The Gruesome Twosome

"The Gruesome Twosome" has a simple plot. Old Mrs Pringle (Elizabeth Davies) lives in a lovely little house just outside a Miami University Campus and runs a high quality wig shop from within it. Her son, Rodney (Chris Martell), who's a little simple in the head, helps her out. His speciality is procuring the real human hair that goes into making these wonderful wigs. Unfortunately for the local students, this involves the brutal killing and scalping of every beautiful young girl who is lured into the house under the pretense of finding a room to rent. But hey, don't blame Rodney, it's not his fault - he's a child trapped in a man's body and his domineering Mother dearest (accompanied at all times by her stuffed bobcat, Napoleon) continually threatens him with the prospect of being sent to "the place where bad boys go" if he doesn't carry out her murderous desires.

Sounds from that like it could be one of a million naff exploitation movies churned out by the late 60's but this one has the distinction of being directed by the undisputed king of the genre, Herschell Gordon Lewis. As a result the film is loaded with the same kind of screwball, absurdist humour as found in his "She Devils On Wheels" opus (shot virtually back to back with this'un), mixed in with the trademarked ultraviolence of his earlier splatterfests. Hilariously, as revealed in the commentary on the recent DVD release of this, much of the humour was derived unintentionally from the fact that they shot far too little footage on the set and were forced to pad out the 75 minute running time with lingering scenes of very bizarre activity that was never in the original script. For example, the film opens with a camp 7 minute conversation between two wig blocks painted to look like garish pink Mr Potato Heads. We also have an outlandish, almost dadaist "film within a film" sequence at the Drive-In in which a young female tries to seduce a gluttonous Ray Sagar ("The Wizard Of Gore") who is more concerned with squashing peaches and stuffing his face with potato chips than he is with her wily charms. However, even discounting the unintentional comedy resulting from the timing mix-ups, Lewis still manages to cram in plenty of deliberate gags from his cast of kooky, colourful characters. We have a quirky heroine, Cathy Baker (played by the delicious model/actress Gretchen Welles), who is an overzealous and fairly inept Nancy Drew type attending the local university and is forever trying and failing to solve mini-mysteries, such as the whereabouts of her friend's pet parrot (she believes they ate it the previous day in a pot pie!). We have a creepy caretaker on campus who happens to be a bone smuggler (!) when he leaves work. We have extended scenes of pseudo-go-go dancing from the female students (including one where they all bop around waving legs of Kentucky Fried Chicken, as part of a product placement agreement Lewis scored with the fast food chain who, in turn, fed the entire cast and crew!). To cap it all off, we're even treated to a bikini beach party scene *AND* a stock car demolition derby! Anyone seeking prime 60's trash will be in Heaven here!

But it's not all fruitcake comedy. Gorefiends will delight in the extended sequences of scalpings, decapitations, disembowellings and eyeball gougings, shot in squishy, sickening close-up and rich with Lewis' beloved "red glop". It's strange that even over 30 years on from the Godfather Of Gore's heyday, no one has, in my mind, been able to out-gross him on the slippery viscera scale. The violence in "The Gruesome Twosome" is as stomach-wrenching today as it was in 1967.

Whilst not as seminal as "Blood Feast", as shocking as "2000 Maniacs" nor as trashy as "She Devils On Wheels", "The Gruesome Twosome" is nonetheless probably Lewis' weirdest finished product and, as a result, an essential part of his oeuvre. It's obvious from the DVD commentary that he still views the film with great affection and you should too. It's a gem.

Gruesome Twosome, The (1967)

** (out of 4)

An elderly woman and her deranged son kill young women so that they can scalp them in order to put their hair in a wig shop. As is normally the case with a Lewis film, this one here is very short on plot but as an early splatter film goes, the gore does come off is fun red style. This is certainly a poorly made film with awful performances, bad dialogue and questionable direction but that doesn't really matter as what the film delivers is nostalgic fun. The film, as bad as it is, is a lot of fun because of how cheaply made it is and how much fun the director has with the gore. The gore effects are so obviously done but they remain fun just because of how fresh and at times original they are. One must remember that Lewis didn't have anything to copy off of so he was pretty much coming up with this stuff as he went along. If one is looking for a horror film to shock and scare them then this certainly isn't your movie but if you want a classic example of drive-in trash then this film remains fun.

Mrs. Pringle and her half-witted, needs-to-be-institutionalized son Rodney run a small business called the Little Wig Shoppe, which is also next to a room they "rent" out to beautiful college co-eds with long hair. Of course at Mrs. Pringle's establishment only 100% human hair is used. Does she then buy a lot of hair? Don't bet on it. Her son uses a knife(and later an electric carving knife) to scalp these girls for their hair and also various organs(Thursday is Napoleon's night for liver). That's right, I forgot to mention the third member of this happy little family. His name is Napoleon, and he is a stuffed Lynx(or Bobcat). Mrs Pringle talks to Napoleon throughout the whole picture. Business is booming for Mrs. Pringle till a young girl decides to investigate the disappearance of her long-haired friend out searching for an apartment. As far as Herschell Gordon Lewis flicks go, this one is decidedly a notch above films like Two Thousand Maniacs, The Wizard of Gore, and Color Me Blood Red. It has the best acting in it that I have seen for any of his films, not good but almost average! Ronnie Cass plays the demented mother with a likable camp. The film is also one of Lewis's better shot films in terms of direction. Sure we have a ridiculous scene in the beginning with two styrofoam heads with painted faces and wigs talking, but the film has a pretty good pace throughout. Am I saying this is good? No, but is it very entertaining. It also has some pretty good music in it, "Right Napoleon?" As for the gore, it's there but there really is not a lot of it and it fortunately never reaches the hyperbolic level of Lewis's The Wizard of Gore.

The Gruesome Twosome is another excuse for splatter pioneer H.G.Lewis to paint the screen red with gore, and this he does with several messy murders of hot young women, whose hair is destined to be turned into wigs by batty shop owner Mrs. Pringle (Elizabeth Davis).

In between the grisly but not very convincing killings (a scalping, a decapitation, and a disembowellment, all performed by Mrs. Pringle's mentally disabled son Rodney), Lewis treats the viewer to lots of inconsequential padding solely designed to take his film to feature length.

Amongst the craptabulous filler on display: a bizarre pre-credits sequence involving two talking styrofoam heads wearing wigs; snoopy student Kathy (Gretchen Wells) tailing the college janitor, who she believes to be responsible for several disappearances on campus; Kathy and her sorority pals gyrating to groovy music while eating KFC; a drive in movie that features crisp munching and fruit fondling; a beach party; and some stock car racing.

With its grainy picture, terrible sound, amateurish acting, cheap effects, bad editing and basic direction, The Gruesome Twosome is par for the course for a Lewis movie. If you're a fan of the man's work, you'll probably dig this as well. If you've no great love for HGL's unique style, this one is unlikely to change your mind.

4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for all the lovely young ladies.

Look if this was the first Herschell Gordon Lewis movie I'd ever seen it would probably be the last. Luckily I've seen his blood trilogy so I can't dismiss him entirely, but this is easily the weakest of his movies I've seen. The script (by the 'Blood Feast' writer) is trash, and while the movie only goes on for 70 minutes it really drags on and is full of unnecessary padding. Some of this padding is quite odd, such as the opening talking wigs sequence, and the gratuitous KFC eating go-go dancing bit (an early bit of product placement from Lewis), but mostly it's dull. I will admit that the handful of gore sequences are quite realistic for Lewis (that is certainly not always the case!), and Chris Martell makes an okay baddie in the Arch Hall Jr mold, but he doesn't get anywhere as much screen time Elizabeth Davis who is awful, unfunny and totally irritating. Acting in Lewis movies is very variable to say the least, but 'The Gruesome Twosome' has one of the most untalented casts I've ever seen. So, the verdict is only watch this if you are a Lewis obsessive, otherwise newcomers should avoid this one and go straight to 'Two Thousand Maniacs!' or 'Color Me Blood Red' which tie as his best two gore movies.