Eating Raoul (1982)

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.

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.

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

Director
Paul Bartel

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