The Incredible 2 Headed Transplant (1971)

THE INCREDIBLE 2 HEADED TRANSPLANT

WRITERS: James Gordon White and John Lawrence

DIRECTOR: Anthony M. Lanza

STARRING: Bruce Dern as Roger

Pat Priest as Linda

Casey Kasem as Ken

Albert Cole as Cass

John Bloom as Danny

Berry Kroeger as Max

Larry Vincent as Andrew

QUICK CUT: A young man, a poor victim of a cave in that left him mentally challenged, gets a little help from a friend and learns that two heads are better than one.

THE MORGUE

Roger - A disgraced doctor who got a bit too into his work and was fired. He’s now using his brillaint mind on a new project to win back his position. He’s very determined, and would probably get along well with Herbert West

Max - Roger’s lab assistant, with an agenda all his own. He’s an older doctor, and his advanced age has taken his steady hands from him, and hopes that helping Roger will let him do one more bit of good in the world.

Linda - Roger’s wife, who is getting a bit tired of how focused on his work he gets.

Ken - Another doctor who went to school with Roger, and is one of the few people he trusts with all his secrets.

Danny - A man who suffered a brain injury and has been taken care of by his father ever since. Roger and Linda think of him as family, and treat the gentle giant with kindness and respect.

Cass - A brutal murder who likes to strangle his victims, and laughs all the way to the asylum.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! Happy July! We are gonna kick this month off by reaching back deep into Vault 13, and digging out something from the early 70s, hopefully full of charm and ideas; The Incredible 2 Headed Transplant. Gotta love that title.

The movie wastes no time, as Manuel Cass is assaulting a woman, left two people dead, and that's when the cops show up. Cass dives out a window and right into the waiting clutches of two more cops. Not the best escape artist.

He's found guilty, but insane, and sent off to a mental hospital to serve his sentence. And this is all before the credits!

Following the credits, we jump to Roger's Ranch and Labs, just in time to see Casey Kasem show up to visit his old friend.

Roger and Linda have been married for six months, and things are already strained. Roger took a bit of an ego hit after he was fired from his last job for being too overzealous, and is trying to prove himself. By being overzealous in his work.

So Ken pokes his head into the sealed lab, and tries to nudge his friend outside and into the real world for a bit, to try and get his marriage back on track.

This long distance dedication goes out to Roger, from his best gal, Linda.

Ken gets a tour around the lab, and I gotta say, more scientists need to do their mad science experiments in their backrooms. It's a lost art.

Anyways, we see what Roger has been so busy working on with his Igor, Max. They have been grafting second heads onto animal bodies, trying to create two headed creatures. Why? Why not? FOR SCIENCE!!

Or I guess maybe to work on a situation where a person is dead, the body is fine, and the head of someone else could be saved? But this is ultimately unimportant. Two headed bodies!!

We also meet Roger's caretaker, Andrew, and his son Danny, who was caught in a mine collapse, suffered brain damage, and is now a mentally challenged adult helping his dad the best he can. And for some reason, he has ridiculous levels of strength.

A month later, Zaphod Baboonbrox is still kicking along, and we find out Max, who has seemed squirrely this whole time, has ulterior motives. He was once a great surgeon, but time stole his ability away from him, and he wants a young body with perfectly working hands once again.

In...another movie, this would be an entire plot unto itself, and you could see where it might go. his is not THAT movie, but this information does play into Max's motivations for much of his future actions.

Sadly, there are complications, and the monkey dies. But during the autopsy, they discover he had a heart defect, and it was not a result of their tampering in god's domain.

"If this monkey had been healthy, he'd still be alive!" ...Well, yes, that is how that usually works, yes.

Oh right, there's a killer in this movie, and he finally decides to escape now that everything is established.

Cass strangles his way out of the institution, steals a car, and listens to the reports of his escape. And having Kasem as the radio announcer makes sense - use what you got! - but is also REALLY distracting as a familiar voice in the movie.

It's always hard to talk about certain cinematography choices in these reviews, since this is a text based medium I've chosen, but this movie keeps using this device, where it cuts for just a half second to something just mentioned, and we might see later, or in the case at this moment, a few frames every few seconds of Danny's accident as he visits the mine where it happened.

It's an odd, strangely out of place bit of film language this movie chose to use, and it's pretty effective. It definitely gives the movie a distinct style.

Cass finds his way to the farm of all places, because otherwise we won't have much of a movie, and stalks quietly getting closer to Linda.

We get a bit of light sexual assault, Cass hogties Roger, and it all culminates in Andrew getting hit in the head and dying. Cass grabs Linda and drags her off, continuing his escape.

Danny comes in, finds his dad, and sits there doing nothing, while Roger begs for help. Max finally returns from town, unties his friend, and they subdue Danny with some chloroform.

The doctors grab some guns and go after the murderer, and eventually mark him in the back with a good blast. Max might not be so hot a surgeon anymore, but dude's got some mad skills with a shotgun.

So we have a knocked out Danny, an almost dead murderer...oop, fully dead murderer. Spoke too soon. And literally, Roger and Max are like...how can we NOT staple someone's head onto the other's body?? They’re RIGHT THERE!!

A week passes while the two headed man sleeps and recovers from the surgery, and miraculously does not die.

One night, the experiment awakens, and Cass tries to explain to his better half what happened, and since he's the stronger mind, I guess, he has more control, although it takes some work to get used to everything.

And our next song goes out to Danny, from his long last friend Cass, Put Your Head on My Shoulder…

Linda hears the commotion of them learning how to walk, swipes Roger's keys, and meets the experiment. It doe not go well.

Her screams bring Max, which brings Roger, and he chases off the not so gentle giant with a bottle of something thrown in their faces.

Linda threatens to call the sheriff, but the two men lock her in the lab, while they try and retrieve their experiment.

Good thing Danny liked sweatshirts with such wide collars.

It only takes Cass record time to drag his unwilling partner into a double homicide when they stumble across a couple of cars out by lovers' lane and tear into one like a can of sardines.

The sheriff shows up to investigate, and of course he doesn't believe any of the eyewitness accounts of a giant with two heads. I've seen some shit, and even I would be dubious. But the footprints do make them think of Danny.

And oh for squawk's sake, the deputy has a voice that would make Quick Draw McGraw proud. What the hell is this bit of ridiculousness?

Max and Roger return home without finding Cassdan, and while Roger is checking on the wife, the sheriff shows up. He goes out to get rid of them, while Max keeps an eye on the missus and keeps her quiet.

They get rid of the sheriff, and tive Linda a sedagive, and then head back out on the hunt for Cassdan.

Meanwhile, the Bi Beast finds some more victims, and moves on. The sheriff finds the bodies, and Kasem arrives to lend a hand. When he hears rumours of a two headed man, well, he's smart enough to make a good guess.

Kasem heads out back to Roger's, and when no one is there, he sneaks in. A tied up Linda makes enough noise to get his attention, and she fills him in with another long distance dedication.

Meanwhile, the lack of morphine starts to have an effect on the science experiment. And elsewhere, Roger knows they will have to put a stop to the crime spree, but Max does his best to try and excercise caution, because he has his own motives.

Roger figures out Cassdan must be heading back to his house, so they can get some drugs for the pain, and return home. They find Ken there, and he tries to talk him into calling the sheriff.

Don’t shoot until you see the two of their skulls!

But again, Max doesn't want that, so Linda gets put in a cage, while the menfolk head back out to end the threat, all in time for Cassdan to show up and go all Fuck Doors on the enrty to the lab.

Cassdan smashes through the cage, drags Linda off to the mine, and Roger and friends wander back to find the lab trashed. They finally put two and two together and get mine.

They perform a classic pincers movement, and Max tosses a net over the experiment. Dude just ripped through your steel door like it was tissue paper, and y'all think a net is gonna do any good?

Ken tries to get Linda out of the mine, while the capture attempt goes badly. In all the commotion, things get knocked over, and the mine once again begins to collapse Danny does not deserve this.

Roger shoots the man several times, and the mine continues to collapse around them. Also, there is a lot of scratches and damage to the film here I THINK is deliberate to simulate falling dirt?? I kinda love it?

So the mine collapses on the doctors and their experiment, while Casey and Linda escape, and tell the sheriff it was Danny so the movie can wrap up on...the shot of a toy robot?? Okay then.

Now, if you'll excuse me, the new episode of Loki just went live, and I have to go watch that.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: Pretty good, a solid conversion from an older, lesser known movie.

Audio: Solid enough as well.

Body Count: For an early 70s flick, I’m surprised at the amount of bodies this ended up with.

1 and 2 - Just over a minute, and pair of dead people in the credits!

3 - Orderly gets strangled by Cass

4 - Cass kills Danny's dad.

5 - Cass temporarily dies from gunshot wounds

6 - Casdan strangles a guy

7 - And his girlfriend

8 - One of the bikers gets killed by Casdan

9 - And then he whips the other with a chain.

10 - And then they murder the biker chick

11 - Dannycas get crushed in the mine collapse

12 - Along with Roger

13 - And Max

Best Corpse: Not really much to write home about here, but the fight with the bikers was pretty cool, and getting whipped to death with a chain works for me

Blood Type - D: There’s a few bits of blood, but being an early 70s movie, and not an exploitation movie, there’s not a whole lot in that department.

Sex Appeal: Some implied nudity with Linda the camera pans away from.

Drink Up! Every time Casey Kasem shows up

Movie Review: I was surprised I liked this as much as I did, but like so many other 70s movies, it is carried by on charm and they tried really hard. It’s got a pretty straightforward plot, with solid acting and craft, and I always appreciated big ideas with goofy science. Yes, let’s not gild the lilly here, the idea is silly. But they pull it off well for what it is. Three out of five neck coverins.

Entertainment Value: It’s got some camp, that’s for sure. How could it not, with a second head stapled onto a guy’s neck?? And yeah, that’s a hoot to see, is a blast, and keeping in mind that this was made in the 80s, they actually pulled it off VERY well. And of course, Kasem is a blast to poke fun at, and Cass chews the scenery very well indeed. Definitely a fun movie to watch, four out of five monkey nuts.