The Honeymoon Killers (1970) on Netflix
Martha Beck, a nursing administrator in Mobile, Alabama, is signed up by her friend Bunny for a lonely hearts club. Raymond Fernandez writes from New York City, visits her and seduces her.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.9/106,518 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes95%
Trailer
Plot summary
In Mobile, Alabama, Martha Beck lives with her elderly mother and works as a nursing administrator. Her friend Bunny secretly submits her name to a lonely hearts club, and a letter comes from Raymond Fernandez of New York City. Martha overcomes her reluctance, writes back, and becomes attracted to him. Ray visits her in Alabama and seduces her, then secures a loan from her and sends her a letter ending the relationship. Martha enlists Bunny to telephone him with the made-up news that she has attempted suicide. Ray lets her come to New York, where he tells her what he does for a living.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Honeymoon Killers (1970)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Martin Scorsese was hired to direct The Honeymoon Killers but was fired for working too slowly, though a few scenes he shot stayed in the finished film. Donald Volkman replaced him, lasting only two weeks before writer Leonard Kastle took over.
- Australia's censorship board deemed The Honeymoon Killers "violent, indecent and obscene," and the film was reportedly banned there from its 1970 release until the late 1980s.
- For the scene in which Martha bludgeons Janet Fay with a hammer, condoms filled with glycerine and red dye were fixed to the victim's head with plaster of Paris; the balsa-wood hammer held a pin that pricked them so the blood would flow.
- Leon Levy put up the film's entire $250,000 budget. The Honeymoon Killers went on to earn $11 million internationally, but Levy recouped none of his investment.
- Shirley Stoler got the lead by accident: her friend Marilyn Chris, who was cast as Myrtle, referred her just as Stoler returned from singing in European cafes with no job prospects.
- Unlike the film, the real Raymond Fernandez is believed to have murdered one of his swindling victims, Jane Wilson Thompson, before meeting Martha Beck, so he could pose as her widower and claim her property, including the New York apartment where Beck joined him.
- The Honeymoon Killers built a cult following in the decades after its release, and French director François Truffaut called it his "favorite American film."
