Wednesday, June 8, 2016

The Undertaker and His Pals (1966)

An undertaker and his friends, who own a diner, decide to increase business by killing women.  The undertaker then offers the relatives of the deceased a burial for $144, but has them sign a contract with no price on it.  The reality is that when they are given a bill, the price is $1200 due to the incidentals, like using a coffin rather than a shipping crate.

The pay off for his friends is more sinister. They use parts of the victims to make meals in their diner. They remove the legs of the first victim, Sally Lamb, and the next day the diners special is leg of lamb - get it?   I'm not sure why it's a better business model to kill people rather than purchase food wholesale.  It seems like a bad idea all around, especially when the health inspector shows up.

Detective Harry Glass and his girlfriend /secretary Anne Poultry give the diner a try, which turns out to be a mistake.  Not only does Harry know the meat is not lamb, but after Harry introduces Anne to the owner, he's fixated on her last name.  That night Anne meets with a similar fate as Miss Lamb.  Harry is upset at her death but seems to move on rather quickly. He unintentionally pays for a bargain basement funeral and soon is on the trail of the killers.

This is a horror movie mixed with comedy. While some of it is black comedy, there are other jokes that are right out of the old films. For example, the picture of the first victims boyfriend changes expression when she is killed and again when her legs are chopped off.  It's a strange movie, but fits right in with other 60s films like Blood Feast.   The horror is 1960s standards so will only scare those not used to horror movies, but the killer bikers are pretty creepy.

if these guys were after me, I'd freak out



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