Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.0

The Gruesome Twosome Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 24, 2016

Note: This film is available as part of The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast.

Mention the initials “H.G.” to most people, and my hunch is virtually everyone will default to thinking about H.G. Wells, the legendary author whose science fiction masterpieces resulted in such memorable films as The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr. Moreau and War of the Worlds. Certain fans who have a slightly different definition of what constitutes a memorable film might have a variant reaction to those same initials, however, positing one Herschell Gordon Lewis instead of Mr. Wells. Lewis has long been known by the sobriquet “Godfather of Gore,” and his early exploitation pictures were, for their day, amazingly overt in their depiction of what ultimately came to be called “splatter”. Lewis, who only just fairly recently died at the age of 90, had an interesting if not especially distinguished career, though it’s notable that Lewis maintained a more than abundant sense of humor about his films and his contributions to the supposed art of cinema. Lewis’ filmography (it’s a bit of a stretch to actually call it an oeuvre) hasn’t been especially well served in the Blu-ray era, though there have been at least a few releases of his work, including The Blood Trilogy, The Wizard of Gore / The Gore Gore Girls and The Lost Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis. Now, in what amounts to an elegy of sorts for Lewis, Arrow Video has assembled what will certainly go down in the annals of the Blu-ray era as one of the most lavish deluxe sets produced, at least within the confines of what can only be accurately described as “cult cinema”. Along with a collection of fourteen films (nine making their Blu-ray debut), Arrow also includes a glut of bonus content (some with Lewis’ involvement), as well as impressive packaging and non disc supplements.

In doing background research on all of the films in the huge Lewis set, I was kind of amused to see that there was “another” Gruesome Twosome back in the day, a 1945 Warner Brothers cartoon directed by Bob Clampett and featuring the adorable if often threatened Tweety Bird. I’d probably not be going too far out on a limb to suggest that Herschell Gordon Lewis’ 1967 opus The Gruesome Twosome is probably not that much less cartoonish than an actual animated short, and in fact this film starts with a kind of stop motion-esque sequence that features two styrofoam heads adorned with wigs discussing what’s about to unfold. Lewis fans will no doubt feel this is way down the list of surreal moments in his work output.

The basic premise of The Gruesome Twosome is rather similar to Color Me Blood Red, at least insofar an element from human beings is utilized to create something else. In Color Me Blood Red, it was of course blood, utilized to create a distinctive red hue for an artist’s paintings, while here it’s human hair which is used to make wigs which are sold at an emporium run by a Mrs. Pringle (Elizabeth Davis). Mrs. Pringle has obvious issues, but she’s not the only Pringle to be so afflicted—there’s her simpleton son Rodney (Chris Martell), a hulking brute whom Mrs. Pringle uses to off a series of young women who come to rent rooms from her but who are soon victims in her attempt to craft wigs of lasting value.

A coed named Kathy (Gretchen Welles) starts poking around the Pringles’ abode to try to find out what has been happening to a number of her classmates, and of course she becomes a new damsel in distress. It’s hard sometimes to figure out if Lewis is actually playing things for laughs, or simply was too ham fisted to actually play things for anything other than laughs, but it’s undeniable that despite some squirm worthy plot points, The Gruesome Twosome is almost weirdly whimsical at times. It’s not the bloodiest of Lewis’ mid- to late sixties output, but it’s got an oddball charm (yes, charm) that makes it enjoyable on its own decidedly lo-fi merits.

The Gruesome Twosome Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arrow has included some general verbiage about the transfers in this set:

All film materials sourced for restoration were scanned in 2K resolution on a pin registered 4K Lasergraphics Director Scanner at Deluxe Media, Burbank. Film grading and restoration was completed at Deluxe Restoration, London. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and light scratches were removed through a combination of digital restoration tools. Overall image stability and density fluctuation was also improved when possible.

The original mono soundtracks were transferred from 35mm prints by Deluxe Audio Services, Los Angeles, and were conformed and restored at Deluxe Restoration, London.

Additional audio conform for How to Make a Doll and Just for the Hell of It by David Mackenzie.

Although the best existing elements were sourced for this project and every attempt was made to present the films in this collection in the highest quality possible, some of the films still exhibit varying degrees of damage that could not be digitally repaired to our satisfaction. The condition of the existing materials for Moonshine Mountain, The Gruesome Twosome, How to Make a Doll and This Stuff'll Kill Ya all contained extreme levels of dirt, scratches and debris as well as many instances of torn or missing frames. They all exhibited heavy degrees of colour fading as well. Likewise, the print sections sourced to complete A Taste of Blood were both faded and heavily scratched. Throughout the restoration workflow process, our priority was to retain the original photochemical look of the films rather than create unwanted digital artefacts by heavy handed picture cleanup. Therefore, many of the films in this collection exhibit "warts and all" appearance, in keeping with their distribution history and physical condition.

Restoration supervised by James White, Arrow Films.

Additionally, this film comes with the following disclaimer:

The Gruesome Twosome has been exclusively restored for this release by Arrow Films. The film was restored in 2K resolution from a combination of 35mm prints, as the original negative has been lost. Due to the extremely poor condition of the film elements available, this presentation exhibits extreme colour fading that could only be corrected to a minimal degree through digital grading. This presentation also includes occasional instances of damaged and missing frames that were impossible to restore digitally. There is occasional loose audio synch but this is as per the original source materials.

The Gruesome Twosome is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. While there are moments where this transfer looks relatively decent, unfortunately all of the issues detailed in the above disclaimer are present in abundance. There are some very large green scratches which regularly mar the proceedings, and the color is typically very faded, variably suffused, and often pretty brown looking (though it occasionally perks up a bit). There are other issues with damage that have not been ameliorated in any significant way. Grain is coarse looking but encounters no real resolution issues.

The Gruesome Twosome Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Gruesome Twosome's LPCM mono track has some of the same issues as the video in terms of brief missing snippets, but it's also hobbled by quite a bit of hiss and slight distortion, especially in the upper registers. Still, some of the harpsichord and weirdly James Bond-ish orchestral cues sound reasonably full bodied. Dialogue is generally clear but also encounters some mild distortion in the upper registers.

The Gruesome Twosome Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow has packaged this set a little unusually, with two films per disc and one set of supplements for both movies available from a main menu. While some of the supplements are obviously geared toward one individual film, others are a bit more general in nature, and so I'm listing the complete supplemental package for each particular disc rather than for each individual film. The supplements for The Gruesome Twosome and A Taste of Blood are:

• Peaches Christ Flips Her Wig! (1080p; 9:54) features San Francisco performance artist Peaches Christ discussing The Gruesome Twosome.


• It Came From Florida (1080p; 10:48) features Fred Olen Ray discussing filmmaking in Florida.


• H.G. Lewis vs. the Censors (1080i; 7:43) features Lewis discussing his skirmishes with various "moral authorities".


• Promo Gallery

  The Gruesome Twosome Trailer (1080p; 2:44)

  A Taste of Blood Trailer (1080p; 1:24)

  The Gruesome Twosome Radio Spot (1:07)

Audio Commentaries

The Gruesome Twosome Commentary features Herschell Gordon Lewis.

A Taste of Blood Commentary features Herschell Gordon Lewis.

• Herschell Gordon Lewis Introduction to The Gruesome Twosome (1080p; 1:05) is available under the play menu for that film.


• Herschell Gordon Lewis Introduction to A Taste of Blood (1080p; 1:42) is available under the play menu for that film.

The Gruesome Twosome Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Gruesome Twosome actually has one of the more promising premises of a Lewis film, but it can't overcome some of the typical Lewis ineptitude and hyperbole. Technical merits are problematic, but the supplementary material is very good.