The Honeymoon Killers (1970)
This Leonard Kastle film is based on the real-life story of Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck who met back in the 40s through "Lonely Hearts" ads. Then they became a part of American crime annals by going on a murder spree by trapping lonely but wealthy widows into Ray's "love net."
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Raymond proposed the lonely widows that he met through the newspaper singles ads and eventually married them and moved in with Martha who posed as Ray's "sister." After doing all they could to steal the unsuspecting widow's money and jewelry, they poisoned, hammered and shot at least three widows, including the young daughter of at least one of their victims as well.
They were as in love and tender towards one another as they were merciless towards their victims. Both in real life and in this movie, they were caught, tried in a long trial, and then sent to the electric chair in Sing Sing.
This film catches the stark horror of their deeds in great realism, aided by splendid black-and-white camera work that at times comes across almost as documentary.
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Tony Lo Bianco is marvelous as Raymond Fernandez and with his foreign accent. Nobody, on the other hand, could have played the obese and obsessed Martha better than Shirley Stoler. (Compare: the sadistic female concentration camp guard in Lina Wertmuller's "Seven Beauties.")
But the actors playing the unfortunate widows are just as good as the lead actors. My hat off especially to Kip McArdle who played "Delphine Downing."
Perfect casting, a scary story, plus the "amateurish" candor of a first-time director created a movie masterpiece indeed. No wonder Francois Truffaut has described "The Honeymoon Killers" as "my favorite American film of all time."
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