The Undertaker and His Pals (1966)

Why so much hype?

Great Film overall

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Talking to a family about Horror movies that I've recently viewed,I was happily caught by surprise,when he passed me a Grindhouse double bill.Checking the running times,I found out that one of the titles was only 63 minutes long,which led to me deciding that it would be the perfect time to meet the undertaker.The plot:Breaking into her apartment,a biker gang kill Sally Lamb.At the funeral the undertaker reveals to the Lamb family that he had to give Sally plastic legs,due to the gang having chopped her legs off.As the funeral is taking place, detective Harry Glass visits a local café,where the special of the day is "Leg of Lamb."Finding the meat to taste odd,Glass starts to investigate the café,which opened shortly after the funeral parlour started to have a sudden rush in booming business.View on the film:Cut down from its original running time,writer/director T.L.P. Swicegood cooks up a bonkers mix of grisly splatter and Silent-Movie style skits.Made on a very low budget, Swicegood gives the screenplay a deep[ Black Comedy cut,as modern day Sweeney Todd's slaughter any dame that catches their sight.Whilst he stacks the bodies high, Swicegood gives the splashes of blood a washed-up,dry appearance.which gives the movie a rather strange Kitsch atmosphere,which is joined by very funny, wooden performances,as Glass meets the undertakers pals.

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.

The undertaker Ray Dannis saves what little entertainment there is to be had in this wildly uneven (I use the word loosely) "black comedy." His quirky character was a welcome respite from the dull or exploitation-style scenes he alternated with.There was much padding of scenes of motorcycles racing back and forth in murky, poorly-lit or filmed scenes...I won't mention their relevance.This could have been a lot better. The cast were plain vanilla and worse, the script and direction were generally weak. I'm not complaining about bad acting, of which there was enough, since that can add humor. A few scenes were amusing, but too many were just dumb and/or plodding. Substance-wise, this could have been condensed into a half-hour episode of an anthology like the old "Tales from the Darkside," since there was a lot of effort here to pad the running time.

I seem to remember watching this years ago on some wretched video copy and barely managing through the modest 63 minute running time. This time, however, and I'm thinking, how could I have possibly misjudged this little beauty. Okay, it is a little uneven, some of the film stock seems not to match and we go from day to night and back within some short sequences but it's heart is so very much in the right place. Oh yes, and another thing I seemed not to fully appreciate way back when, this is a comedy. Fairly black humour and pretty gory but from start to finish this is most amusing. All actors perform well, especially Ray Dannis as the camp undertaker and the film is generally well shot and a good pace is maintained. Lots of little amusing asides and full on jokes and an especially effective routine up and down the stairs towards the end. Fun, funny, violent and gory - in a nice way!