The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant

Call me demented but I loved this absolutely silly piece of 1970s Drive-In schlock! Director Anthony M. Lanza only made one other movie as far as I know, one I've been wanting to see for years, a 60s biker flick starring Dennis Hopper and Casey Kasem called 'The Glory Stompers'. Kasem returns in this one to play the concerned best friend of "mad" scientist Dr. Roger Girard played by cult favourite Bruce Dern (Kasem and Dern had previously played brothers in another 60s biker movie 'The Cycle Savages', a trash classic I highly recommend.) Dern, just like those scientists in 'Donovan's Brain', has his own lab in his home which he conducts his own private research, assisted by his crippled mentor Dr. Max ('Demon Seed'). Research, by the way, involving head transplants. So when a psychopath (Albert Cole) escapes on a rampage and kidnaps Dern's pretty blonde wife (Pat Priest of 'The Munsters'), it doesn't take long to figure out that the Doc is going to be operating on him soon. Especially when there is a handy mental defective (John Bloom, from 'The Hills Have Eyes 2') available (his caretaker's son). Now Bruce Dern is one of my favourite 1970s actors ('Bloody Mama', 'Silent Running', 'The King Of Marvin Gardens'), and I'd watch him in just about anything, but this must be the stupidest movie he has ever been involved in! Disinterested viewers who don't enjoy 60s and 70s exploitation and monster movies may find it just TOO stupid to get into, but I thought it was an absolute hoot, and loved every minute of it!

Obviously this is a bad movie. But what else did you expect from a movie with a title such as this one has. I'll admit, this movie its title is the only reason why I really wanted to see it and no, I also certainly don't regret I did. Yes, it's still being a bad movie but it's just one of those movies that is fun to watch, regardless of how bad things get in this movie.

The movie does work out as fun because of its insane and silly concept. Main concept of the movie is a scientist experimenting on putting two heads on one body. But I seriously still don't understand with what purpose the professor was executing his experiments. As far as I understood it, it all had something to do with successfully transplanting limbs from one body onto another but this all doesn't explain why our dear professor and his disabled assistant are experimenting with putting extra heads onto animals bodies. But needless to say that this is simply one of those movies you really shouldn't think too much about, while watching it.

I was really interest to see how they had done the two heads effect on one human body in this movie. The answer is; poorly. It's quite laughable actually. For certain shots they used an obvious (very) fake puppet head, that never gets shown from the front and for its close-ups it's basically the one guy standing very close behind the other guys back, to create the illusion of two heads on one body. This should pretty much sum up how this entire movie is being like. Silly, cheap, poorly done and just overall bad but you still can't help being amused by it all.

No, it's not really a story with much good story and that also is really foremost its downfall. This movie could had still been a much better and more entertaining one if more was happening in it. Now the 'monster's rampage doesn't happen until far into the movie. It's all such a big waste and shame. Surely they could had come up with some more original and entertaining stuff than what they show in the eventual movie. They waste too much time with this movie by setting up its shallow characters and shaky plot, that is being filled with holes and inconsistencies.

I also just love it how mentally challenged persons why behave like little kids in movies always wear dungarees. In this movie that isn't any different and he's constantly wearing the same sweater as well in this movie to complete things. I also just love how insane and over-the-top the smirking murderer is in this movie. Those two are the persons who get attached to one and the same body in this movie, so prepare yourself for lots of insane madness.

The movie foremost sounds like a crazy B-monster movie from the '50's and for most part the movie is also really being that way but it it's actually an '70's movie, so it's still has lots of hints of the exploitation genre in it as well. The movie is not that bloody or gory but it still features plenty of killings and also some nudity. The camera-work and especially its editing are being quite experimental at times, which also makes it all the more apparent that you're watching an '70's movie here.

Funny that somehow Bruce Dern ended up being in this mess, that foremost is still being a silly/bad fun one to watch.

4/10

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What can you expect from a movie when Pat Priest and Casey Kasem are the most famous people in it? You say I'm insane, Bruce Dern is the most famous person in it? But you're wrong. He's not famous at all because I've never heard of him. I assume he was famous in the 60's or the 20's or whenever you thought you were cool but no one under 50 knows him. Anyway,this is much better than The Thing With Two Heads.The plot is much better and although there's less action, it's somehow less boring. Unlike that other movie this transplant was done by a rogue mad scientist, using unwilling subjects. He uses the body of a huge mentally challenged teen and the second head is from a psychotic rapist and you know that can't be a good combo. So of course the giant goes crazy and wreaks havoc. My only problem with the movie is the inclusion of Casey Kasem. His part was completely unnecessary and his acting was atrocious.You could literally edit him out and no one would notice. All we know about Kasem's character is that he is a doctor in the city. From what they say and what we see, it looks like the city is not close. Yet for some reason, when a body washes up on a river bank, Kasem is there with the sheriff. What?? Not to mention that when they turn on the radio it's Kasem's voice coming out. Those little things don't really hurt what is a very average movie. This is definitely worth watching.

A maniacal killer's head is fused to the lumbering, gargantuan body of a man with the mind of a small child by a scientist who just happens to specialize in fusing two-headed creatures in his spare time. Why? He says to show everyone what a genius he is. Why on Earth would anyone want to create a monster with two heads - neither containing the brain of anything remotely resembling worthiness? Such is the premise in this bizarre, fascinating, and God awful film made in 1971. Bruce Dern plays the "mad" scientist with decided disinterest. Can you blame him? He strolls around with drink in hand and never shows any real depth of character. By the film's end, his performance just caves in. The two-headed monstrosity, which battles bikers on bikes wielding chains and has a cumulative IQ of 60, is a true sight of ineptitude to behold. John Bloom, who would later get an even worse role as Frankenstein's Monster in Al Adamson's horrendous opus Dracula Vs. Frankenstein, plays Danny - a hulking man that lost his mind when he was left for dead in a mine shaft years ago. Now an adult, Danny is dutiful to his father, is treated like a mental defective by all concerned, and sweats a lot. The head of Albert Cole, a man who we see leering or laughing with crazy glee, is attached when Cole tries to rape Dern's wife(more on her in a minute) and kills Danny's father. Dern and his limp-wristed former surgeon assistant(Barry Kroeger) feel the time is right to make a two-headed freak with the body of Cole at their disposal and the mentally deficient Danny just there. This movie is a real hoot to sit through as every minute in bad - bad but fun. The story stinks. Director Anthony Lanza has little savvy. The production values virtually non-existent(although the head thing looks better here then some of the other two--headed monsters of the same era). Acting? What acting? C'mon - Casey Kasem as a doctor/hero? Dern looks like he lost a bet and had to be in the picture. Cole is annoyingly disgusting and ridiculous. Bloom is okay at best. But I really liked Pat Priest as Dern's wife. She sure didn't give a great performance, but she made a believer out of me as she fainted(several times), ran from crazy Cole, lounged in a chair by the pool, laid in bed either of her own accord or bound and gagged, and finally was tied and put in a cage in the lab - all in either a bikini, a small nightie, or some other light attire that showcased her attributes, the brightest things about this dreadful dreck. This movie is very, very bad, and I must confess I loved every minute of it. I laughed and laughed and laughed. Just hearing that soundtrack where every beat foreshadows something suspenseful will happen and rarely does. Or how about the dialog used in the picture? Whew! This is one of the all-time great of le bad cinema.

This is a great party movie. My friends and I have watched it together at least four times since we were teenagers. There are so many laughable moments that I could list, but here are just a few favorites:

Casey Casem is a main character (a doctor), but also provides the voice of every news announcement heard on radios in the film! (Did they think we wouldn't notice?)

Bruce Dern saying "Johnny, this is an axe. It is used for chopping wood, and NOTHING ELSE."

Dern again, upon completing an autopsy of a lab monkey: "You know, if this little guy had been healthy, he'd still be alive!"

The totally gratuitous "lady getting out of the bathtub" scene.

The soundtrack is consistently inappropriate for the action on screen. I particularly love the opening titles -- a drippy love song comes directly after a maniac's menacing laughter.

Stilted acting, poorly written dialog, cheesy 70's clothes, a ridiculous premise, and totally unconvincing makeup effects make this one of the best scoff-able titles out there (even beating "Gymkata")! Recommended for your next scoff-fest!