Shirley Stoler Movies
Hefty Brooklyn-born actress Shirley Stoler couldn't have escaped being a Cult Figure if she wanted to. Stoler's most colorful screen roles included the sadistic, sexually supercharged prison-camp commandant in Wertmullers Seven Beauties (1976), as Spike the Bartender in Frankenhooker (1990), and as pawnshop owner Edie Wulgemuth in Miami Blues (1990) (in the latter film, she expresses her displeasure with sleazy con man Alec Baldwin by cutting off his fingers with a machete!). It was par for the course for Stoler, who'd first made her mark on the cinematic world with a chilling and compeling performance as homicidal 200-pounder Martha Beck in the 1970 sleeper The Honeymoon Killers. Prior to that, Stoler was a veteran of the ground-breaking La Mama and Living Theatre performance companies; her resume also included several Broadway productions and a number of TV guest shots. A comparatively laid-back Shirley Stoler can be seen in a few scattered pictures like The Deer Hunter (1978, as John Savage's mother) and Malcolm X (1992); she also evinced signs of normality as Dottie Jessup on the 1980 TV series Skag. Stoler died of heart failure in 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Martha Beck (Shirley Stoler) is a lonely nurse who takes care of her invalid mother in Mobile, Alabama. Starved for affection, she places an ad in a lonely hearts column and soon receives a letter from Ray Fernandez (Tony LoBianco). He meets her and runs off with her dowry to New York City. Martha puts her mother in a nursing home and follows the handsome con artist. She agrees to pose as his sister as the two fleece lonely, unsuspecting women out of their money. Martha's jealousies of Ray's victims leads to murder. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, an elderly matron is killed and her child is drowned in a washing machine. Martha considers confessing to the police when she finally realizes Ray will never be true to her or any other woman. The story was taken from actual events, and the real-life couple were eventually executed in Sing Sing prison in 1951. The black-and-white photography adds an aura of authenticity to the documentary-style production. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Stoler, Tony Lo Bianco, (more)
