There’s Always A Motorcycle: Not all films are Biker Flicks… But a hell of a lot have motorcycles in them!
THE THING WITH TWO HEADS (1972)
Run Time: 1:31:00
Producer: American International Pictures (AIP), Saber Productions
Director: Lee Frost
Writer: Lee Frost, Wes Bishop, James Gordon White
Key Cast: Roosevelt Grier, Ray Milland, Don Marshall
FILM MAKERS
They transplanted a WHITE BIGOT’S HEAD onto a SOUL BROTHER’S BODY!
This classic blaxploitation film was produced by B Movie powerhouse AIP and Directed by Lee Frost. A legend of exploitation cinema, Frost’s versatile credits are a mile long as he cranked out sleazy drive-in titles for decades. Nudie cuties, campy horror comedies, shocking Nazispoitation, mondo shock documentaries, and even the surprisingly decent biker flick Chrome and Hot Leather (1971). Frost and writing partner Wes Bishop also wrote the screenplay for the fantastic Peter Fonda & Warren Oates satanic dirt track horror romp classic Race With The Devil (1975), a film that Frost was hired to direct. Unfortunately, The studio wanted a major action hit similar to Peter Fonda’s previous movie Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, and lost confidence that Frost could deliver after only a few days of filming. Underwhelmed by the early footage, he was fired and replaced with Jack Starrett.
This film has been on the list for years, having screened at my own campy movie night Cine Meccanica almost two decades ago, but it never made it to The Vintagent Film Archive until we created ‘There’s Always A Motorcycle’. This collection gives home to the films that are embedded in the collective two wheeled mind, but really aren’t biker flicks at all. While it promoted a provocative poster image of the two headed monster crashing into frame on a dirt track bike to draw audiences in, there are no motorcycles in the film other than a lengthy chase scene to outrun the cops. Which is totally worth it!
But why a motorcycle scene at all you may ask? perhaps it’s a forgotten homage to the forgotten original film of which The Thing With Two Heads was a remake. The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971) starring Bruce Dern, a man with more biker flick credits to his name than just about anyone else in the business. This film too will finally be roaring its way into The Vintagent Film Archive’s ‘There’s Always A Motorcycle’ collection. Stay tuned!
SUMMARY
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Doctors are forced to transplant the head of terminally ill, arthritic racist surgeon Maxwell Kirshner onto the body of African American Death Row inmate Jack Moss because there is no other donor.
*Variety called the film “slickly imaginative.” Roger Ebert gave the film one star out of four, noting how lurid promotional material warned viewers the film was so shocking they risked heart attacks or strokes, but “The only first aid they really need is hot coffee for the patrons who doze off.” The Los Angeles Times called the film “every bit as preposterous as it sounds. It is also utterly hilarious, and any picture that can point up the absurdity and cruelty of racial prejudice with such incessant laughter deserves respect. Indeed, this American International release is a well-calculated, competently made exploitation picture that offers lots of fun.”
RELATED MEDIA
Watch the FULL FILM on Youtube
Related Posts
The Vintagent Classics: Chrome Soldiers
Even the jungles of 'Nam' didn't…
The Vintagent Classics: Chrome & Hot Leather
It’s kill or be killed in a cycle…
The Vintagent Classics: Motorcycle Gang
You’ve got a one cylinder mind.
Heeheeheeheehee … Hahahahahahahaha … Arrrrgggggggggg .. OMG .. if that aint the most ridiculous , ludicrous piece of celluloid ever … eeesh …. suffice it to say …. there’s bad …. there’s even worse … and then there’s ( bleep ) like this making the worst seem good in comparison ……
😎
There’s a good reason my long running, infamous vehicular movie night Cine Meccanica proclaimed that it played “the good, the bad…and the bizarre!” 😉
what would shitslinger know about movies.His people even wrapped their toilets in clear plastic slipcovers
” Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends ” … unfortunately . .
So what Splink ? … now you’re tryin ta go down the NostraDumbAss route ? Seriously Splinky … get yerself another idol …. this’n aint workin so well fer ya .. not to mention it/he hates yer guts with a passion !
see how you like it