Amok, l'homme à deux têtes

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.

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.

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.

This is a great party movie. My friends and I have watched it together at least four times since we were teenagers. There are so many laughable moments that I could list, but here are just a few favorites:

Casey Casem is a main character (a doctor), but also provides the voice of every news announcement heard on radios in the film! (Did they think we wouldn't notice?)

Bruce Dern saying "Johnny, this is an axe. It is used for chopping wood, and NOTHING ELSE."

Dern again, upon completing an autopsy of a lab monkey: "You know, if this little guy had been healthy, he'd still be alive!"

The totally gratuitous "lady getting out of the bathtub" scene.

The soundtrack is consistently inappropriate for the action on screen. I particularly love the opening titles -- a drippy love song comes directly after a maniac's menacing laughter.

Stilted acting, poorly written dialog, cheesy 70's clothes, a ridiculous premise, and totally unconvincing makeup effects make this one of the best scoff-able titles out there (even beating "Gymkata")! Recommended for your next scoff-fest!

Okay, I'm in a big minority, but in my view the cheap horror flick is very shrewdly done. Except for a hammy Albert Cole as Cass, the acting is pretty good, with Dern refusing temptation to go over the top. Also, the hulking John Bloom amounts to a casting inspiration. His massive frame dominates every frame he's in. Plus he manages the difficult role of the slow-witted in convincing fashion.

Staging takes place in the boondocks where there's more bang for the buck, and while the massive monster may be too slow to be scary, the shrewd camera angles make the two-headed effect more credible than expected. Oh sure, the movie's title is a tip-off to the target audience. Still, I wouldn't put it in the same league as the rubber monsters of Roger Corman yore.

Good to see an elderly Berry Kroeger picking up a payday. Was there ever a better shyster lawyer in a slew of 40's noirs than the moon-faced actor. And speaking of cast, blonde leading lady Pat Priest could double for Doris Day in her bouffant heyday. Anyway, I found the flick mildly entertaining and not as hokey as I expected. And before I forget—is there ever a menaced girl in these movies who isn't scantily clad and sexy. Certainly not here