USA. 1971.
Crew
Director – Anthony M. Lanza, Screenplay – John Lawrence & James Gordon White, Producer – John Lawrence, Photography – Glen Gano, Paul Hipp & Jack Steely, Music – John Barber, Special Effects/Technical Advisor – Ray Dorn, Makeup/Head Design – Barry Noble, Art Direction – Ray Markham. Production Company – Mutual General Corporation/Trident Enterprises.
Cast
Bruce Dern (Roger Gerard), Pat Priest (Linda Gerard), John Bloom (Danny Norton), Albert Cole (Manuel Cass), Berry Kroeger (Dr Max Cooper), Casey Kasem (Dr Ken Anderson), Larry Vincent (Andrew Norton)
Plot
Dr Roger Gerard has developed a means of grafting two heads onto one body. When convicted killer Manuel Cass escapes from jail and hides on his farm, Gerard decides to test the process on humans by grafting Cass’s head onto the body of his gardener’s hulking, brain-damaged son Danny. However, when he comes around, Cass takes charge of the body and escapes the laboratory, going on a murderous rampage across the countryside.
The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant is a film earns considerable mention in The Golden Turkey Awards (1980). It came out from the same company, AIP (American International Pictures) that also made The Thing with Two Heads (1972), which was released sixteen months later
The Thing with Two Heads, The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant is made without any appreciation of the lunacy of the central concept. As a result, it is a film that has neither the wit nor the Edward D. Wood Jr-type true ineptitude to be endearingly funny. On the other hand, stuck with only the option of taking it seriously, it lacks excitement or the most rudimentary shock value to make it even remotely interesting. It is just lumbering and stupid.
It has the one central problem of all two-headed monster B-movies – see also The Manster (1959) and tv’s The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (1981) – the failure to convince there are two heads stuck on one body.
Bruce Dern at least gets loose with a wild-eyed and dementedly intent lunacy – indeed, this type of film is perfect for the type of twitchy-eyed acting that Dern specialises in. As Cass, Albert Cole gives a performance so demented that it ends up in orbit. The title song for the film is It’s Incredible.
Trailer here