The Movie

There's much to admire about Leonard Kastle's gritty true-life thriller The Honeymoon Killers. The 1970 film is indicative of the stylistic shift Hollywood films took as they entered a new era of gritty realism, especially in the face of the stilted, epic, melodramatic filmmaking the characterized mainstream film over the previous decades. The acting is superb throughout, the direction taught and less concerned with auteurist tendencies than it is with visceral impact. The tone is both suspenseful and horrific, with a feeling of dread and foreboding that seems to snowball larger and wider as the film progresses. The movie knows how to develop sensations of sheer terror; one particularly chilling moment is brought about utilizing tight close-ups and the sound of footsteps echoing throughout the silence after a murder -- of a child. Filmed documentary-style in noirish black-and-white, The Honeymoon Killers seems evocative of the pulp novel past while embracing in some of the then-revolutionary filmmaking conventions of the late 60s/early 70s. The movie is a heady, nerve-jangling trip into the seeming underbelly of picture postcard perfect America.

But man, I hated watching this movie.

Hated it!

Based on a true story, the film details the travails of Martha Beck, a dour, portly nurse who lives a miserable life with her mother. She joins a "Lonely Hearts Club" in order to ease the painful loneliness of her life, and engages in correspondence with Ray Fernandez, a smooth-talking con man who exploits the club by romancing lonely ladies and stealing their money out from under their nose. Martha and Ray generate a real-life relationship, even after she determines his nature: he cons her out of her money, but she tracks him down, still in love with him. Working in tandem, they plot to con women together by traveling around the country as brother and sister. Ray does the romancing while Martha watches from the shadows in cold, seething rage. Eventually, their cons grow larger and so involved that they end up murdering their victims in order to get their money.

Originally primed as a directing vehicle for Martin Scorsese (who left the project due to creative differences), The Honeymoon Killers is not a bad movie by any means, but I still loathed watching it – mainly because of how it made me feel. I needed to take a shower at least three times during my review screening. The principal actors, Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco, are so pitch-perfect as Martha and Ray that it's positively frightening. Ray has the smoothness and the loquaciousness down pat, but from every angle he's never any more than a second-rate hustler. Martha is barely more than seething, unstable rage, brimming with jealousy and obsession, never hesitant to kill a victim, all for the love of her man. These characters are so real, so vivid, so human and recognizable in their viciousness and utter disregard for human life that one feels positively violated just by watching it.

That's not to say that The Honeymoon Killers is a bad movie; it's not. It's quite admirable in too many ways -- I believe in everything I wrote in the first paragraph -- and brilliant in many others. But the darkness, the recognizable and tangible evil that permeates this film is so pervasive it lingers long after the movie ends. The Honeymoon Killers is undeniably a knockout, a horrific beast of a film which snarls and gnashes at the rational part of your mind in which you still believe you live in a civilized world.

A great movie... but I hated watching it!

The DVD

Video:
Criterion created a brand-new high definition transfer in this DVD release, and the quality of the video is quite remarkable. The transfer is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and has been anamorphically enhanced for your widescreen viewing delight. The 35mm print exposes a noticeable amount of grain structure, giving the transfer a fine, film-like appearance. The black-and-white photography is well captured, with strong if not overly deep contrasts and a welcome lack of ghosting or haloing. Sharpness levels seemed mixed; most scenes seemed generally adequate if not richly detailed, while others executed themselves with noticeable softness. Compression noise and other transfer artifacts were non-existent, while the transfer itself was smooth and reasonably free of debris and noise.

Audio:
The soundtrack was also restored for this release, but it does not fare as well as the video. Presented in Dolby Digital 1.0, the audio presentation suffers from excessive harshness and distortion at the higher end. The soundtrack is bright and tinny, and overall fidelity is quite limited. Dialog is generally serviceable but occasionally muted in volume. I was a little disappointed in the overall quality of the audio. It is certainly listenable, and given Criterion's attention to detail when it comes to video and audio restoration it's probably the best we could have hoped for. 

Extras:
Writer/director Leonard Kastle sat down for a thirty-minute Interview with film historian Robert Fischer, and the results are thoroughly enjoyable and informative. Kastle is a lively, engaging presence who details the precise history of the making of the film, including his experience working (and parting ways) with Martin Scorsese (who left the project due to what was viewed as his excessive perfectionism), the film's visual sense and style, working with the actors, and the use and influence of music and lighting throughout the movie. It's a wonderful look at a talented director who made one phenomenal movie and never directed again!

"Dear Martha..." is a text essay written by Scott Christianson, author of "Condemned: Inside the Sing Sing Death House", which contains photographs and clippings from the trial, incarceration, and execution of Martha Beck and Ray Fernandez, as well as a biography of both Beck and Fernandez, reproductions of actual "Lonely Heart Club" advertisements, and a copy of the film's movie poster. The text is fascinating as it reveals that the duo were alleged to have killed as many as twenty people during their spree, as well as revealing the sleazy and tabloid sensationalism that surrounded the case. This section really adds dimension to the film; while the film omitted many rather salient details about the couple, the text here fills in the blanks quite nicely. If you've ever been interested in "True Crime" reading, this is for you!

Rounding out the supplements are the film's original two-minute Trailer (in non-anamorphic widescreen) and a Biographies section that features biographical data for the film's principal cast and crew (written by Criterion stalwart Bruce Eder), as well as a reproduction of the film's original "Press Book."

Final Thoughts

The Honeymoon Killers is truly a striking, well directed, meticulously scripted, brilliantly acted, and thoroughly horrible film. It's one of the very best films I've ever hated watching, and if that doesn't speak volumes about what an experience watching The Honeymoon Killers was, it must be time for pie. Even the presence of Everybody Loves Raymond actress Doris Roberts -- a true comedic talent if there ever was one -- did little to assuage my feelings for this vile piece of magnificence. I am in absolutely no rush to see this movie again anytime soon, but I will see it again. If you find that this review seems rather bipolar, then you've discovered exactly how The Honeymoon Killers makes you feel. You are at once mesmerized and repulsed, lost in both admiration and disgust as the story unfolds before you.

Criterion's DVD release of The Honeymoon Killers features a sparkling video presentation, some wonderful extras for fans of the films, and enough background material to fill in those who are new to the story of Martha Beck and Ray Fernandez (such as your intrepid reviewer was before watching.) The transfer was quite enjoyable, especially in light of the age of the film, but I was somewhat disappointed in the audio. Nonetheless I give this DVD a solid recommendation. The Honeymoon Killers is a great movie, but it leaves you quivering in both admiration and revulsion. Like diving for pearls in a cesspool, there is exquisite beauty to be found in this nightmarish filth.