''The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant'' is a 1971

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

directed by Anthony Lanza. It is sometimes confused with the 1972

blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...

film ''

The Thing with Two Heads ''The Thing with Two Heads'' is a 1972 American blaxploitation science fiction comedy film directed by Lee Frost and starring Ray Milland, Rosey Grier, Don Marshall, Roger Perry, Kathy Baumann, and Chelsea Brown. Plot Dr. Maxwell Kirshner (Ray M ...

''.

Plot

Dr. Roger Girard (

Bruce Dern Bruce MacLeish Dern (born June 4, 1936) is an American actor. He has often played supporting villainous characters of unstable natures. He has received several accolades, including the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and the Silver B ...

) is a wealthy scientist experimenting with head transplantation. His caretaker has a son named Danny ( John Bloom) who is an extremely strong full-grown man, but he has the mind of a child due to brain damage sustained in a mine accident. In an unusual turn of events, Manuel Cass (Albert Cole), a recently escaped mental patient and serial killer, has murdered Dr. Girard's caretaker and is seriously injured himself. Given an unprecedented chance to use human subjects – a mortally wounded psychotic and a disabled man with little chance of surviving on his own, neither of whom he thinks will be missed – Dr. Girard transplants Cass's head onto Danny's body to prove that his techniques can be applied to human beings. The new creature, with one head of a murderer and the other with the mental capacity of an eight-year-old attached to an extremely powerful body, escapes and wreaks havoc, committing multiple murders. After the creature kidnaps Linda Girard ( Pat Priest), Dr. Girard, Dr. Max, (

Berry Kroeger Berry Kroeger (October 16, 1912 – January 4, 1991) was an American film, television and stage actor. Career Kroeger was born in San Antonio, Texas. He got his acting start on radio as an announcer on ''Suspense'' and as an actor, playing fo ...

) and Dr. Anderson (

Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio personality, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably '' American Top 40''. He was the first actor to voice Nor ...

) pursue it to an abandoned mine. Anderson rescues Linda, but Dr. Girard, Max, and the creature die in a mine cave-in.

Cast

as Dr. Roger Girard * Pat Priest as Linda Girard *

as Dr. Ken Anderson * Albert Cole as Manuel Cass * John Bloom as Danny Norton ** Leslie Cole as Young Danny Norton *

Dr. Max *

Larry Vincent Francis Fitzgerald "Larry" Vincent (June 14, 1924—March 8, 1975) was an American television horror host, famed for his character Seymour, who presented—and heckled—low-budget horror and science fiction movies on ''Fright Night'' on KHJ-TV and ...

as Andrew Norton * Jack Lester as Sheriff * Jerry Patterson as Deputy * Darlene Duralia as Miss Pierce * Raymond Thorne as Motorcyclist #1 *

Gary Kent Gary Kent (born June 7, 1933) is an American film director, actor, and stuntperson notable for his appearances in various independent, grindhouse and exploitation films. A native of Washington, Kent studied at the University of Washington before ...

as Motorcyclist #2 * Mary Ellen Clawsen as Female Motorcyclist * Janice P. Gelman as Teenage victim * Mike Espe as Teenage victim * Andrew Schneider as Teenager * Eva Sorensen as Teenager

Production

The film was shot in six days in

Santa Clarita, California Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17th ...

. Lead actor Bruce Dern claimed he never got paid for his services.

Reception

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called the film "rank exploitation fodder" directed "lifelessly," though it called the makeup and design of the two-headed creature "good."

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...

of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' gave the film 1 star out 4, writing that if the film "had focused more on the conflict of the two heads with, say, some extended conversations in close-up, it could have been one of the great bad movies. Instead, we get repetitive shots of the killer drooling while the giant whines 'no, no.'" Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' called the film "lots of fun because this AIP release has been so thoroughly worked out, with good, legitimate performances, logical plot development and taut directing and editing." David McGillivray of ''

The Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...

'' wrote, "Uproarious nonsense, looking very much like a piece of low budget Fifties horror and performed with very little finesse, but quite watchable none the less."

In popular culture

In 1989,

horror punk Horror punk is a music genre that mixes punk rock and 1950s-influenced doo-wop and rockabilly sounds with morbid and violent imagery and lyrics which are often influenced by horror films and science fiction B-movies. The genre was pioneered by ...

band

Haunted Garage Haunted Garage was a horror punk and heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1985. Fronted by singer and B-movie actor Dukey Flyswatter, the band were recognized for their campy horror and science fiction-inspired songs and outrageous shock ro ...

recorded a song of the same title based on the film for their 7" EP ''Mothers Day''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Incredible 2-Headed Transplant 1971 films 1971 horror films 1970s science fiction horror films American science fiction horror films American International Pictures films Films about organ transplantation Mad scientist films Films about father–son relationships 1970s English-language films 1970s American films