The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant

Casey Kasem, Marilyn Munster, Bruce Dern, and Seymour in a campy horror cheapsterpiece that is good for some laughs.

Bruce Dern is a mad doctor/scientist, and of course, nobody has ever seen a mad scientist in a movie before. He concocts a plan to take a dead head off one guy, and surgically attach it to another guy. Neither he nor you will ever know why he wants to do this, but it provides the backbone for this juicy camp novelty, that looks to have been made on a budget of about ten bucks, and two S&H green stamps. Casey Kasem was not doing a top 40 show or Scooby Doo cartoon that week, so he drops by. He's a colleague of Dern, but not nuts like Dr. Dern is. I love the scenes where our hero, Dr. Kasem, turns on the radio, to listen to his own voice doing the radio news announcer. Pat (Marilyn Munster) Priest is the blonde bombshell romantic interest (of more than one character, if you catch my drift). And of course, the two-headed transplant: both actors combine to actually give this awkward looking beast some real emotion.

They're all good, in a campy way, but a special treat this movie had was a popular local late night horror host seen here in L.A. in those days, named Larry "Seymour, the Master of the Macabre" Vincent. He used to offer up golden turkey monster flicks, in order to poke fun at their awfulness, MST3K style. He roasted himself for doing "Transplant," although his all-to-brief screen before making a routine horror film exit, was actually pretty good acting. Sadly, Seymour died fairly young, leaving this as one of his few film appearances.

The idea is goofy, but the script has enough going on that the actors can work with it. They all seem to have had fun making the flick, too. Considering the z-budget, it's not bad at all. This can actually be entertaining if you go in expecting dumb but amusing camp.

An absolute riot. The kind of movie Edward Wood could only aspire to make. And Bruce Dern is always worth watching. No matter the quality of the movie, there's just something about the guy that guarantees a good time.

It seems funny that for all the well-deserved plaudits this grade-Z gem attracts, nobody mentioned the great performance by the actor playing Danny's father, Larry Vincent! That's right, none other than "Sinister Seymour" himself doing the honors as good old Andrew Norton, the doc's faithful gardener in one of his too-few appearances on the big screen. All I can say is, if you were too young to remember the early 70's, you definitely missed one the best things about watching late-night TV in Los Angeles. Long before MST3K or Elvira, Seymour's "Fright Night" on Saturday nights was THE thing to watch. Nowadays, if I see "-Transplant-" in the local listings, I turn it on in the first fifteen minutes (before the killer gives him a messy send-off with a garden hoe) just to watch his rare talent. Ah, Larry, you left us too soon...

There's no doubting this is a very bad film by anyone's standards, but it isn't without some entertainment value. Bruce Dern – clearly on his uppers back in '71 – takes on the mad scientist role with such laid-back indifference to the part that his performance alone is worth the cost of the rental or purchase or ninety minutes of your life. Never will you see an actor so clearly embarrassed by the rubbish he has somehow found himself saddled with or trying so hard to appear invisible. Dern speaks each of his lines with a kind of preternatural calmness that leaves you wondering whether some underhand producer hasn't drugged him so that he believes he's floating through a dream. His character is assisted by Max (Berry Kroeger) who, quite frankly, is the creepiest thing in the film – like a strange uncle whose lap your mum warns you not to sit on when you're a kid…

The plot follows the typical monster-movie template. Once again our monster is stitched together from people's body parts in a fortress-like laboratory to which access is denied to the good doctor's long-suffering wife (Pat Priest). But, unlike Frankenstein, this is no meditation on the dangers of man playing God, rather than a frank attempt to titillate undemanding teens. Of course, wifey can't resist having a peek in the lab and before you can say 'don't open the door!' she's opened the door and – well, I'm sure you can get the rest.

The poor simpleton who has a maniacal killer's head grafted onto his neck (don't you hate it when that happens?) is something of a giant, and he's filmed from a low angle so that no money has to be spent on special effects. I'm sure Messrs Bloom and Cole must have been pretty close friends by the end of the shoot. Of course the killer quickly becomes the dominant partner and forces his neck-mate to embark on a killing spree. He lumbers around the countryside, chancing upon necking teenagers and wasted bikers who, for some reason, find it impossible to outrun him and, cackling wildly, summarily dispatches them for no apparent reason other than he's completely bonkers.

The single moment of any worth in the film is the point at which director Anthony Lanza cuts away from the murder of the female biker, just as those brainless cackles are beginning to rise. It's a moment of restraint totally at odds with the rest of the movie.

The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Roger (Bruce Dern) is a doctor doing experiments on animals. He is putting two heads on a single body and he finally gets his chance to do it with humans when a large but mentally challenged man becomes available as a subject but he puts the head of a killer on him and soon the monster is running loose.

THE INCREDIBLE 2-HEADED TRANSPLANT was the type of film that AIP was turning out to drive-ins back in the day when this type of exploitation was grand. As with a lot of drive-in films, the most important thing was a great title and there's no question that this film has that. With that said, there really isn't too much exploitation here and it's a tad bit too dry for its own good.

Apparently the mad scientist role was originally meant for someone like Vincent Price but the role went to Dern instead. Dern is certainly a very good actor and he gives a good performance here but he plays it so serious and straight that it just doesn't added enough entertainment value for the type of film it is. The performance was more for a serious medical drama than a drive-in "B" picture. Casey Kasem was fun to see in his role and we also got Gary Kent, Pat Priest and Albert Cole.

The film is certainly mildly entertaining and the two-headed monster has an interesting look to it. The film is worth watching but at the same time there's no question that it falls well short of being a good movie. It also got outdone by the following year's THE THING WITH TWO HEADS.