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''The Honeymoon Killers'' is a 1969 American crime film written and directed by Leonard Kastle, and starring Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco. It is inspired by the true story of Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, the notorious "lonely hearts killers" of the 1940s.〔“Seek More Victims of ‘Lonely Hearts' Killers”, ''The Lowell Sun'' (Mass. ), March 2, 1949; “Justice for Mr. and Mrs. Bluebeard”, ''The Sunday Press'' (N.Y. ), February 18, 1951, p. 8-C.〕 The soundtrack is from the first movement of the 6th Symphony and a section of the 5th Symphony of Gustav Mahler. ''The Honeymoon Killers'', went on to achieve cult status as well as critical recognition. It was released on DVD for the first time by The Criterion Collection in 2003. François Truffaut called it his "favorite American film." ==Plot== Martha Beck is a sullen, overweight nursing administrator living in Mobile, Alabama, with her elderly mother (played by Dortha Duckworth).〔(Dortha Duckworth profile ), imdb.com; accessed October 16, 2014.〕 Martha's friend Bunny (played by Doris Roberts) surreptitiously submits Martha's name to a "lonely hearts" club, which results in a letter from Raymond Fernandez of New York City. The audience sees Ray surrounded by the photographs of his previous conquests as he composes his first letter to Martha. Overcoming her initial reluctance, Martha corresponds with Ray and becomes attached to him. He visits Martha and seduces her. Thereafter, having secured a loan from her, Ray sends Martha a Dear Jane letter, and Martha enlists Bunny's aid to call him with the (false) news that she has attempted suicide. Ray allows Martha to visit him in New York, where he reveals he is a con man who makes his living by seducing and then swindling lonely women. Martha is unswayed by this revelation. At Ray's directive, and so she can live with him, Martha installs her mother in a nursing home. Martha's embittered mother disowns her for abandoning her. Martha insists on accompanying Ray at his "work". Woman after woman accepts the attentions of this suitor who goes courting while always within sight of his "sister". Ray promises Martha he will never sleep with any of the other women, but complicates his promise by marrying pregnant Myrtle Young (played by Marilyn Chris). After Young aggressively attempts to bed the bridegroom, Martha gives her a dose of pills, and the two put the drugged woman on a bus. Her death thereafter escapes immediate suspicion. The swindlers move on to their next target, and after catching Ray in a compromising position with the woman, Martha attempts to drown herself. To placate her, Ray rents a house in Valley Stream, a suburb of New York City. He becomes engaged to the elderly Janet Fay of Albany (Mary Jane Higby) and takes her to the house he shares with Martha. Janet gives Ray a check for $10,000, but then becomes suspicious of the two. When Janet tries to contact her family, Martha and Ray hit her in the head with a hammer and strangle her to death. They bury her body beneath their cellar floor in her trunk, tossing into the grave's dirt the two framed depictions of Jesus that, Martha notes sarcastically, she'd told them she took everywhere she went. Next, they spend several weeks living in Michigan with the widowed Delphine Downing and her young daughter. Delphine, younger and prettier than most of Ray's conquests, confides in Martha, hoping that she will help her persuade Ray to marry her as soon as possible because she is pregnant with Ray's child. Martha is in the midst of drugging Delphine when the woman's daughter enters the room with Ray. He shoots Delphine in the head, and Martha, off camera, drowns the daughter in the cellar. Ray tells Martha that he must proceed with his plan to move on to one more woman, this one in New Orleans, and then he will marry Martha; he reaffirms his promise never to betray her with one of his marks. Realizing that Ray will never stop lying to her, Martha calls the police and waits calmly for them to arrive. The epilogue takes place four months later, with Martha and Ray in jail. As she leaves the cellblock for the first day of their trial, Martha receives a letter from Ray in which he tells her that, despite everything, she is the only woman he ever loved. Titles on the screen then conclude the story, saying that Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez were executed at Sing Sing on March 8, 1951.〔Although the real-life Beck and Fernandez were arrested originally in Michigan and charged with the murders of the Downings, those prosecutions were suspended and they were extradited to New York to be tried for the murder of Janet Fay, because New York, unlike Michigan, had the death penalty. It was for the murder of Fay that they were convicted and executed. See ''People v. Fernandez'', 93 N.E.2d 859 (N.Y. 1950).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Honeymoon Killers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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