Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov are Paul and Mary Bland, a prudish couple pursuing a simple American dream of opening their own restaurant. After a sex-crazed neighbor breaks into their apartment and they accidentally kill him with a frying pan, Paul and Mary realize they may be able to solve their money problems by murdering all the undesirable “perverts” in their building. “If in the course of pursuing their ideal, they become involved in murder and mayhem,” Bartel mused, “that is also in the great American tradition.” One of the most pleasurable things about the film is the mean-girl chemistry between longtime co-stars (and real-life buddies) Mary Woronov and Paul Bartel, who acted in nearly 20 films together. Corman Film School grad Bartel was a writer, director (of cult classics such as Lust in the Dust and Death Race 2000), and character actor whose big bald head can be frequently spotted in the films of Joe Dante and Allan Arkush among many others. Woronov’s resume is equally impressive: former Warhol Factory star (she was “Hanoi Hannah” in Chelsea Girls), cult film actress, novelist, and painter. Both of them are reliably among the best things, if not the best thing, in whatever film they’re in. These two are too cool for school (unless you’re talking about Rock ‘n’ Roll High School), and it’s a treat to spend 83 minutes watching them murder, rob, and get kinky on the big screen. Co-starring a sexy and hilarious Robert Beltran as the titular Raoul, along with cult comedy stalwarts Ed Begley Jr. and Buck Henry.

35mm from the Academy Film Archive, permission Janus Films

Preceded by: Kathleen Trailer (for Underground Cinema 12)" and "Weiners and Buns Musical" (Curt McDowell, 1972) – 16mm from Canyon Cinema