MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Killers’ Returns With a Vengeance

“The Honeymoon Killers” (at the Nuart for a week only) comes out of the past in more ways than one. Originally released in 1970 and unaccountably neglected since then, this pleasantly twisted lowlife serenade harkens back several decades earlier, to the golden age of the B-picture and the moody fatalism of film noir. Harsh, gritty, unflinchingly intense and absolutely unforgettable, it’s as heartless as its protagonists, and that is saying quite a lot.

Written and directed by Leonard Kastle, “Honeymoon” is based on the true story of the notorious Lonely Hearts Killers, executed in Sing Sing on March 8, 1951. In classic mock-documentary style, it begins with a crawl that perfectly sets the stage for what is to come: “The incredibly shocking drama you are about to see is perhaps the most bizarre episode in the annals of American crime.”

Introduced first is Marilyn Beck (Shirley Stoler), a sullen and seriously overweight nursing supervisor who, says best (and apparently only) friend Bunny, could really use a man in her life. So Marilyn sends a letter to Aunt Carrie’s Friendship Club and waits for the results.

Back comes a note from Ray Fernandez (Tony Lo Bianco), coyly self-described as “not a bad-looking fellow” who thinks Marilyn sounds like the woman of his dreams. They arrange to meet and begin what has to be one of the strangest love stories ever put on film.

For Ray, it turns out, is a vain, narcissistic con man who makes a living preying on affection-starved women. If he has a weakness, it’s that he is weak, and that’s where Marilyn sees her opening. Ruthless, petulant and seriously jealous, she forces herself into Ray’s con, pretending to be his sister and going along on all his romantic scams. Like deadly lizards who were made for each other, Ray and Marilyn are a match in rapacity, and their joining together definitely makes the world a less safe place to live in, especially for lonely women.

As “The Honeymoon Killers” goes about the nasty business of detailing the exploits of this pair, it is distinguished by how universally unappealing its people are. The sad victims, generally depicted as smug, grasping and self-deluded, are treated with a complete lack of sympathy, no matter what their fates. Ray and Marilyn (beautifully acted by Lo Bianco and Stoler, who went on to star in Lina Wertmuller’s “Seven Beauties”) have more energy, but one would be hard-pressed to describe them as likable. This is truly a world of sordid darkness, without so much as a ray of light.

This quality of being true to itself is “The Honeymoon Killer’s” greatest strength. Writer-director Kastle, who unaccountably never made another feature, is in perfect control of his material here, understanding it thoroughly and making sure that everything, from the harsh lighting to the flat staging to the snippets of Mahler on the soundtrack, unite to enhance the rawness and relentlessness of the film. Even 20-plus years after its original release, this picture’s implacability and refusal to compromise are as startlingly pure as ever.