The Thing with Two Heads
| The Thing with Two Heads | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
| Directed by | Lee Frost |
| Produced by | Wes Bishop Jonathan Lawrence |
| Written by | Lee Frost Wes Bishop James Gordon White |
| Starring |
Ray Milland Rosey Grier Don Marshall Roger Perry Kathy Baumann Chelsea Brown |
| Music by | Robert O. Ragland |
| Cinematography | Jack Steely |
| Edited by | Edward J. Forsyth |
| Distributed by | AIP |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
90 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Thing with Two Heads is a 1972 American science fiction film directed by Lee Frost. The film stars Ray Milland, Rosey Grier, Don Marshall, Roger Perry, Kathy Baumann, and Chelsea Brown.
Some early visual effects work from Rick Baker is also featured. The movie is known for its soundtrack, produced by MGM Records producer Michael Viner with a rotating cast of studio musicians that he called the Incredible Bongo Band.
Dr. Maxwell Kirshner (Ray Milland) arrives at a mansion as a passenger in a wheelchair; once inside Kirshner asks if his experiment has been a success, and is told by an orderly that it has been. He is taken to the basement, where we see the experiment is in fact a two headed gorilla (Rick Baker) that Dr. Kirshner has created. The experiment is to determine whether two heads can survive on a single body. Dr. Kirshner has done this because he hasn't much longer to live and wants to transplant his still living head from his lifeless body and onto a donor so that he may continue living and continue working as the world's most successful surgeon.
Dr. Kirshner returns to his hospital institute to oversee an operation performed by his close friend and associate doctor, Phillip Desmond (Roger Perry). Dr. Kirshner returns to the basement and his two headed gorilla to remove one of the heads from its body. Kirshner orders his assistants to sedate his creature, but plans go awry when the creature is upset about the needle and knocks Dr. Kirshner out of his wheelchair, hurting him badly. It then proceeds to smash up the lab and escapes. The creature runs away and into a supermarket, chased by the assistants, where he is caught.
Kirshner hires a new, African-American doctor, Dr. Fred Williams (Don Marshall), to help Desmond but when he discovers that Dr. Williams is African-American he tells Wiliams that he is no longer needed, to which Williams takes great offence.
Dr. Kirshner successfully removes the second head of the creature, and tells Desmond he is ready for his own transplant to a healthy donor. Desmond is not sure, until Kirshner tells him that the head that is now on the gorilla is in fact the second head he put on. He had successfully removed the original gorilla's head and replaced it with the second transplanted one.
...
Wikipedia