The Gruesome Twosome

The Gruesome Twosome

I was pleased when Herschell Gordon Lewis' 'The Gruesome Twosome' arrived as it was one of the grandfather of gores films I hadn't yet seen (yes indeed, shame on me!)

The film opens in a slightly head scratching demented manner (even by H G Lewis standards) with two talking styrofoam display heads talking away inanely to each other in a display of either scene setting for the mentally challenged or just as a plain old time filler to beef up the films running time. Either way you'll be bewildered by the time the film starts proper but pleased when proceedings do indeed begin - our leads are the slightly barking mad Mrs Pringle who runs what she lovingly calls 'The Little Wig Shop' (supplying top quality real hair bouffant wigs) with the assistance of her simpleton son Rodney and her companion stuffed cat Napoleon (isn't that right Napoleon?)

Mrs Pringle's wigs are known for their quality and the secret of their excellence is the fact that Rodney scalps the wigs with great glee from screaming co-eds heads! Yes, young student girls from the local college campus are going missing (practically on a daily basis) when Mrs Pringle misguidedly snares them (under the old guise of 'room to let') and the local police (as ever in H G's films) don't have a clue what's going on! It is in fact the enquiring mind of amateur sleuth (and all round interfering busy body) Kathy that soon gets onto their murderous trail. Pesky Kathy quickly gets on everyones nerves (boyfriend, school chums, local police) with her meddling ways (even tailing and accusing the school janitor) whilst Rodney (complete with shiny new electric carving knife) continues his slobbering mayhem. Will Kathy uncover the truth in time or will she fall foul (most likely to everyones delight) to the Pringle's wig slaughter frenzy?

Basically you know what your getting when you press play with one of the H G Lewis's films - totally entertaining brainless, bad acted, gory fun! In 'Gruesome Twosome' you get a gory kill, some girls in their nighties, some more killing, stock car racing 'stock' footage, more killing, pesky kids, beach party, more killing...you get the idea eh? Lewis' films have always made me curious as to what the audience reaction would have been when these blood soaked gems unrolled on the Drive In screens when first released - the dreamer in me hopes that there was a generation of Ralph Malph and Potsies (ala 'Happy Days') whooping it up at the schlocko fun that unfurled in front of them as they were distracted from their dates to throw popcorn (in delight) at the screen. Cool!

Tartan have once again showed some commitment to this collection that is (as ever) worth some note - the print on show went through extensive restoration before being unleashed onto the market. Both the audio and image have been tweaked to make the presentation as near to its original state as possible and there is a very interesting example of this on the disc bonus features section (with 'before' and 'after' comparisons). That said, the restored print isn't perfect with a couple of moments of muffling in the audio and the odd print speckle is on show also - but this really is most likely the best you're ever going to see the film presented (well the film stock from 1967 probably played many of the aforementioned drive-in theatres across the mid west of the good old U S of A!)

Sadly, Tartan's UK release is without the audio commentary (included on the US release) but I can happily live without that as the seeing this get an fully uncut release here in the UK makes me more than happy. That's not to say there's not some bonus material included on the disc that should be of some interest - as per the rest of the collection there's some nice bio pages, a trailer reel of Lewis's movies and the Tartan Terror trailer selection. There's also some cool film notes by the ever busy Billy Chainsaw (boy he does get around) and of course the main features original trailer (which is a hoot in its own right).

Another commendable release from Tartan Terror and a gory laugh riot for low budget film fans everywhere. Get the beers and popcorn in - check it out! (Was that ok Napoleon?)

Review by Alan Simpson


 
Released by Tartan Terror
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Region 0 PAL DVD
Special features:
Theatrical Trailer, Film restoration clips, Billy Chainsaw Film Notes, Bio pages, H G Lewis Teaser Trailer, Tartan Terror trailer gallery.
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