The Honeymoon Killers (1969)

Based on the real-life "lonely hearts killers" case, this Z budget film stars the obese Shirley Stoler as Martha Beck, and Tony LoBianco as Ray Fernandez, who travel the country posing as brother and sister, bilking lonely ladies out of their savings. I saw this as a teenager and liked it. I viewed it as the kind of movie John Waters would have made, in the Divine days, if he decided to make a serious movie (Shirley Stoler looks and sounds so much like Divine it's scary). This Criterion Collection dvd, with a pristine print (the audio is still lousy) and lots of nifty extras, made me see it in a different light. Much better than I remembered, and not nearly as funny as I once found it. According to the interview with writer/director Leonard Kastle, Martin Scorsese (!) was the original director, fired after the first week for being too slow. The one Scorsese-directed scene that remains, oddly, is one of my least favorite: a clunky scene where Martha, in a fit of jealousy, attempts to drown herself. Despite the budget (made for $150,00.000) and a campy, comic tone, the movie has moments of great power. One of their murder victims, an elderly lady, is battered in the head with a hammer. When this doesn't work, they strangle her, first with their hands, then with a scarf, using the hammer as a tourniquet. She finally dies in a heap on the floor, with her house dress hiked up, her knickers showing. It's one of the most pathetic deaths I've ever seen on screen. Apparently, this was Francois Truffault's favorite American movie.