A lot of the time when people hear the title of the movie The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant, people think you are talking about The Thing with Two Heads. The Thing with Two Heads was the film that gets more attention and is more familiar to the general public. But The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant has its own two-headed monster movie thing going own that you can argue make it just as entertaining or maybe even more. The absence of any known actors as either of the heads of the monster is probably the reason this film gets less attention. But having Bruce Dern as a mad scientist more than makes up for it.
The other surprise is Casey Kasem as Dern’s best friend. The first time I saw this film was probably on TV in the 1970’s before I knew who Casey Kasem was. By the time I picked it up in a DVD set with The Thing with Two Heads, I had seen Kasem on TV many times. While I was surprised to see him, it probably shouldn’t have since I knew that he had done so much voice work in cartoons, Shaggy in Scooby Doo being the most noteworthy. The film also features Pat Priest, best known for being the second actress to portray Marilyn Munster in The Munsters television show. I always remember her wearing conservative dresses on The Munsters. Seeing her in a bikini in this film is more akin to her outfits in the Elvis movie, Easy Come, Easy Go.
In this movie, the mad scientist conducting experiments in head transplantation ends up putting the head of a critically injured homicidal maniac on the shoulder of a huge, extremely strong but brain damaged caretaker who is also critically injured. The maniac head is stronger willed and can control the shared body as they commit crimes. As the two headed monster is attacking people, the maniac head laughs and the brain damaged head cries. When the monster kidnaps the scientist’s wife and takes her to a cave, the scientist and Casey Kasem are off to the rescue. Casey Kasem and the wife escape but everyone else is killed when there is a cave-in at the mine.
This film was made in the 1971 but Casey Kasem seems to be the only member of the cast who wears the extreme 1970’s fashions. At one point, he is wearing a shirt with the most extreme collar lapels I think I’ve ever seen short of Elvis’ jumpsuits. Casey Kasem’s lapels are reason enough to watch the movie.
