The Thing With Two Heads

I just finished watching the 1972 film, "The Thing With Two Heads."  The trailer to which can be viewed here.

This film was an AIP release from Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson when that company began to move into making movies commonly referred to as Blaxploitation.

The movie itself is extremely creative and imaginative as many movies in the pre 2000's were.  The basic premise is that a surgeon famous for transplants is dying and in order to save him, his head is transplanted onto a black man's body.  The problem with that is that the famous white surgeon is a bigot.  This is where the plot thickens and the comedic elements of the plot actually begin as the entire first act is played deadly seriously while the second act changes tone entirely and the film really kicks into fifth gear.

The Second Act is where all of the action and comedic effects are played up.  One of the more memorable parts is the 30 min. long motorcycle chase where the thing with two heads and another doctor are being chased across Southern California by the police.  IT is during this bike ride that the effect used for portraying two heads on one body begins to unravel as it is obvious that the actor (Ray Milland) is simply sitting behind the other actor (Rosey Grier) on the bike.

There are more comedic moments which this film would really have done well to play up but didn't.  The ending of the film comes when the thing with two heads is snuck into surgery and the elderly bigot's head is removed and presumably left to die and Rosey Grier's character has his woman.

 The Good:
This film has lots of faults and IMDB has it rated at a 3.3 out of 10 but this may not be a fair assessment.  The idea itself may not be innovative, other movies featured two-headed people but the story is creative.  The writers were trying to present something new and unusual and certainly to comment on race.  The sparse bit of humor in the film was genuinely funny and I believe that if the movie relied a little more on humor than on action, we would have had a better product.  One particular thing, that I liked personally was the fact that the film really had the "AIP feel" of films like the Dr. Phibes movies and the later Poe Cycle movies. 

The Bad:
This film was really boring at points and relied way too much on the novelty of the premise to carry it through.  After the first act, the story becomes amateur and really falls into cliched territory.  The first and second act almost seem to be completely different movies.  One is a science drama and the other becomes a action comedy.  The worst offense that this movie makes is that it is really dull at points and that kills movies like this.

The Bottom Line:
I would check out this movie if you are into 70's exploitation and grind house films.  If you are a casual viewer of movies or watch more movies from the 21st century than the 20th, do not pay any money to watch "The Thing With Two Heads."

Rating:  5/10