Night of the Bloody Transplant

Inept filmmaking, in every way conceivable.

Somehow, even at 71 minutes run time- with several scenes clearly padded with "shooting the rodeo" footage- it still seemed endless.

Avoid, unless you are particularly masochistic or you lost some type of bet.

Another discovery in lost Z-grade material! It's been a while since I saw the thing, but my memories remain intact! Forget the title! What you are about to see is actual filmed footage of bad production values shot on camera, circa 1968! The victim, known as THE TRANSPLANT, is sent via helicopter to Bad Movie Institute Of NYC, where historians and professors examined something inside the negative that plagued it in years past. They found a scene where doctors performed surgery on a fake heart, a silly old prop. Another discovery on the negative was the appearance of a scantily-clad chick making an entry to the tub. Unfortunately, they could not find a cure in time for this diseased-stricken entity. It was later pronounced D.O.A.

It's enough to make you sing "Weep Not For You.....Weep Not For Me" with glee over and over again.

An ancient gore film, made in a particularly snow bound looking Michigan, about a pioneering doctor whose attempts to perform a heart transplant are hindered by his peers, but aided by his trouble making brother, whose run in with a hooker leaves the Doc with an ideal candidate for heart surgery. Made by entrepreneurial have-a-go filmmakers who even managed to talk real life policemen into being in the film...not every ballsy, indy filmmaker out of Michigan can have the career of a Sam Raimi though, and after just one more effort, a softcore movie called 'Judy', also made in 1970, Night of the Bloody Transplant's director David W. Hanson appears to have thrown in the towel. From a modern day perspective, it is odd to see a heart transplant operation discussed as some kind of taboo, unheard of procedure. An aspect to the film that even in its day must have seemed dated, considering that the first heart transplant had been performed back in 1967...which does make you wonder of The Bloody Transplant had been sitting on the shelf for a few years before its credited 1970 release date.

The tone of Night of the Bloody Transplant is decidedly 'amateur theatre' occasionally enlivened by HG Lewis type splatter, as well as the vomitous inclusion of real life heart surgery footage in the tradition of films like Night of the Bloody Apes and Castle of the Creeping Flesh. There is also padding designed to shine a light on local talent ...tone deaf singers, burlesque dancers, nude body painting etc etc...giving you a rough idea of what passed for entertainment in chilly Michigan back then. To be honest, it makes you wish they'd just shot an entire film's worth of these showbiz hopefuls and junked the mad doctor/horror film stuff. Would this film have ever resurfaced on video in the early 1980s without the exploitable 'early gore film' aspect though?...probably not. Saying that this is hardly a well known film these days anyhow...for years I thought Night of the Bloody Transplant was simply a video re-titling of Doris Wishman's The Amazing Transplant. Has my life been greatly enhanced by the knowledge that The Bloody Transplant and The Amazing Transplant are two separate films?...probably not...but like all the other regional horror curios, Night of the Bloody Transplant isn't without its time capsule appeal...although given how cold the exteriors look in Night of the Bloody Transplant, maybe its more of a snow globe than a time capsule.

The film is famous for the inserted open heart surgery as advertised on the video's case. Not being one to watch medical tapes I was floored by the real life gore of skin being peeled away and a torso being cut open with an electric tool!

There is only one scene of real surgery in the film and it lasts less than a few minutes. The rest of the movie is padded with musical numbers performed by artists I am not familiar with. There is an extended dancing stripper scene as well. Edits are well done. Frequently one scene blends to another. Example: A bloody bathtub cuts to a floor being painted by a nearly nude performance artist. Yes there are some killings by a paranoid psychotic and evil doings by the surgeon.

On the down side, the final action sequence is dark and it is unclear exactly what transpires. The back of the box tells the entire story of the film, including the conclusion.

Do not confuse this movie with the well loved "Night of the Bloody Apes", which also deals with heart transplants and shows real life footage of surgery (although not as gruesome as I can recall).