Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    EmmysSuperheroes GuideSan Diego Comic-ConSummer Watch GuideBest Of 2025 So FarDisability Pride MonthSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
8 suggestions available
Watchlist
Sign in
Sign in
New customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro

The Honeymoon Killers

  • 1970
  • R
  • 1h 47m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
6.2K
YOUR RATING
Tony Lo Bianco and Shirley Stoler in The Honeymoon Killers (1970)
Watch Official Trailer
Play trailer2:06
2 Videos
61 Photos
TragedyTrue CrimeCrimeDramaRomanceThriller

An obese, embittered nurse doesn't mind if her toupee-wearing boyfriend romances and fleeces other women, as long as he takes her along on his con jobs.An obese, embittered nurse doesn't mind if her toupee-wearing boyfriend romances and fleeces other women, as long as he takes her along on his con jobs.An obese, embittered nurse doesn't mind if her toupee-wearing boyfriend romances and fleeces other women, as long as he takes her along on his con jobs.

  • Directors
    • Leonard Kastle
    • Martin Scorsese
    • Donald Volkman
  • Writer
    • Leonard Kastle
  • Stars
    • Shirley Stoler
    • Tony Lo Bianco
    • Mary Jane Higby
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.0/10
    6.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Leonard Kastle
      • Martin Scorsese
      • Donald Volkman
    • Writer
      • Leonard Kastle
    • Stars
      • Shirley Stoler
      • Tony Lo Bianco
      • Mary Jane Higby
    • 86User reviews
    • 95Critic reviews
    • 82Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos2

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:06
    Official Trailer
    The Honeymoon Killers: Mother is Coming
    Clip 3:07
    The Honeymoon Killers: Mother is Coming
    The Honeymoon Killers: Mother is Coming
    Clip 3:07
    The Honeymoon Killers: Mother is Coming

    Photos61

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 57
    View Poster

    Top cast17

    Edit
    Shirley Stoler
    Shirley Stoler
    • Martha Beck
    Tony Lo Bianco
    Tony Lo Bianco
    • Ray Fernandez
    Mary Jane Higby
    Mary Jane Higby
    • Janet Fay
    Doris Roberts
    Doris Roberts
    • Bunny
    Kip McArdle
    Kip McArdle
    • Delphine Downing
    Marilyn Chris
    Marilyn Chris
    • Myrtle Young
    Dortha Duckworth
    Dortha Duckworth
    • Mrs. Beck - Martha's Mother
    Barbara Cason
    Barbara Cason
    • Evelyn Long
    Ann Harris
    • Doris
    Mary Breen
    • Rainelle Downing
    Elsa Raven
    Elsa Raven
    • Matron
    Mary Engel
    • Lucy
    Guy Sorel
    Guy Sorel
    • Mr. Dranoff
    Michael Haley
    Michael Haley
    • Jackson
    • (as Mike Haley)
    Diane Asselin
    • Severns
    William Adams
    William Adams
    • Justice of the Peace
    • (as Col. William Adams)
    Eleanor Adams
    • Mrs. Hand
    • Directors
      • Leonard Kastle
      • Martin Scorsese
      • Donald Volkman
    • Writer
      • Leonard Kastle
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews86

    7.06.2K
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    rixrex

    Exactly how these kinds of stories ought to be presented.

    Though it's a loose telling of the true honeymoon killers story, the presentation is exactly the way this kind of subject material ought to be presented for the most realistic effect. Real location settings, sparse music, realistic dialog, ordinary appearing people with all of their neurotic behavior as part of their character. No big name actors to distract from the tale. All of this makes the whole film seem as if it's a voyeuristic view of actual events, and makes it more chilling and the killers more realistic as individual real-life characters. Unlike antagonists of the sort similar to the omnipotent, hidden, twisted-mind genius behind all the contraptions of SAW and SAW 2, (which is merely more time spent eating popcorn without being bored, with emotional effects to be quickly felt then forgotten until the next slick horror opus comes along), this one will stick in your mind like HENRY and IN COLD BLOOD. And because they actually happened too.
    FilmFlaneur

    Realistic cult classic still proves a killer..

    When fledgling director Martin Scorsese was removed from his first project after spending too much time on master shots, the film's scriptwriter, sometime opera composer Leonard Kastle eventually stepped into the breach. Like Howard Hawks before him, who had made Rio Bravo (1959) as a reaction against the perceived moral falsities of High Noon (1952), Kastle had also written his screenplay as a riposte to an earlier film. After seeing Bonnie And Clyde (1967), he felt that the glamorous crime duo in Penn's film bore little resemblance to reality. For his own treatment he settled on another notorious pairing from the annals of American crime: that of Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, the 1940s' slayers dubbed by contemporary tabloids as 'The Lonely Hearts Killers', who met their due judicial end in San Quentin in 1951.

    The Honeymoon Killers, as his film was finally called, is an account of Beck and Fernandez and their growing relationship during their notorious murder spree. Fernandez was a con man who preyed on spinsters, promising matrimony and then absconding with their savings. Once linked with Beck, his activities took a fatal turn and matters were complicated by their growing attachment. In fact, Kastle originally intended his film to be called 'Dear Martha', taking as its centre Martha's emotional engagement with her lover, rather than the cold facts of their crimes. It was the producers who ultimately opted for the more lurid title in an attempt to exploit the likely marquee appeal. In some ways it is apt, as we see Ray and Martha (introduced as his 'sister') meet and exploit several vulnerable women or discussing marriage with them before despatching with increasing levels of callousness, either before or after the event. Despite some post-production tinkering by the producers, The Honeymoon Killers remains a love story at heart. That's not to say that the film is not driven by the events that took place, but in Kastle's interpretation the victim's deaths are caused just as much by Martha's jealousies, and her impatience with sharing her lover, as they are by financial greed. Ultimately this is her story and it she who brings it to a fitting close.

    From this distance the film actually seems related more to In Cold Blood (1967), Richard Brooks' adaptation of Capote's novel, than to Penn's masterpiece of the same year. The chief protagonists of the former, Perry Smith and Dick Hickok, are on a similar path of self-reliance and destruction. One can even draw a parallel between Perry's addiction to aspirin and Martha's love of chocolate and romance magazines. Kastle's stark black and white photography and concentration on the criminous principals gives the same air of precise, unglamorous re-enactment that's entirely missing in the glossier Beatty and Dunaway vehicle. Whether through the uncertainties of first-time direction or conscious artistic decision, his film has a rough edge, a grainy quality in which actors are thrown into relief by stark lighting and shadow. Its natural interiors and the use of off-screen space give it a chilling near-documentary feel that ensures its cult status remains intact down the years.

    At the centre of the film is deadly Martha Beck, the overweight nurse - an outstanding performance by Shirley Stoler. This was Stoler's screen debut and she was hard put to regain such memorability again on screen. She went on to appear next in Klute (1971) and in such films as The Deer Hunter (1978), but the only other time she had such a devastating impact on film was probably in Wertmuller's Seven Beauties (aka: Pasqualino Settebellezze, 1976), where her intimidating bulk was also put to good use, this time in a concentration camp setting. Her co-star Tony Lo Bianco, playing the part of the wily Ray with lightness and distinction, appeared in another cult item: Larry Cohen's God Told Me To (aka: Demon, 1976), but has done little else of note. Like Stoler, this is hour of glory.

    Ray is the confidence trickster who, in his regular fashion, initially attempts to ensnare lonely nurse Martha, at the start of the film. Reprimanding two ward juniors at the beginning she says, "I don't care what you do outside the hospital, but in here you're as bad as ammonia and chlorine!" Such comments are ironic given the explosive combination of Martha and Ray to come, a duo that, once joined are as deadly as Bonnie and Clyde, or Smith and Hickok. Her opening words are also echoed in Ray's later, and repeated, views on females who prove an obstruction: "I don't care what you do, just get rid of her!"

    When the film was released it was not immediately recognised as the achievement it is (Pauline Kael, said "It's such a terrible movie, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone"). Other critics were more favourable however, and audiences really sat up when François Truffaut thereupon saw it and named it his favourite American film. Some have seen some particular resemblances to the work of the French director in Kastle's and certainly there's a certain Nouvelle Vague, improvisatory air (his use of Mahler for instance recalls Godard's cut-up music scores). Elsewhere however Kastle shows real independence and flair as a director, so much so that one regrets that it is his only film: Ray's 'rumba into romance' for instance, as he approaches Martha for the first time, the con man's face sliding lasciviously through the frame. Or in the use of space, where Martha's size is often enclosed uncomfortably with Ray and/or their prey, suggesting the claustrophobia of killing. Most of all is the director's staging of cold murder - shown not neat and tidy, as is (still) the usual Hollywood practice, but prolonged and troublesome as victims struggle, rather in the way that Hitchcock had presaged in Torn Curtain's gas stove sequence in 1966.

    The 1996 Spanish production Profundo Carmesi covers the same ground as does Kastle's, but with its strengths the present film remains the definitive account, and the Region 1 DVD release includes an informative half-hour interview with the director. The less expensive Region 2 disc excludes this valuable extra, but retains the same excellent widescreen transfer, even if the audio elements on both editions remain in some need of digital restoration. Oddly enough, the awkward sound adds to the scary immediacy of it all. Other than that, there's the trailer that, for once, tells the truth: "See The Honeymoon Killers and just try to forget!"
    7LeaBlacks_Balls

    Disturbing

    Based on the true story of Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, who met through a lonely-hearts correspondence club, Ray (Tony Lo Bianco) is sleazy and untrustworthy; Martha (Shirley Stoler) is obese, compulsive, and needy. Together, they play out a horrifying scheme in which he lures lonely women out on dates and proposes marriage to them, while she pretends to be his sister. After the marriage ceremonies, they take the womens savings and then murder them in cold blood.

    The way this film is shot, with its grainy black and white footage, murky sound, bright whites and dark shadows, only adds to its incredibly unsettling nature. Watching this is almost like watching a documentary, and occasionally, a snuff film.

    Though the acting from the supporting cast is a bit iffy at times, the two leads are excellent. Particularly Shirley Stoller. While Lo Bianco creates one of the most hateful slime-balls I've ever seen, Stoller dominates this film. Her Martha is a frightening, unpleasant, disgusting woman, who is as ugly on the inside as she is on the outside. Her evil nature fills the frame whenever she is on screen.

    If you're looking for a fast paced thriller, look elsewhere. The pacing in this movie is slow, which only adds to the disturbing documentary feel. But if you want to see a movie where character comes first, and action second, seek this classic out.
    dougdoepke

    Sleazeball Masterpiece

    Chubby ex-nurse Martha Beck over-eats and gets confused as she and gigolo boyfriend Ray Fernandez murder their way across the Northeast.

    No doubt about it, the movie's a sleezeball masterpiece. There's maybe one likable character in the whole hundred-minutes-- a prison guard, of all people, and she has maybe all of five lines. The rest are either slimy (Ray), monstrous (Martha) or pathetic (the victims). Only an indie production would dare combine such ugly photography with such a succession of dismal characters. But, for a real shudder, imagine how a Hollywood studio would have prettified the same movie.

    Nonetheless, the sleeze has genuine style behind it, along with two tacky Oscars for the leads. As Ray, Lo Bianco exudes more oily charm than a BP platform, while a stretched-out Martha (Stoler) resembles nothing less than a beached whale. Just the thought of the two of them clinching is enough to sound an environmental alarm. And the fact that the kinkiest things turn them on makes the picture even worse and not even their "mad love" helps.

    I don't know how many movie details are based on fact, but two of the murder scenes are genuinely ugly. And the fact that it's nurse Martha, not the squeamish Ray, who handles the messes says a lot about gender equality. Most chilling to me, is the fact that these two psychos merrily bludgeon, shoot, and poison their way from one place to the next with nary a police siren in sight. It's almost like they're planning a vacation itinerary from one murder site to the next. In fact, it's a betrayed Martha who finally puts a stop to things.

    Anyhow, no movie I know makes crime and murder any more sordid than this one. And in my little book, that's a genuine achievement. Plus, I think the movie changed my mind about the merits of capital punishment.
    DJ Inferno

    Forgotten cult classics #7

    This dark humorous thriller about a fat nurse and a Spanish gigolo who murder rich but lonely women was recently shown in the midnight program on German cable. "Honeymoon Killers" is based on a true story that happened in the 1940s and still belongs to the most peculiar cases in the history of American crime!

    Beverly Stoler plays Martha, an overweight nurse, who leads a boring life with her senile mother and her pesky neighbour. One day she gets to know Ray, a marriage impostor of Spanish origin. Both become lovers as well as partners in crime and they start to cheat and to kill wealthy ladies...

    A great film that seeded much too long in the archives! Only a little number of persons know this flick, although it doesn´t need to hide behind other movies about serial killers like "Henry" or even Hitchcock´s "Psycho".

    But it´s more than that: "Honeymoon Killers" is a brilliant satire as well as the most bizarre love story I´ve ever seen!!!

    More like this

    Boxcar Bertha
    6.0
    Boxcar Bertha
    The Narrow Margin
    7.6
    The Narrow Margin
    Hi, Mom!
    6.1
    Hi, Mom!
    Street Scenes
    6.5
    Street Scenes
    Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
    6.7
    Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
    Overlord
    7.1
    Overlord
    New York City... Melting Point
    6.4
    New York City... Melting Point
    Great Day
    6.4
    Great Day
    Who's That Knocking at My Door
    6.5
    Who's That Knocking at My Door
    Riffraff
    6.8
    Riffraff
    Pretty Poison
    7.0
    Pretty Poison
    Call Northside 777
    7.4
    Call Northside 777

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Originally to be directed by Martin Scorsese, but he was replaced after a week of shooting due to creative differences by Donald Volkman who was subsequently replaced by Leonard Kastle. Scorsese was fired because he was filming every scene in master shots and not shooting close-ups or other coverage, making the film impossible to edit. According to Kastle's interview with the Criterion collection, the ultimate moment that caused Scorsese's firing was trying to get close-up on a beer can lit perfectly for the intended tone.
    • Goofs
      In the scene on the bus with the dead victim of Martha and Ray, there is a long shot of the woman's face with her eyes somewhat googly and her tongue sticking out, as you hear the bus driver exclaiming her death, etc. Towards the end of the shot, if you watch the woman's face, you can see her tongue move.
    • Quotes

      Mother: [shouting at Martha from the window of the rest home she's been dumped at] Goddamn you, goddamn you! I hope you end up like this! I hope someone does this to YOU!

    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Hidden Horror (1988)
    • Soundtracks
      Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 & 9
      Composed by Gustav Mahler

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ16

    • How long is The Honeymoon Killers?Powered by Alexa
    • How much of the film is true?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 4, 1970 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Amantes sanguinarios
    • Filming locations
      • Kenmore Hotel, Albany, New York, USA(Exterior shot)
    • Production company
      • Roxanne
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $200,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 47 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Tony Lo Bianco and Shirley Stoler in The Honeymoon Killers (1970)
    Top Gap
    By what name was The Honeymoon Killers (1970) officially released in India in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Production art
    Photos
    Hollywood Power Couples
    See the gallery
    Production art
    List
    July 2025 TV and Streaming Premiere Dates
    See the list
    Poster
    List
    Most Anticipated Indian Movies: July-December 2025
    See the list

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.