Middle-class Los Angeles couple Paul and Mary Bland (brilliantly portrayed by coauthor and director Paul Bartel and Warhol superstar Mary Woronov) finance their dream restaurant by advertising for wealthy swingers and then killing them off during sex for their cash.
It begins when a drunken lecher from an orgy down the hall in their apartment building wanders into their apartment and tries to rape Mary. Paul dispatches him with a bop on the head from a cast-iron skillet.
The resourceful Blands go through the corpse’s pockets and find hundreds of dollars. An idea is born.
After taking out an ad in a local sex tabloid, a variety of perverts descends on the Blands’ apartment – by appointment of course – to play out their fantasies, but Paul is always there with his trusty skillet before any of them can get to first base with Mary (well, almost always).
Handyman and Chicago conman Raoul (Robert Beltran of Star Trek: Voyager fame) muscles in on the action and demands a cut of the action by selling the bodies to a dog food factory.
He also develops a mad crush on Mary (“my Chiquita”) and a triangle begins to form. Raoul wants Mary to run away with him, and he decides to kill Paul, but Mary, who loves her husband despite everything, kills Raoul with the frying pan instead.
Their real estate agent, who is helping them buy their restaurant, is scheduled to come over for dinner that night, and with very little time to prepare anything, the homicidal couple cook Raoul and serve him to their guest, who remarks on how good the meal is.
Paul thanks him and says, “It’s amazing what you can do with a cheap piece of meat if you know how to treat it.”
A cute offbeat social black comedy, hilariously sending up California culture and executed with sadistic glee by all concerned, including Buck Henry and Ed Begley Jr.
In a way, the most moral character in the film is Doris the Dominatrix (Susan Saiger), a single mother who seems very middle-class until she dons her leather gear and humiliates her customers at their request. It’s just a job to her, capitalism at its finest.
Although a sequel, Bland Ambition, was planned, Bartel turned his cult sleeper into an off-Broadway musical instead in 1992.
Paul Bland
Paul Bartel Mary Bland
Mary Woronov Raoul
Robert Beltran Doris the Dominatrix
Susana Saiger Hippy
Ed Begley Jr Bobbie R
Dan Barrows James
Richard Blackburn Paco
Ralph Brannen Mr Leech
Buck Henry
It begins when a drunken lecher from an orgy down the hall in their apartment building wanders into their apartment and tries to rape Mary. Paul dispatches him with a bop on the head from a cast-iron skillet.
Their real estate agent, who is helping them buy their restaurant, is scheduled to come over for dinner that night, and with very little time to prepare anything, the homicidal couple cook Raoul and serve him to their guest, who remarks on how good the meal is.
