of his act...but even then their best efforts falter, ultimately propelling them into using murder to cover their tracks.
Despite its rough edges, it's obvious to see how influential The Honeymoon Killers has been on crime movies. I see it as the progenitor of disturbing, documentary-like films like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer in its escalation of violence and cold-blooded brutality. Not for a moment does this film ask for us to genuinely sympathize with these two fiends. Sure, Martha's life is humdrum. She clearly hates her job as a nurse. (It is said that nurses eat their young...) She resents taking care of her elderly mother. She binges on Whitman's Samplers and pretzels. She's reluctant to invite any hope of romance in accepting her sister's invitation to participate in a lonely hearts letter exchange...until she receives Raymond's honey-sweet words that stir her heart. For this fragment of affection, she drops everything, especially what little scruples that she has. Martha is no saint; she even quits her job by shockingly telling her boss that "Hitler was right about you people". Yeah...she's not going to garner much sympathy. And then we have Raymond, who makes his living by robbing then jilting lonely women; and Martha's okay with this! The middle stretch of the movie has them barely keeping their true feelings a secret from a few unreasonably oblivious women, who manage to be obnoxious to an equally unreasonable degree. It's hard to tell if The Honeymoon Killers depicts these victims in such a critical way so as to explain how Martha and Raymond's patience eventually simply drains away, but it's not really successful if this is the intent. The film's turning point comes after Martha gets into an argument in the middle of the night with an elderly bride-to-be of Raymond (who is now using the alias "Charles Martin")--a sixty-six year old woman named Janet Fay (Mary Jay Higby). Raymond clearly knows where things are leading. He gets a hammer and rests it on the couch. When Martha and Janet bring their argument into the living room and Martha gives away Raymond's ruse, a panicky Janet attempts to beg for her life and flee. Raymond compels Martha to murder her; she does, and he joins in by strangling her with stockings. And then he strips off his clothes and informs Martha that he wishes to "make love". Yep...horrible. Up until this point, audiences might have hoped that there was some (albeit remote) possibility of Raymond and Martha experiencing either redemption or some sort of justice devoid of bloodshed. But Kastle makes it clear from the start of the movie that this is based on a true story. And while the reality may have been less sensationalized or dramatized than The Honeymoon Killers is, it was no less terrible. Their crimes--their choices--led to this vile duo getting their just desserts on March 8th, 1951: death by electrocution.
Recommended for: Fans of low-budget crime movies, albeit ones that have nevertheless left an impact on the genre. The Honeymoon Killers is the kind of film that begs for a higher-quality remake, but it still has value as both a novelty of filmmaking history as well as being possessed of some moments of truly unsettling creepiness.
Despite its rough edges, it's obvious to see how influential The Honeymoon Killers has been on crime movies. I see it as the progenitor of disturbing, documentary-like films like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer in its escalation of violence and cold-blooded brutality. Not for a moment does this film ask for us to genuinely sympathize with these two fiends. Sure, Martha's life is humdrum. She clearly hates her job as a nurse. (It is said that nurses eat their young...) She resents taking care of her elderly mother. She binges on Whitman's Samplers and pretzels. She's reluctant to invite any hope of romance in accepting her sister's invitation to participate in a lonely hearts letter exchange...until she receives Raymond's honey-sweet words that stir her heart. For this fragment of affection, she drops everything, especially what little scruples that she has. Martha is no saint; she even quits her job by shockingly telling her boss that "Hitler was right about you people". Yeah...she's not going to garner much sympathy. And then we have Raymond, who makes his living by robbing then jilting lonely women; and Martha's okay with this! The middle stretch of the movie has them barely keeping their true feelings a secret from a few unreasonably oblivious women, who manage to be obnoxious to an equally unreasonable degree. It's hard to tell if The Honeymoon Killers depicts these victims in such a critical way so as to explain how Martha and Raymond's patience eventually simply drains away, but it's not really successful if this is the intent. The film's turning point comes after Martha gets into an argument in the middle of the night with an elderly bride-to-be of Raymond (who is now using the alias "Charles Martin")--a sixty-six year old woman named Janet Fay (Mary Jay Higby). Raymond clearly knows where things are leading. He gets a hammer and rests it on the couch. When Martha and Janet bring their argument into the living room and Martha gives away Raymond's ruse, a panicky Janet attempts to beg for her life and flee. Raymond compels Martha to murder her; she does, and he joins in by strangling her with stockings. And then he strips off his clothes and informs Martha that he wishes to "make love". Yep...horrible. Up until this point, audiences might have hoped that there was some (albeit remote) possibility of Raymond and Martha experiencing either redemption or some sort of justice devoid of bloodshed. But Kastle makes it clear from the start of the movie that this is based on a true story. And while the reality may have been less sensationalized or dramatized than The Honeymoon Killers is, it was no less terrible. Their crimes--their choices--led to this vile duo getting their just desserts on March 8th, 1951: death by electrocution.
Recommended for: Fans of low-budget crime movies, albeit ones that have nevertheless left an impact on the genre. The Honeymoon Killers is the kind of film that begs for a higher-quality remake, but it still has value as both a novelty of filmmaking history as well as being possessed of some moments of truly unsettling creepiness.