After years of working in the "Corman Factory" as both a director and actor, Paul Bartel was finally able, in 1982, to bring his pet project to the big screen - Eating Raoul. Considered one of the best "cult" films ever, Raoul has unfortunately been long out of print on video. Pack rat that I am, I happen to own a copy that was released by CBS/FOX during the early days of video, which I rescued from Movies Unlimited during one of their store closings. And let me tell you, if you ever find a copy yourself, just buy it. It's really worth it.

In the movie, Paul and Mary Bland are a hardworking couple with a dream - to own "Chez Bland", a restaurant in the country where Mary can cook and Paul can utilize his expertise in wine. Unhappily, they can never seem to save up enough money for that darn down payment. Worse, their apartment is in a building filled with "swingers", which disgust both of them. After a dismal day where Paul loses his job and Mary is hit on by a patient at the hospital (she's a nutritionist), a swinger loses his way from a party and winds up at the Bland's door. He attacks Mary, believing she is also a swinger, and Paul kills him with an iron frying pan. They find $600 in the dead man's wallet, which they keep and dump the body down the garbage chute. The next day, Mary tries to get a bank loan, but is propositioned by the perverted loan officer. She rebuffs him, and he throws her out. When she returns home, a lusty patient from the hospital arrives - he thinks Mary is a dominatrix - but Paul cools him off with the frying pan again. This time Paul and Mary find nearly $1000 in his wallet. They concoct a plan to lure perverts into their home and bump them off, stealing their money because nobody will miss the swingers. After having new lock installed by Raoul, they start their plan with much success. However, later that night, Raoul returns to rob them, and finds the bodies. He makes a deal with Paul and Mary - they can keep the cash, but Raoul gets the cadavers. They agree to his proposition.

More perverts, more frying pans. Paul remains suspicious of Raoul, but Mary takes quite a liking to him. In fact, after Raoul rescues her from one of the swingers, she makes love to him. Raoul, of course, threatens to tell Paul if she does not continue. Paul takes a day and follows Raoul, finding out that he sells the bodies for dog food. Paul tells Mary that Raoul is making a ton of money off them- not just from the bodies, but from the pervert's cars and possessions, too. Mary continues to defend Raoul, but Paul finds evidence is more than friendship between the two. Needing lots of cash quickly to buy their dream restaurant, Paul and Mary go to a swinger's party. They wind up electrocuting the entire guest list in the hot tub. Taking a page from Raoul, they manage to get rid of the evidence and make a tidy bundle in one fell swoop. But Raoul knows what they did, and is waiting back at the apartment. Will Paul and Mary ever open "Chez Bland"?

I don't think anyone out there doesn't know how this film ends - just look at the title. This is one of the best crafted, best acted and best written cult classics ever. Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov are absolutely perfect as Paul and Mary Bland. Robert Beltran is excellent as the scheming Raoul, and many Corman regulars like Buck Henry, Ed Begley, Jr. and Susan Sager help out as various swingers. In fact, the characters of Paul and Mary were so well liked by the actors that Bartel and Woronov reprised them in the horror flick Chopping Mall (a tribute to Corman film) several years later. Despite the low budget, there is an incredible sincerity in this film that rises above money limitations. You really get to like Paul and Mary, and want them to succeed, even if they do have to kill some perverts along the way. Some of the ideas, like Doris the Dominatrix at home with her child giving the Blands advice on swinging and the hot tub scene, are incredibly original and darn funny. Although somewhat dated (there's really not a big swinger crowd around 20 years later), Eating Raoul remains an astonishingly original film. This movie should be required viewing for anyone who professes a fondness for cult classics.