THE GRUESOME TWOSOME (1968)
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Something Weird DVD
Reviewed 01.26.04
Review by Joseph A. Ziemba

THE FILM
Padding: a dependable tool in the drawer of the b-movie handyman. Did your vampire epic fall a few minutes short of the distributor's required running time? Fill it with drag racing footage that intercuts with your actors making out -- the audience will never know!

With The Gruesome Twosome, Herschell Gordon Lewis combines his trademark gore (appearing quite grisly here, but obviously fake) with intentional comedy and lots and lots of padding. Now, I’ve seen a lot of padding in my day, all of it pretty awful and boring (Jerry Warren comes to mind). H.G. Lewis takes a different approach -- you won’t get any boring dialogue here. No, Herschell pads out his comedy/gore film with talking mannequin heads, grossly gratuitous potato chip eating, and go-go dancing while holding Kentucky Fried Chicken. This guy is a trash genius. I’ve only seen 11 of Lewis's 40+ films, but the more I see, the quicker he climbs to the top of the heap.

Old Mrs. Pringle owns a wig shop. She lives in a house adjacent to the shop with her mentally retarded son, Rodney. There’s a sign in the window of the shop that reads “Room For Rent,” and since it’s located near a college campus, many cute co-eds stop by to check it out. There’s a problem though. When they arrive, the girls find out that no such room exists! Gotcha! The wigs have gotta come from somewhere, right? Scalp ‘em up.

Of Lewis’ lesser known features, I found Gruesome to be one of the most entertaining. Let me count the ways...a somber surf guitar/cartoon music score, obvious KFC, Coke, and Michelob product placements, over the top high school non-acting, mannequin gore, actresses that blink and move their eyes after they’ve been covered with the red stuff, and all that glorious padding.

AUDIO AND VIDEO
The video quality is very nice. Full frame, crisp, and a colorful print. There’s the occasional scratch and jump, but it’s no biggie. The audio seems to have been recorded “in the red.” The dialogue is all distorted most of the time, but the music sounds clean.

EXTRAS
Here we have an excellent commentary from the man himself, Herschell Gordon Lewis, along with Something Weird’s Mike Vraney and Jim Maslon. If you’re familiar with H. G. Lewis commentary tracks, you know that they can be just as enjoyable as the films themselves. This one is no different, as the three discuss an entire year of film making during ‘67/’68 (when Herschell produced nine complete films!), the “Blood Shed” theater Lewis opened in Chicago, and everything you ever wanted to know about The Gruesome Twosome. Also included is a brilliant original theatrical trailer, a gallery of H.G. Lewis poster art, and a weird little short on how wigs are made in Europe and sold in the U.S.

FINAL THOUGHTS
This film reminded me of The Undertaker And His Pals: intentional comedy/gore from the late 60s that works. If you’re into the films of H.G. Lewis, chances are you’ll like this one. I did.

And they talk


Chicken dance party


Montag, meet the chips


Revvin' Rodney