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Thing with Two Heads, The
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| Year: |
1972
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Director: |
Lee Frost
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| Stars: |
Ray Milland, Rosey Grier, Don Marshall, Roger Perry, Chelsea Brown, Kathy Baumann, Lee Frost, Wes Bishop, Roger Gentry, Bruce Kimball, William Smith
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| Genre: |
Trash, Science Fiction |
| Rating: |
  5 (from 2 votes) |
| Review: |
Dr. Max Kirshner (Ray Milland) is a master transplant surgeon whose arthritis means he can now only act in an overseeing capacity at the foundation which bears his name. He has been experimenting on animals to further his work in the transplant field, and has created a two-headed gorilla, which he plans to seperate from its original head to make the new head successfully live on its new body. Unfortunately, the gorilla escapes as it is being prepared for this operation, and runs rampage down the street, ending up in a grocery store to help itself to the bananas. To Dr. Kirshner, this is a minor setback, because he doesn't have much time to waste - he's dying of a terminal illness, and plans to operate on himself...
There are many questions which vex film scholars, but never mind whether Deckard is a replicant in Blade Runner, or what's in the suitcase in Pulp Fiction, the real puzzle is: was The Thing with Two Heads supposed to be a comedy or not? Opinions differ, but this effort bears notable resemblance to The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant made the previous year, perhaps because some of the same team made it, and that film was presumably meant to be serious. Written by the director Lee Frost, Wes Bishop and James Gordon White, the 1972 film doesn't look sure of whether it thinks it's funny, but seems to add gags to cover itself.
Where The Incredible was a straight-forward monster movie, The Thing has an agenda: it is, in fact, a sensitive treatment of the tricky subject of racism. Well, sort of. In an early scene, the prejudiced Dr Kirshner takes care of a job interview, only to be deeply unimpressed when the best man for the job is the black Dr. Williams (Don Marshall); Kirshner is reluctant to give him the post, but Williams has already signed a contract. So imagine Kirshner's distress when, after weeks of searching, the sole candidate for his own top secret transplant operation is a black convict on Death Row, Jack Moss (Rosey Grier).
Moss is actually innocent, and sees the donation to medical science as a way of buying more time so that his friends and family can secure an appeal and save his life. It becomes clear that The Thing with Two Heads is a one idea movie when its method of dragging the plot out to ninety minutes involves a long winded first half hour where the premise is explained at great length, even though a glance at the poster tells you all you need to know. It's the midway point before the horrified Moss makes a break for freedom, and the expected rampage ensues. Effects-wise, it doesn't help that Grier and Milland are obviously uncomfortable in having to rest their heads so awkwardly close to one another, and the rubber dummy head that Grier has perched on his shoulder for the running around business isn't exactly convincing.
There's something inherently ridiculous about tackling racism by illustrating it by what that poster described as "They Transplanted A White Bigot's Head onto a Soul Brother's Body!" There could be a metaphor for all races getting along with each other or facing the terrible consequences, but the film is uneasy about anything serious, and happier when staging a chase with the Thing on motorbike, followed by a bunch of idiot cops (the low budget stunt work is pretty good here, to be fair). There are certainly laughs, especially when Moss's girlfriend (Chelsea Brown) enters the picture - "Now you know you got to go!" - and the film just about gets by on novelty value, but it's not consistently funny enough to be a comedy, and too absurd to taken seriously as anything else. Music by Robert O. Ragland.
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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