THE
GRUESOME TWOSOME (1968)
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Something Weird DVD
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.
— Joseph A. Ziemba, 01.26.04 |
And they talk
Chicken dance party
Montag, meet the chips
Revvin' Rodney
|
