Goodbye Gemini

This.seems to be a hangover from the swinging sixties.A very strange story and weird characters.It is difficult to know what Michael Redgrave is doing in this.The film is a total mess and wouldn't have advanced the career of anyone involved with it.

"Goodbye Gemini" has Nehru shirts, large ties, hair helmets and sideburns, old guys hanging around with young birds, wall-to-wall partying, a dash of transvestitism, a little incest, and an atmosphere of anything goes as long as it's outrageous. It could only be the Swinging Sixties, and as they say, if you remember them, you weren't there.

The film is hard to define. It's a thriller, but with a unique vibe. Julian (Martin Potter) and Jacki (Judy Geeson) are an unnaturally close twin brother and sister who play games and live in a make-believe world. As Michael Redgrave's character says, "They carry their own universe with them". But Julian has a stronger attraction towards his sister than she has for him.

When they move to London to live in a large house arranged for them by their father, things start to unravel. We learn that all is not right when Julian viciously gets rid of the housekeeper who is in charge of the household. With the run of the house, they gravitate towards the London pub and party scene.

They meet some unsavoury characters especially Clive (Alexis Kanner), a bi-sexual pimp whose sadistic streak threatens to destroy the pair. At a party, Jacki also encounters politician, James Harrington-Smith (Michael Redgrave) who helps her when her life spirals out of control. As Jacki and Julian attempt to free themselves from Clive, it leads to a violent murder and a bleak ending.

I first became aware of this movie when I bought the soundtrack record for a few dollars back in the 1980's. Apparently it became a bit of a collector's item before it was eventually released on CD. The music and songs catch the flavour of the 60's, and composer Christopher Gunning's lyrical main theme weaves its way through the film. Gunning is a brilliant composer, mainly for television, and hasn't done many films - this was his first - but he had great range; under the right circumstances, he could have been another John Barry.

If there is one reason to watch this film it is Judy Geeson. Cute and nymph-like, she breezes through the movie for much of the time in hip-hugging satin pants, captivating all the males around her whether young, old, or closely related.

The mood in the film changes just a little too abruptly in places, but it has a similar feeling of accumulating decadence to Joseph Losey's "The Servant" - although it takes its own course towards it's depressing, typical late 60's ending.

Beautifully filmed, "Goodbye Gemini" captures London at a certain time, but to be honest, with its offbeat story and slightly hysterical treatment, it's probably more of a novelty item these days.

Twins arrive in London on an overnight bus wearing matching fluorescent jackets and clutching a teddy-bear (always a sign of evil). They've not even unpacked their bags before they murder their new landlady and get invited to an inevitably swinging' party. Jacki (Judy Geeson) is the female half of the twins and looks lovely even in the aforementioned garment, which is more than can be said for Julian (Martin Potter). He's the possessive twin who swings both ways and whose love for his sister is less than wholesome. They attend a few parties, talk to their teddy and get mixed up with some menacing Earls Court transvestites, a liaison that leads to blackmail and murder.

There's nothing here that can really be called a narrative, it's more like someone thought a swinging London movie with a psycho tilt would be really groovy. However, the film is based upon Ask Agamemnon by Jenni Hall (no, I've never heard of it, either). Despite the wavering storyline it's a strangely compelling film with an admirable wildness. The cast are game, except Michael Redgrave who has the air of an actor unaccustomed to such material. The camera-work from Geoffrey Unsworth is as exceptional as ever, tut the psychotic tone is best summed up by The Peddlers funky theme song: ('when the world comes knocking') Tell The World We're Not In.

This is a very decent movie directed by Alan Gibson, who would later become a second-rate Hammer director responsible for such dreck as "Dracula AD 1972" and "The Satanic Rites of Dracula". It features Judy Geeson, at the height of her loveliness, and Martin Potter, one of the pretty-boys from "Fellini's Satyricon", as a pair of seemingly innocent fraternal twins who come to London and are preyed upon by a crowd of jaded hedonists led by a guy named Clive (who sports flaming red mutton-chops and the strangest English accent I have ever heard).

Most of the movie resembles a more serious version of Pete Walker's "Cool It, Carol", and probably a more historically accurate one too as far as the Swinging London Era of the 1960's is concerned. The movie then veers into psycho territory, however. The twins have an unusually symbiotic relationship and display some psychopathic tendencies, like playing a nasty prank that causes their landlady to fall down the stairs. In the most memorable scene they dress up in bedsheets with only their eyes showing and challenge Clive to tell them apart. The childish game shockingly winds up with an ornamental sword going through one person's neck and everything unravels from there. Some may find the sheer pathos and the unresolved ambiguity of the end a little frustrating, but it makes for a memorable movie is nothing else.

I'd recommend this period because it is genuinely unique movie, but if you like films about Swinging London like "Blow Up" or "Cool It, Carol", or British psycho movies like "Peeping Tom" or "Twisted Nerve" this one should be especially enjoyable

I'm beginning to develop a real aversion towards alleged cult-films that feature the words "...in swinging London..." in their synopsis. It seems like "swinging" is simply a poor excuse to bring forward insufferable lead characters, nonsensical and totally unrealistic storylines, and ridiculously random plot twists. "Goodbye Gemini" is one of the most disappointing movies I've ever seen, especially because it was coming from an adequate director (Alan Gibson of "The Satanic Rites of Dracula") and starring one of the most gorgeous actresses of British horror cinema (Judy Geeson of "10, Rillington Place" and "Fear in the Night").

Based on a book that I luckily haven't read - it's probably even ten times more boring than the film - the story revolves around twin siblings, Jacki and Julian, arriving in London. They are naïve, childish, and unnaturally obsessed with each other. Just because they are so 'otherworldly', annoying hippie Clive hopes to take advantage of them, but then the twins turn psychotic.

The first full hour of "Goodbye Gemini" is dull, irritating, and pointless. Then comes the one and only horror-highlight. And then the last half hour is terribly boring again, with a miserable climax.