Thursday, February 5, 2015

Jason goes to Noir City--Closing Night

And finally, Noir City ended in particularly sleazy fashion.

SECONDS (1966): John Frankenheimer directed this wonderfully bizarre sci-fi noir. Rock Hudson stars as a bored banker who gets a mysterious phone call from a friend that he thought was dead. It reveals a secret organization that will fake your death and give you a whole new look, a gorgeous house, and a wonderfully free and hedonistic lifestyle. There is, of course, a bit of a catch. But I won't tease you too much (except to say that the grape-stomping scene was particularly fun.) A brilliant, mind-bending ride.

THE HONEYMOON KILLERS (1969): And then the absolute sleaze. Based on a true story of the "Lonely Hearts Killers," homely, unpleasant nurse Martha finds true love via a correspondence dating service. Sort of. Who she meets is Ray Fernandez, a con man who routinely romances women via this service, and fleeces them out of their money. But there is chemistry between them. So she joins him in scamming them. And then eventually murdering them. Two sickos teetering between love and jealousy, with greed driving it all. And shot in a way that immediately makes me think of early John Waters films. This took me a few showers to recover from. Awesome!

Total Running Time: 214 minutes
My Total Minutes: 381,446

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