What Became of Jack and Jill?

What Became of Jack and Jill is an extremely rare British psycho chiller, and a rather good film to boot. The film takes on the idea of 'murder for profit' and mixes it with a family theme and the idea of lazy youngsters not wanting to get a job. I do have to admit that the copy I saw was sourced from a very old VHS and thus the quality was rather shabby; but in spite of that, it's still clear to see that Bill Bain's film is very well made and effective, despite not having the luxury of a big budget and star names on the cast list. The film actually has nothing to do with the classic nursery rhyme - and I'm not sure where the title comes from considering the male lead's name is 'Johnny'. Anyway, we focus on a young man living with his grandmother, who just happens to be sitting on a fortune. Naturally, the grandson wants to get his selfish mits on this fortune and so does his girlfriend; so the two hatch a plot to send the grandmother insane; leading to her death and leaving the pair free to spend all her money. However, things do not exactly go to plan.

The film is actually quite slow and the plot very relaxed in terms of it's plotting; but while the film is not particularly exciting, the slow plot does benefit it in that we get time to know the characters and the situation to ensure that the film is always intriguing. The acting is fairly decent too with the three central performers doing well in their roles. Paul Nicholas ('Blind Terror') convinces in his role as the grandchild that wants his grandmother out of the way so he can enjoy life, while Vanessa Howard (the biggest standout in Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly) is ice cold as his scheming girlfriend. Mona Washbourne ('Fragment of Fear') rounds off the central cast and gives the only likable character of the whole piece. The film is much better while there are three leads in it; after the death of the grandmother, there's some amusement in the aftermath but the rest of the film doesn't live up to the promise of what went before it. Still, What Became of Jack and Jill, while not a classic, is certainly an interesting little film and it's worth a look if you can find a copy.

Jack lives with his elderly grandmother who he looks after . He hates this and resents caring for her . Along with Jill his gold digging girlfriend they hatch a plan to get rid of her

If the premise above reads as a bit too simplistic then you'd probably have a point . It's the old Shakespearian tragedy of a young weak greedy man listening too much to a slutty greedy woman and coming to regret it . However this isn't enough to to condemn the film as being bad in anyway and while it's not terribly good neither is it terribly bad , just a little bit predictable

The cast are somewhat one note with Paul Nicholas as a hip early 1970s young cat brooding that the best years of his life will revolve around looking after his elderly grandmother who he has murderous fantasies towards . Vanessa Howard plays Jill who is a bit too slutty to be entirely credible but if you're a hip young cat then the tail wags the dog if you know what I mean and Mona Washbourne plays Gran who despite being a coffin dodger isn't written or portrayed as being insufferably selfish , just old

The directing by Bill Bain is rather static and workman like which is not too surprising since most of his prior and subsequent work was in the field of television . One interesting aspect Bain does bring to the film is a cinematography featuring muted sepia tones which is the only real remarkable thing in an unremarkable film

This is one of those films almost no one living seems to have seen, yet remember. I only caught it once in '72 or '73 but found it great fun. An opportunistic young couple are after an elderly lady's money ... their plot & how they set it up is absorbing. This is a half-remembered movie, probably in line with the youth-oriented '70's American flicks like Three in the Attic and Wild in the Streets, which I would welcome enjoying again. It's not great, but it's very enjoyable "black humour".

If you are checking out this title here on IMDb, chances are you are a fan of Amicus productions and are searching for the very few titles that haven't made their way to DVD yet. I managed to get my hands on a copy of this one and watched it last night.

A 20-something loser who lives with his grandmother schemes to get rid of her so he can inherit the house and the big pile of money she's sitting on. With the help of his cold-as-ice girlfriend, he convinces poor Granny that a rising group of British youth are violently getting rid of all old people, making her last days as torturous as possible. That is basically the plot. There is no supernatural twist as I was expecting from an Amicus production. While the film does manage to generate sympathy for Granny, it doesn't do much else.

We've all seen this type of story play out many, many times before - Amicus themselves did a much better version in one of the stories in "Tales From The Crypt" with Peter Cushing, but with the plot-enhancing supernatural twist. Don't go out of your way to find this one guys, there is a reason why this is one hasn't been re-released yet.

I can understand why the late Vanessa Howard quit the business after this junk. But she married a millionaire.