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 book, the film details the travails of Martha Beck, a dour,
portly nurse who lives a miserable life with her baby. She joins a "Lonely
Hearts Club" in order to ease the painful loneliness of her preoccupation, and engages in
correspondence with Bar Fernandez, a smooth-talking con man who exploits the
confederate by romancing single ladies and stealing their money out from under their
nose. Martha and Spark generate a legal-life relationship, parallel with after she
determines his world: he cons her thoroughly of her spondulix, but she tracks him down,
smooth in infatuation with him. Working in tandem, they scenario to con women together by
traveling around the territory as brother and sister. Flicker does the romancing while
Martha watches from the shadows in cold, seething fume. Eventually, their cons
grow larger and so involved that they end up murdering their victims in order to
support their net.
Originally primed as a directing instrument for Martin Scorsese (who left the
project proper 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 lead a shower at least three times during my
discuss screening. The principal actors, Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco, are
so pick-perfect as Martha and Ray that it's positively atrocious. Ray
has the smoothness and the loquaciousness down pat, but from every angle he's
not in the least any more than a other-rate hustler. Martha is barely more than seething,
flighty fulminate, brimming with jealousy and obsession, never hesitant to kill a
victim, all for the love of her man. These characters are so real, so true to life, so
beneficent and recognizable in their viciousness and utter turn up one’s nose at as a replacement for human flavour
that identical feels positively violated just by watching it.
That's not to roughly that
The Honeymoon Killers
is a defective silver screen;
it's not. It's a certain extent admirable in too many ways — I believe in everything I
wrote in the first paragraph — and brilliant in varied others. But the darkness,
the recognizable and tangible evil that permeates this flick is so inescapable it
lingers long after the flick picture show ends.
The Honeymoon Killers
is
undeniably a knockout, a horrific beast of a film which snarls and gnashes at
the sensible part of your heed in which you still allow 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 come out with, and the grandeur of the video is
degree remarkable. The hand on is presented in its original aspect ratio of
1.85:1 and has been anamorphically enhanced for your widescreen viewing delight.
The 35mm run off exposes a noticeable amount of scrap structure, giving the
over a fine, film-like appearance. The bad-tempered-and-snow-white photography is well
captured, with hot if not overly deep contrasts and a welcome absence of
ghosting or haloing. Sharpness levels seemed opposing; most scenes seemed generally
adequate if not richly detailed, while others executed themselves with
clear softness. Compression rattle and other transmission artifacts were
non-existent, while the transfer itself was smooth and reasonably liberal of debris
and disturbance circulate.
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 hopeful and tinny, and overall
fidelity is unreservedly limited. Dialog is generally long-wearing but
occasionally muted in volume. I was a little disappointed in the
overall grade of the audio. It is certainly listenable, and affirmed
Criterion's reclame to detail when it comes to video and audio
restoration it's indubitably the best we could have hoped
for.
Extras:
Writer/director Leonard Kastle
sat down for a thirty-Lilliputian
Interview
with film historian Robert
Fischer, and the results are fully enjoyable and communicative. Kastle is a
spry, pleasant presence who details the scrupulous 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 cloying perfectionism),
the film's visual sense and style, working with the actors, and the use and
influence of music and lighting in every part of the movie. It's a wonderful look at a
polished director who made one phenomenal movie and never directed
again!
"Dear Martha…"
is a text essay written by Scott
Christianson, novelist of "Condemned: Fundamentally the Squeal Sing Finish House", which
contains photographs and clippings from the grief, incarceration, and administration
of Martha Beck and Ray Fernandez, as intimately as a biography of both Beck and
Fernandez, reproductions of actual "Solitary Heart Club" advertisements, and
a specimen of the film's movie notice. The text is fascinating as it reveals that
the duo were alleged to arrange killed as many as twenty people during their spree,
as well as revealing the sleazy and tabloid sensationalism that surrounded the
case. This section in the end adds dimension to the film; while the film omitted
many rather chief details about the couple, the text here fills in the blanks
completely nicely. If you've ever been interested in "Accurate 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
group that features biographical data for the film's
premier danseur cast and group (written by Criterion stalwart Bruce Eder), as well as a
reproduction of the film's original "Press Book."
Immutable Thoughts
The Honeymoon
Killers
is honestly a striking, well directed, meticulously scripted,
brilliantly acted, and thoroughly ghastly film. It's at one of the very best films
I've ever hated watching, and if that doesn't unreservedly volumes about what an
know watching
The Honeymoon Killers
was, it must be time
for pie. Even the presence of
Everybody Loves Raymond
actress Doris
Roberts — a verified comedic talent if there ever was solitary – did dwarf to
assuage my feelings for this vile piece of magnificence. I am in absolutely no
rush to see this talkie again anytime at once, but I
will
get the idea it again. If
you find that this post-mortem 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 wonder and
disgust as the story unfolds before you.
recent movies
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.
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