The naturalistic black-and-white noir compositions that writer/director
Leonard Kastle captures in the only film of his career are augmented by
a stark soundtrack punctuated with music by Gustav Mahler. Based on the
real-life exploits of a pair of money-hungry serial killer lovers, the
suspense follows Alabama-born nurse Martha (played with brooding
hostility by Shirley Stoler) and her Elvis-haired Latin gigolo
boyfriend Ray (Tony LoBianco). The couple pose as brother and sister
while Ray conducts marriage proposals with unsuspecting widows that the
couple eventually kill to take their life savings and life insurance.
Made in 1969, "The Honeymoon Killers" presaged elements of David
Lynch's filmic approach, and clearly informed John McNaughton's
similarly-themed stomach-churner film "Henry: Portrait of a Serial
Killer." Romantic dysfunction never looked so banal, brutal, and ugly.
The real Martha Beck and Ray Fernandez were executed by electrocution
on March 8, 1951.
