Girls, I Am Telling You, Shirley Stoler Steals The Show As "Fat Martha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                Darlings, you have just GOT to see this film; it is hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 It takes on something serious in a campy way.  Between 1947 and 1949 an obese nurse named Martha Beck hooked up with a loser grifter named Raymond Fernandez.  Don't ask me why, but Fernanadez was attracted to Beck.  I get what she saw in him, but her??????????

                                  Anyway, they scheme to pose as siblings and a caretaker and insert themselves into the lives of either widowed or unattractive spinster women and rid them of their money.  Eventually, the scheme works itself up to murder.

                                   Perhaps the most disturbing moment for me is when Martha is shown on screen slapping an 8-year-old girl in the face!  Bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I would have smacked her back!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     But, really, between Stoler's obesity and deadpan performance, coupled with Tony Lo Bianco's phony accent, the film is a riot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      It is filmed in almost documentary style, and looks less like the Forties, and more like 1969.  It plays fast and loose with the actual facts, but who cares, when one is having such a good time watching these actors put through their paces, by director Leonard Kastle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       The scene where Martha tries to drown herself is campy but key.  You see, Martha was as lonely as the women she went after, and I am sure Fernandez knew it.  He used that to his advantage, but Martha's jealousy of other women got the best of her, and while the film has her turning herself in, they were actually caught thanks to neighbors of their recent victims, the Downings, who had not been seen in a while and aroused suspicion. The police were notified and the couple was apprehended in front of the Downing house.  They were both executed at Sing Sing on March 8, 1951.

                                         They were not the first ones to attempt this scheme, nor will they be the last.  But forensics and other technology would make it more difficult for criminals like these.

                                          Darlings, just settle back and have some fun with this campy classic!

                                           Baby Gojira just LOVED it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                             And watch those dress sizes, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.