The Honeymoon Killers

After seeing Bonnie & Clyde (1967) Kastle wanted to craft a crime movie that avoided ties to Hollywood glamour. So he researched one of the most infamous crime cases of the ’40s: the ‘Lonely Hearts’ murders, and wrote a script.
Then he went shopping for a director. He found a young Martin Scorsese, right after his successful first film Who’s That Knocking At My Door? However, with a total budget of only $250,000, Kastle became concerned as he watched Scorsese spend several hours trying to film a tin can in a bush – ‘to create mood’. So he fired Scorsese (!) and ended up doing it himself.
It’s a minor miracle that a film maker with no previous experience could bring all the pieces together, from the performances to the realistically bare set design to a score made up entirely of excerpts from Mahler. The resulting movie is one of the most astonishing independent films ever made. It is uncompromising and brutal. It is stark and unsettling. Filmed in a documentary style in black & white, The Honeymoon Killers looks terrifyingly real.
Kastle originally wanted to call the movie Dear Martha, but the distributor insisted on a more salacious title. He hated the title The Honeymoon Killers, but nevertheless his fans have included Michelangelo Antonioni and François Truffaut. Strangely enough Kastle never made another movie – but not for want of trying.

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