Customer Reviews

The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant/The Thing With Two Heads

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is certainly a double feature if I've ever seen one! Both films deal with the still unapproved surgical procedure of grafting a second head onto a human body. Just imagine how many lives will be saved when science finally gets this far. The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant is first on the bill. It's awfully funny, though it seems to be taking itself seriously. Wacky scientist, fired and disgraced from his surgeon job(for reasons never explained) decides to show the medical world he's worth something by creating a two-headed man. Sounds simple enough, he already has numerous two-headed animals. When an escaped rapist/killer tries to assault the doctor's wife, the doctor blows him away and sticks the head onto the local retarded handyman. Neither men consent to this. The operation is a success, and it certainly is incredible-incredibly stupid, that is. The doctor and his assistant actually seemed surprised that the thing goes on a killing spree after it escapes. I guess the doctor didn't think that he had just revived the head of the guy who tried to rape his wife. And to add to the fun, Casey Kasem is in it too! Some of the editing looks like this could have been a lost Russ Meyer movie...minus the boobs of course.
Next on the double bill is The Thing With Two Heads. This time the movie is going for laughs, and does succeed in a few spots. Though it's less serious, the explanation of grafting a second head is more believable this time. This is definately a career low for Ray Milland, who is established early on as a racist surgeon. He doesn't want to hire a black doctor even though he has a great reputation. Milland is dying of cancer and wants a body donor from death row to graft his head onto, then after his head adjusts to the body, remove the convict's head and replace it with his own. With time running out for Milland and only one donor, it turns out to be a black man who has other plans-he wants to clear his name of the crime he was accused of. Lots of chasing, including a long motorcycle chase where a record number of police cars are trashed. So, get yourself Domino's two for one pizza deal, kick back and enjoy the two-headed double feature.

The brilliance of AIP was that they didn't merely make an indie film - like Miramax, they made Indie genres. Any other studio would be happy with only one Two headed creature movie on the slate. But Sam Arkoff knew that a year later, the drive-in audience would be begging for a second - second head film. I remember as a kid hearing about these amazing films.

Who would imagine that Casey Kasem and Bruce Dern would be acting against each other in "The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant." But they're not sharing heads in this classic. Arkoff knew that the audience wanted to see a two headed superstar in the second flick and a year later, he gave us "The Thing With Two Heads" featuring Oscar winner Ray Milland and football superstar Rosie Grier sharing a body and a motorcycle.

And for Munster fans, you get to see Pat Priest.

The great part about the Midnite Movie Double Features series is that you get entire 2 headed grafted 70s genre in one box.

Where did people get the idea for silly movies like these? Who knows. Both flicks are about putting two heads on one body. Why is this an important scientific advance that will benefit humanity? You tell me and we'll both know.

"The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant", despite the idiocy of its premise, is actually a fairly well-made bit of cinema, with a plot that clips along nicely, with plenty of cheesy action and melodrama. The point, of course, is for mad scientist Bruce Dern to sew the head of a psycopathic killer onto the body of a retarded farm hand. Why? Well, because it's there, I guess. Naturally, things get even more ridiculous after the surgery, but the movie ends before you get too fed up with it.

"The Thing with Two Heads," on the other hand, is basically a bore. It has a nice idea for the setup. Racist doctor Ray Milland is dying and needs a new body. Convict Rosy Grier is taken from death row so that Milland's head can be sewn onto Grier's body. The plan is for Milland to take over the body and lop off Grier's head at some point.

Of course, Milland is in a coma and doesn't know who the subject is, so he wakes up to find himself attached to a black man's body. Horrors! It's all played for laughs, of course, but it just isn't funny. Ray Milland has rescued more than one movie from absurdity, but he can't pull it off with this one. It gets old fast.

These two features certainly qualify as "midnite" movies. If you're in the mood for something utterly ridiculous, this will certainly fill the bill.

I can't imagine what the studio heads were thinking by releasing not one, but two two-headed movies within a year of each other. Stranger is that neither film is played as a comedy.

Bruce Dern made alot of bad movies in the 1960's and The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant is no exception. But he was always professional. The actor playing the psycho killer has a ridiculous, maniacal grin throughout the picture.

The Thing With Two Heads is little campier but is still played straight. Why Ray Milland agreed to make this film is a mystery. Perhaps his career was on the way down and had to accept any role offered. Most of the movie it's a dummy head attached to Rosie Grier's body. But, in one sequence Ray Milland has the upper head and it's hilarious. The motorbike chase scene was the blue print for similar scenes in Dukes Of Hazzard and The Blues Brothers.

[DW]

First up in this doubleheader (pun intended) from MGM's Midnite Movies series is THE INCREDIBLE TWO-HEADED TRANSPLANT, a low-budget SF/horror flick originally released in 1971 by American International Pictures. Despite the ludicrous storyline about a medical doctor who grafts the head of an insane-asylum escapee onto the body of a gentle but mentally deficient young hulk, strong and believable performances are delivered by star Bruce Dern and costar Casey Kasem. Horror aficionados and fans of classic Saturday-morning television might recognize Kasem as the voice of Shaggy in the various animated incarnations of SCOOBY DOO, but most viewers will recognize him as the longtime host of the syndicated radio show THE AMERICAN TOP 40 COUNTDOWN. One other notable aspect of this mostly dull strip of cinematic celluloid is the appearance of Pat Priest--here playing the wife of Dern's character--who is better known to audiences for her portrayal of the character Marilyn during the bulk of the run of the 1960s TV series THE MUNSTERS.

The best half of this Midnite Movie doubleheader is 1972's THE THING WITH TWO HEADS, an intentionally campy and hilarious social satire that takes pokes at both racism and expedient medical ethics. Although this AIP cheapie was intended as a sequel to the previous years achingly dull THE INCREDIBLE TWO-HEADED TRANSPLANT, it is actually a fairly well-made film that is marred only by the Woodsian special FX. Indeed, while watching THE THING WITH TWO HEADS, one can easily imagine the ghost of Ed Wood whispering into director Lee Frost's ear: "Gee, nobody will care that the bust of Ray Milland looks fake. Aw, who will be able to tell that Milland is just standing behind Rosey Greer? Hey, don't worry--the audience will be so caught up in the story that they'll never notice that Dr. Kirshner's head moves all around on Jack Moss' shoulder!" (For those of you who don't already know, Ed Wood is almost universally recognized as Hollywood's worst film director of all time.) Yet, despite these obvious bargain-basement FX, the performances by the principals are solid and the satire remains suprisingly timely, making THE THING WITH TWO HEADS an enjoyable ride for horror/SF fans and non-fans alike.

The DVD from MGM is, unfortunately, a double-sided disc. THE INCREDIBLE TWO-HEADED TRANSPLANT is offered in a nice anamorphic widescreen edition, but THE THING WITH TWO HEADS, the better of the two films, is offered in a basic widescreen format that is, sadly, non-anamorphic. The only extras offered are the theatrical trailers for each film, but the disc is still well worth amazon's low admission price. A must-own for fans of campy, satirical SF & horror.

I know it probably wouldn't phase kids today when watching "The Incredible Two-headed Transplant" but when I saw this one Saturday morning on Creature Feature when I was a little kid, it messed me up for days. I couldn't sleep. My older bro and sis laughed at me when I ran out of the room right when the two-headed farmer started extracting the screaming female through the roof of a car.

The scene must have been at Lover's lane cuz there was another car parked on the dark road with a couple in it making out. This first car was the initial target for the killer(s) but when the "monster" heard the female from the second car he went towards her.

Her boyfriend freaked out and ran away leaving his date to deal with the attack on her own. While the good head was crying and pleading, the evil head was laughing with the joy of rape in his eyes.

I'm in my late 30's and still remember that scene. I haven't seen it since so I'm sure it's pretty cheesy now. I'm curious to see it again though.

If you like two headed things. Then this is the movie set for you. In the first movie ("The two headed transplant") You have doctors grafting a head to put two people into one. But its the second movie that I liked the most. In the ("Thing with two head") You have doctors putting a racist white mans head next to a black man. You really have to see this one to believe it. It had me laughing so I gave it four stars. Im sure you'll like it too.

The Thing With Two Heads is a decent Blaxsploitation twist on the two headed man flick. A White bigot needing a Black man's body for survival actually was kind of cool and funny back in the day. Ray Milland and Rosey Grier really seem to be enjoying themselves and this is more comical than scary. It's the reason I gave this double feature a three star rating. Neither one of these films is a classic in my opinion but they are good time wasters and lately, people have been buying this dvd like mad. The Incredible Two Headed Transplant terrified me when I was a child and the idea of a serial rapist using a retarded man's body as an instrument of destruction is still disturbing. Albert Cole as psycho Manuel Cass was no Michael Myers but those glazed eyes and that demented laugh can really mess with a kid's mind. This is probably why you don't see it on television anymore. Bruce Dern will probably never live this cheesefest down but he wasn't bad in it. Overall, this double about unlikely doubles is beyond schlock with funky pimped out music (in both films), bad acting, choppy editing, lousy continuity, and some of the worst effects (if you can call them that) ever. Buy this only if you truly know what you're getting yourself into. I mean, look at all the used copies for sale on Amazon. After a good viewing or two, the average person will probably trade this dvd for a cold beer.

Two of the best forgotten classics. The Incredible Two-headed Transplant is a classic horror that have not been seen on tv for years. A killer/rapist head is put on a retarded handyman. That's when all hell break loose. The killer convinces the handyman to do his biddings. I get a great laugh when the handyman is called a bunch of names. The Thing with Two Heads is a classic about a bigot head is put on a black guy. This one is more of a comedy, then horror. Both classic are great to own I strongly recommend in your horror collection. Once again many thanks to MGM/Midnite movie for releasing great forgotten horror classic.

THE INCREDIBLE TWO-HEADED TRANSPLANT! Man, I love saying that! A mad scientist (Bruce Dern) perfects his method of grafting an extra head onto one body. His assistant convinces him to use humans instead of the lab animals he's used to. This works out well, since the lumbering handyman (John Bloom from The Dark) is available, along w/ Cass, a notorious mass murderer who happens along. The good doctor performs his magic, creating a lumbering mass-murderer! This doesn't go over well w/ the doc's wife (Pat "Marilyn Munster" Priest), who had just escaped the eeevil Cass' clutches that same day! Enter Casey Kasem as the family friend and we're off! THE THING WITH TWO HEADS concerns a bigoted surgeon (Ray Milland from X: The Man W/ The X-Ray Eyes, The Premature Burial, and Frogs) whose head is stitched onto the body of a convict from death row (Rosie Grier from The Glove). Hilarity ensues when we see Milland's head next to Grier's, like some mutated toadstool! Lots of racial slurs and typical 70s groove-music keep things moving. This movie also contains one of the most idiotic multi-car chase scenes ever filmed! Yepper, buy this double-headed double-header immediately...