The Honeymoon Killers (1970)

Overrated B-movie tripe plays like a filmed true-crime pulp novel. The dialogue is ripe, the characters grotesque, the situation exaggerated to lurid proportions. But it's not like it couldn't have worked -- if someone other than writer Leonard Kastle had directed (someone like, say, Martin Scorsese, who was the original director on this project before disagreements with Kastle got him canned), maybe it could have been brilliant. But Kastle's direction is painfully amateurish. Consequently, the film is comprised mainly of static and uninteresting shots clumsily edited together. Despite all the hubbub, the acting is no great shakes either -- everyone is overly stiff and awkward with the exception of Tony Lo Bianco, whose goofy on-again-off-again Spanish accent at least shows he was trying. There's a Spanish film called Deep Crimson that tackles the same story with much better results. See that.

Grade: C