What Became of Jack and Jill?

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".

Although nowhere near as disturbing as Amicus thought, What Became of Jack and Jill is still pretty grim by the British standard of the day. The film would be a lot less without Vanessa Howard and not just for the obvious reasons, few actresses can play unhinged quite as well. Paul Nicholas is clearly doomed from the start as Johnnie and Mona Washbourne's Alice manages to be sympathetic without laying it on too thick. The whole thing looks drab beyond belief as if all the colour is slowing draining from the world, the Summer of Love isn't just over, it never happened.

I do not think that this film was released in the UK.It certainly has not made it out on DVD.It is a rather strange film.It takes an awful long time to get to its climax and when it does all you can think its"so what".In fact when the couple go into see the solicitor about the reading of the will you think ,rightly,from that moment on that everything is about to go downhill.It is difficult to know why the makers thought this film was worth making.It is not a horror film,it is not sexploitation it is not a mystery thriller,it is just a mess.One can only feel pity for dear old Mona Washbourne that she felt that she had to appear in this.Although only 69 when the film was made she looks absolutely dreadful.

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.

A stupid druggy and his dumb drugged-up girlfriend wants to kill his grandmother for her house and money. They are irritating as they can be. It's really easy to feel bad for the grandmother who's seemingly stuck with her awful and evil grandson caring for her. It's one of those films concerning youthism, power to the youth and down with the "oldies" (as said in the film).

The movie had a couple of moments of being a little bit interesting but kept falling flat after the "moments" each time. It's slow, boring mainly and the two youths are irritating as all hell. Let's just say I was unimpressed with the film for the most part.

2/10