The Undertaker and His Pals

You gotta love this flick about funeral homes and greasy spoon dinners.I'm sure there's a message here but who cares? Canabalism was never so funny.Maybe I'm sick,but I loved it.What's not to like when a fresh killed victims body part is offered as a daily special at the dinner as the rest is displayed at the funeral home.Sick,yes,but done with flair.

One of those movies that is more famous/infamous than it's good -- or even seen. TLP Swicegood's horror farce had such a gonzo title and ad campaign that the monster mags and genre books couldn't help but take note. It also got a longer than usual run at drive-ins and grindhouses helped no doubt by it's brief 63 minute run-time (which made it a perfect bottom of the bill flick for double and triple features).

Very much part of the first wave of true gore films in the 60s, it can't help but be compared to H. G. Lewis' movies of the era, particularly BLOOD FEAST. Like Lewis, Swicegood used humor to try and soften the grue in order to evade local censors. It was T. V. Mikels who gave the film its most fame when he bought it to accompany his CORPSE GRINDERS and THE EMBALMER as a triple feature - editing out some 15 to 20 minutes in the process. Like most of Lewis and Mikels' work, Swicegood's direction is so anemic that the bloody murders hardly make an impact outside of a chuckle or two (or revulsion to others). They certainly aren't suspenseful nor frightening.

The cast is made up largely of unknowns save for Robert Lowery in a bit part. Karen Ciral and Sally Frei had relatively brief careers as B movie starlets, while Ray Dannis as the title character had a slightly larger one, as did James Westmoreland. The actors give it their all (particularly Dannis), but the material is weak and the jokes are mostly sour and lame. A couple of gags land, but, it's mostly rough going. In this case, Mikels' slashing of footage is a gift to viewers.

It says a lot when the best part of the entire film is the closing credits, which further pull the rug out from audiences by winking at them. The sequence is actually genuinely amusing if far too little too late.

"The Undertaker and His Pals" is bizarre, but good for a giggle. It's a dark comedy -- I'm almost ashamed of myself for liking it, but do indeed like it despite myself because it's so off the wall. Yes, folks, cannibalism can be funny. "Mort" the Mortician goes to great lengths to preserve his business. The puns made me snicker despite myself.

My best friend and I stumbled across this while still in high school. It was at Blockbuster in the comedy section, and the title was so striking we felt obligated to rent it. After we got over the initial shock, we laughed out loud and ignored the gratuitous violence.

Nicely daft horror comedy with a nice dose of gore, straight from the middle of the sixties! Three motorcyclists seemingly select a victim at random, go to her house and stab her with knives before removing her legs. The victim's parents are then fleeced for cash by the local undertaker, but what connection does he have to the killings? And who are the two sinister guys at the local diner who have taken an interest in PI Harry Glass's assistant? It's up to Harry to get to the bottom of things, although in the end he doesn't do too much.

Full of gore (Hatchets through heads, a Fulci style chain whipping way before Don't Torture a Duckling, an acid bath)and bad humour (the 'meals' served at the diner, the Benny Hill style slapstick), plus buxom sixties babes, the Undertaker and His Pals is a prime slice of cheese served up with sly wink and is a treat for bad movie fans. The end credits say it all man.

Wow! Miracles like this film never cease to amaze me that they were ever produced. A trio of motorcyclist killers break into various apartments of beautiful, scantily clad females for the express purpose of butchering them with their knives, amputating legs, beating them to death with chains, and so forth. The film has its tongue firmly planted in cheek and never for one moment takes itself the least bit seriously. This film is more of a comedy(or what is suppose to pass for one) than a horror picture, however, due to the grisly deaths and gory glory splattered about the screen definitely has horror elements in the Herschell Gordon Lewis tradition. The film is an oddity and I can say I have never seen anything quite like it. Despite all the bad acting, complete lack of plot, incredibly bad puns and gags, the violence for the sake of violence attitude, and the general cheesiness of the film, the picture is somewhat entertaining. I admit this with guilt as the entire premise of the film is, using understatement, vulgar. Some of the jokes work while most fail. The use of people's last names for the entrees served in the diner were inventive such as leg of lamb and breast of chicken. The changing picture of the boyfriend sailor in the introductory segment made me laugh as did the pacing of the silent movie music when the undertaker chases Thursday(yes a character named after a day who replaces her missing twin sister Friday). Don't look for any kind of sense, however, for it will be a search in vain. The best part of this whole film for me is the movie's tagline, which has to be one of the best ever!