With all the talk in recent posts about THE BLACK DAHLIA and
HOLLYWOODLAND, both basd on actual cases and both set in
roughly the same era, I was wondering if anyone here had seen
LONELY HEARTS. It apparently has been shown at some scattered
film festivals but has not yet been released generally (or if
it has, it flew completely under my radar).
Set in the same '40's/'50's period as DAHLIA and
HOLLYWOODLAND, it's a dramatization of the murder spree of
Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck in the late
'40's. You can read about the actual case here:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/partners/fernandez/1.html
They're generally identified as "serial killers," though I'm
not absolutely sure that, as the term is commonly used, it
correctly applies to them. Certainly they were multiple
murderers.
The case has been fictionalized in at least two other films,
THE HONEYMOON KILLERS and DEEP CRIMSON, and mystery
writer/critic Julian Symons combined elements of the case
with elements from the rather similar
"Moors Murders" in North England for his novel, THE PLAYERS
AND THE GAME.
This film is a bit different from previous dramatizations of
the case, told, as it is, from the POV of the lead detective,
played by John Travolta, rather than from the killers'
perspective.
The interesting thing about this film is that the
writer/director, Todd Robinson, is actually the grandson of
the real-life cop on whom Travolta's character is based.
Apparently, Robinson based his script on his grandfather's
account of the case.
The promos looked good, though Selma Hayek is much too
beautiful, and much too slim, to be playing the morbidly
obese Martha Beck.
Has anyone seen this to comment, or have any idea when it
will be generally released?
JIM DOHERTY
__________________________________________________ Do You
Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam
protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:
rara-avis-l-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:
rara-avis-l-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 19 Sep 2006 EDT