The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant

The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant
The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Anthony M. Lanza
Written by	James Gordon White; John Lawrence
Produced by	John Lawrence; Volodymyr Kowal; Nicholas Wowchuk; Alvin L. Fast; Arthur N. Gilbert; Sheldon Lee
Starring	Bruce Dern; Patricia Ann Priest; Casey Kasem; Albert Cole; John Bloom
Cinematography	Glen Gano ; Paul Hipp ; Jack Steely
Edited by	Anthony Lanza
Music by	John Barber
Production; company	American International Pictures
Release date	April 14, 1971 (Los Angeles);
Running time	87 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant is a 1971 science fiction/horror film directed by Anthony Lanza. It is sometimes confused with the 1972 blaxploitation film The Thing with Two Heads.^[2]

Plot

Dr. Roger Girard (Bruce Dern) 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), and Dr. Anderson (Casey Kasem) pursue it to an abandoned mine. Anderson rescues Linda, but Dr. Girard, Max, and the creature die in a mine cave-in. ^[3]

Cast

Bruce Dern as Dr. Roger Girard
Pat Priest as Linda Girard
Casey Kasem as Dr. Ken Anderson
Albert Cole as Manuel Cass
John Bloom as Danny Norton
- Leslie Cole as Young Danny
Berry Kroeger as Dr. Max
Larry Vincent as Andrew Norton
Jack Lester as the Sheriff
Jerry Patterson as the Deputy
Darlene Duralia as Miss Pierce
Raymond Thorne as Motorcyclist #1
Gary Kent as Motorcyclist #2
Mary Ellen Clawsen as Female Motorcyclist
Janice P. Gelman as Teenage victim
Mike Espe as Teenage victim ^[4]
Andrew Schneider as Teenager
Eva Sorensen as Teenager

Production

The film was shot in six days in Santa Clarita, California. Lead actor Bruce Dern claimed he never got paid for his services.^[5]

Reception

Variety called the film "rank exploitation fodder" directed "lifelessly," though it called the makeup and design of the two-headed creature "good."^[6] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune 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.'"^[7] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times 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."^[8] David McGillivray of The Monthly Film Bulletin 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."^[9]