G.B.H. (1983) User Reviews

"More Brutal" than The Long Good Friday...REALLY?

[TVM-Liveforever · 6/10 · 3 May 2015]

Donavon is released from prison and is hired as a bouncer to protect a nightclub from a violent London gang.

Obscure early British shot on video gang thriller that is much better than you might think. Acting is quite shaky to say the least, some of the direction/shot choices is on a par with home movies and the less said about the editing the better, but somehow none of that matters because it remains a watchable and fairly entertaining low-budget film. Writing has some wonderfully funny lines- "I didn't know this was a gay bar, it's not, what about those 2 p**fs at the end of the bar then" brilliant, the pic is also littered with fairly laughable plot points like falling in love after a couple of hours, being beaten into a pulp and then in the next scene walking around without a mark on them. The romance is very funny/ridiculous but adds to the overall charm of it all as does the lounge music that plays throughout, its not bad but doesn't fit with the violent scenes on screen. The violence itself is fairly entertaining in an unconvincing way, a lot of it misses its mark but there is a couple of graphic shots that are a bit more convincing and the final scenes are surprisingly very good.

As far as I'm aware this has only ever had one release on the World Of Video 2000 tape label in 1983 with the tagline more brutal than The Long Good Friday, well not quite, this release was added to the Section 3 nasties list of seize-able titles here in the UK, but the film is a hell of a lot better than it has any right to be. Obviously made with little money & resources but by people who were out to make as entertaining a film as they could and were as successful as they could've hoped.

He's the man man...man Mancunian man

[gavcrimson · 23 June 2005]

GBH was one of pornographer David Grant's acquisitions as he ventured into the video age having formed the World of Video 2000 label in the early Eighties. Typically audacious World of Video 2000 gave GBH an unforgettable blood splattered video sleeve, while the back cover carried the bold claim that 'The Long Good Friday set a new and exciting trend in British films. Following right on its heels is GBH' GBH is a zero-budget, crime opus that begins as it means to go on with London crime boss Keller and his two heavies beating up a nightclub bouncer, who for his troubles receives a thump in the face and a kick in the balls. Across town Murray a bald headed nightclub owner is afraid Keller will be paying him a visit next. "There is one man who'd stand up to him" Murray tells one of his staff, and that man is of course 'The Mancunian'. Cue the opening credits which appear alongside aerial views of Manchester concluding with shots of Strangeways Prison. From there local tough guy 'The Mancunian' emerges after a six month stretch. Known to his friends as Steve Donovan, The Mancunian is looking to leave his former existence as a bouncer behind him and start a new life with his girlfriend Sue. Unfortunately Donovan's fantasy of a peaceful life shatters when its revealed Sue has sold everything and moved to another town. "Bleeding women" seethes Donovan "no wonder there are so many queers". Easily pleased Donovan agrees to go to work as one of Murray's bouncers in exchange for a white tux and a house in Bury that could double as an old people's home. At Murray's place Donovan deals with confronting rich kids who scoff at paying the admission price, beating up men who sport mullets and breaking up randy teenagers. Naturally Donovan and Keller are destined to lock horns, resulting in car chases, punch ups and shootouts, leaving Manchester a black and bluer place as a result.

The GBH cast is a curious but enthusiastic bunch seemingly comprised of female dancers borrowed from the covers of Hallmark's Top of the Pops LPs, local gym enthusiasts and stuntmen, as well as semi-pro regional actors who tend to turn up in bit parts in Coronation Street. Anthony Shaeffer, a one time voice-over man for 3-2-1, gives value for money as jittery club owner Murray, but Jerry Harris -apparently a stand-up by trade -is nothing short of brilliant as crime boss Keller, a crooked, obscenity spewing windbag who can only look on as his empire comes crumbing down (giving the film its tentative link to The Long Good Friday).

Yet while cheeky Cockney Harris is the scene stealer here, GBH was an all round labour of love for a certain Mr. Cliff Twemlow who plays Donovan. Twemlow who was also a horror novelist (penner of paperbacks The Beast of Kane and The Pike) was in fact the films driving force and coordinated the stunts, produced, and wrote the script all under a variety of movie-buff pseudonyms. As 'John Agar' Twemlow proves a dab hand at composing GBH's soundtrack marrying soppy ballads to the 'sensitive' bits and having pulsating disco music act as a prelude to a punch-up or a car chase. Particularly catchy is his character's theme tune "hey woman don't go looking at him, he's got eyes full of lust and a heart full of sin…. He's the man…man...man…Mancunian man". Twemlow's life experience credentials for playing such a rough and tumble character are beyond doubt. His autobiography published around the time of the films release was called 'Tuxedo Warrior: Tales of a Mancunian Bouncer' and in an actor/character identification the book's cover is illustrated by a shot of Donovan on the rampage from GBH. Twemlow's script offers some unique attempts at incorporating spaghetti Western themes into a Manchester setting- casting himself in the Eastwood/Man with No Name mode of 'The Mancunian' who walks into town and puts paid to the bad guys- as well displaying a good Ian Dury like ear for the vulgar ("when they put teeth in your mouth they ruined a good ar*e" Donovan tells Keller). A film not without a sense of humour about itself, there is an enjoyable self-mocking quality at the heart of GBH, with Twemlow gamely refusing to exclude himself from the jokes, taking jibes about his age and being an unlikely fifty something babe magnet on the chin, and then of course there is the revelation that his tough as nails character spends his nights snuggled up to an over-sized teddy bear named Yogi! Somehow Twemlow manages to poke fun at himself while at the same time proving his worth as a credible action hero and has a world weary charisma, believable as a fundamentally decent guy at heart who is what he is in order to survive in a tough world. Cliff Twemlow is highly likable.

GBH begat a whole number of David Kent-Watson directed Twemlow vehicles that continued up until Twemlow's death in 1993. Especially entertaining is The Eye of Satan, a 1988 horror/action hybrid that somehow incorporates a South African voodoo cult, Manchester duck hunters, the kidnapping of a gangster's daughter and an Arab arms dealer into the same plot and has Twemlow playing a devil worshipping mercenary in a performance that is equal parts Mike Raven and The Terminator. The early Nineties also produced a GBH sequel that saw the majority of the cast reprise their roles nearly ten years on.

GBH may be decisively Low-Fi, being alongside the likes of Sexy Secrets of the Kissogram Girls and Suffer Little Children one of the earliest British films to be shot on videotape, but always manages to win audiences over on the strength of the film's and Twemlow's personality. Fondly remember from the days of early video rentals its the cherry on the cake of the late, great Twemlow's two fisted legacy of action films and horror paperbacks.

dull flick but with some names who became famous

[trashgang · 3/10 · 9 April 2012]

Searching for rare flicks I came across this one. It was directed by David Kent-Watson, known in Britain as a cult director. This was his second flick and is still OOP and even rare to come across on VHS.

It shows why it became a rare flick to get, it is extremely slow and the acting is also one that wont win any prices. Clearly to see is that it is a low budget. There's a lot of overdub used especially in the part of the fighting scenes. And they used the same mourning and hitting over and over again. One thing that surprised me was some full frontal nudity in a sex scene but don't think that it is watchable. It's as cold as ice. Donocvan, the main lead played by Cliff Twemlow was seen a lot as writer and actor in flicks directed by Kent-Watson. The funniest thing is that Cliff was uncredited for music composer on Romero's Dawn Of The Dead (1978). Tracy played by Jane Cuncliffe went further to Coronation Street and The Bill but maybe the biggest name was John Saint Ryan as seen in the cult flick American Cyborg (1993) and a lot of series.

So for some it will be a hunt to see these young actors in this dull flick. It's only until the end, the last 10 minutes, that it is worth watching and even still then it's terrible with cheap effects. Also worth listening is the score used an the watch the scene's at 'The Zoo' were they are dancing. Maybe one shot is worth mentioning for the red stuff towards the end of the flick.

Hard to get G.B.H. and it shows why but worth watching for the reasons mentioned above.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 0,5/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Not for the squeemish... My @ss

[ronnievanrijswijk · 3/10 · 10 February 2024]

Based on the the front cover, which shows a blood covered man holding an axe. And the tag line "Not for the squeemish" i expected some of the good old ultra violence, honestly i feel ripped off. What you get is a boring wannabe gangster movie which takes place in a discoteque most of the time with awful scenes of people dancing which irritated the hell out of me, and this Steve who used to be a tough guy now stars as a bouncer at the club. Some guys threaten to take over the club and there are a few fist fights, nothing really explicit, there is a little bit of bloodshed near the end which are the best parts if you ask me. Someone gets stabbed in the hand, with a little bit of bloodspray in the camera. And we get a shootout during the finale, which is the best part of this 70 minute borefest. And the axe scene which you see on the front of the vhs sleeve... they only took that photo to make the movie look graphic, in the end it all sucks. There are far more better and superior gangster movies like Rise of The Footsoldier for example.

This is flipping great from start to finish

[benhume1972 · 8/10 · 29 April 2020]

This is way better than it should be.

I couldnt stop watching ... really good fun ...

A Tribute To Guy Morgan: GBH (1983).

[DoorsofDylan · 10/10 · 11 March 2024]

Before he tragically passed away suddenly from a brain aneurysm at just age 46 on March 11th 2019, this had been a title that family friend Guy Morgan regularly talked about, since I had been able to track the film down for Guy online in Christmas 2018.

One thing I vividly recall, is Guy saying that he was unable to take his eyes off the screen, due to how utterly strange this movie is. Along with watching Guy's all time favourite film again: The Thing (1982-also reviewed), I decided to pay tribute on the anniversary of Guy's death, by meeting Cliff Twemlow for the first time.

View on the film:

Barging in as his theme song Mancunian Man blurs into a wah-wah Funk rip-off of John Barry's theme for On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969-also reviewed), the love to put Manchester on the big screen, that stuntman/composer/ writer/lead actor Cliff Twemlow has, shines as brightly as the love Tony Wilson had in making the city a star on the music scene.

Working as a nightclub bouncer, Twemlow & director David Kent-Watson attempt to cut through the warm VHS fuzz and give the nightclubs a dangerous glamour, via gliding panning shots over the floor of the Zoo nightclub whilst Donovan charms all the ladies, going outdoors to shoot-outs on the rooftop of The Rainbow Rooms.

Inbetween unexpected homo-erotic slo-mo seqrences and illegal hand-held camera-moves on the streets of Manchester, (where locals look straight at the camera, as they walk through scenes of Donovan talking to gangsters) and despite the editing looking like it was done with a nail gun, the action set-pieces shine with a fantastic homemade quality.

Rolling from close-ups of Donovan's toned abs withstanding any punches thrown at it, Kent-Watson and Twemlow keep the delightfully amusing on a roll, jumping from tomato sauce blood being spread across the screen with each thump Donovan hands out to a local heavy, to a hilarious awkward attempt at a car chase.

Surrounded by wonderful local faces as thugs, (including a snarling John Saint Ryan as John Saint Ryan) Twemlow shines in his performance as Donovan, visibly appearing happy when saying one of the 007-style one-liners that he had written whilst beating up gangsters.

Referencing Charles Bronson in his rough and ready screenplay, Twemlow takes his own nightclub bouncer background, into a wish fulfillment territory, where Donovan gets the girls with a smile, and becomes a one man army, fighting to save the night clubs of Manchester.