“I’m having trouble coming up with one for Lyz,” commented the Rev D. D. presciently, when this Roundtable was announced.
And indeed…
“Man,” I thought to myself when this topic was voted in, “I’m really in deeeeep trouble!”
.
…so it is with a certain sense of shame and several sincere mea culpas directed at the Reverend Roosevelt Grier that we present:
.
THE THING WITH TWO HEADS (1972)
.
.
.
Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
#1 by RogerBW on August 18, 2014 - 6:48 pm
Quote
O…..Kay. Only in the Seventies, I guess. And I shouldn’t ask silly questions like “where’s the air for Kirshner’s speech coming from”, not to mention all the complications of a bifurcated spine. But given all the talk about the missing witness and the murder charge, it does seem a bit odd simply to drop that once the film’s got to its requisite length.
Unless they were planning to make a sequel.
#2 by lyzard on August 18, 2014 - 7:32 pm
Quote
What, you haven’t seen this? Oh, shame! I’m prepared to let people off the hook over The Ghost Train, but everyone needs to see The Thing With Two Heads at least once.
If we wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, we could conclude that the complexity of the transplant lies in hooking the second head up to the various organ systems. They do talk about “spinal alignment” but ignore the rest.
There were a subset of blaxploitation films that were essentially about “actions with no consequences” – not just sticking it to The Man, but getting away with it – and this sits comfortably in that area.
#3 by The Rev. on August 18, 2014 - 8:10 pm
Quote
Yay, Lyz has mentioned me twice now in her little introductory blurbs! It wasn’t to talk about how much I creeped her out, either! Double y–
“What, you haven’t seen this? Oh, shame! I’m prepared to let people off the hook over The Ghost Train, but everyone needs to see The Thing With Two Heads at least once.”
Oh…oh, dear.
I guess this means Daimajin will have to wait while I find this movie. *slinks off*
#4 by lyzard on August 18, 2014 - 8:30 pm
Quote
I am astonished that so many people haven’t seen this! No hurry, though – just make sure it’s added to The List.
Yeah, I had a good laugh when you posted that comment. At that time I was trying to convince myself that my first pick for the Roundtable actually fitted the parameters, but I knew in my heart that though the person in question did other things besides act – or “act” – he was best known *as* an actor so that didn’t work. Poor Rosey ended up suffering the consequences.
(By saying Daimajin here, does that mean you’ve watched Contamination?)
#5 by The Rev. on August 19, 2014 - 11:56 am
Quote
Well, I found and watched this last night. I ended up making it a double-header and watched The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant as well. I’m not sure which I liked better, although I enjoyed both. This one is very light-hearted (although, as you mentioned, the serious racial stuff is really jarring as a result), Grier and Milland are a hoot together, and I enjoyed the chase sequence (a few of those crashes made me wince, though), although eventually I was left shaking my head at how long it was carrying on. The movie ending with only one problem resolved was annoying. Transplant doesn’t have any intentional tonal shifts, but definitely has more unintentional humor, particularly with Bloom limited to shaking his head, saying, “No,” and having glycerin applied to his face while Albert Cole appears to have the time of his life turning the dial on the hambone scale up to eleven. Bruce Dern is rather hypnotic. I did find that it tended to drag a bit, whereas Thing never really did. I think I should have watched them the other way around, but I’m not sure I can ever watch one without watching the other right after.
Not for a while, though, as I’m currently suffering from ’70s fatigue.
I guess in this case, “Don’t Quit Your Day Job” is simply because Grier never really had much of an acting career compared to his successes elsewhere, rather than because he was terrible at it?
You are correct, I did get to Contamination. I’m debating whether to throw my thoughts into the old thread on it, or clutter up this thread with them. Assuming anyone is interested.
#6 by blake on August 19, 2014 - 3:04 pm
Quote
The movie where the cycloptic alien with a vagina face eats people with a giant penis? I’d love to know your thoughts about it.
#7 by lyzard on August 19, 2014 - 10:24 pm
Quote
It’s the one where Ian McCulloch is the hero, yes. 🙂
That’s pretty much the excuse I’m going with, yes. Though I’d be willing to bet, when we get to the end of this, that of all the spotlighted performances, Rosey’s is the best.
#8 by The Rev. on August 19, 2014 - 11:36 pm
Quote
Okay, I thought so. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case re: performances, either.
I’m going to go ahead and toss my Contamination thoughts over in the appropriate thread and leave this one alone, as this movie is entertaining enough to deserve a relatively tangent-free thread.
#9 by blake on August 19, 2014 - 10:06 am
Quote
I’ve never seen this. But then, my blaxploitation experience is limited to Hot Potato; Shaft’s Big Score; and Shaft in Africa.
#10 by NineFingeredMenace on August 19, 2014 - 3:01 pm
Quote
I saw this not to long ago. Definitely an interesting movie, and I had some fun with it.
#11 by NineFingeredMenace on August 19, 2014 - 3:01 pm
Quote
I saw this not to long ago. Definitely an interesting movie, and I had some fun with it.
#12 by Ken on August 19, 2014 - 8:41 pm
Quote
reading, reading
hmm… (scroll scroll) no link… (backscroll) reading, reading…
surely… (click click) alphabetical… (click click) must be page six (click) (scroll scroll) No??? (click click) reading…
Aha! I knew this must have Immortal Dialog.
#13 by lyzard on August 19, 2014 - 8:53 pm
Quote
Wellll…that line always cracks me up, but this one’s really all about the visuals, isn’t it? Lila asking, “Does it talk?” always makes me laugh too, but it’s nothing without Rosey Grier poking Ray Milland in the cheek to get him to snarl.
#14 by Galaxyjane on August 19, 2014 - 9:50 pm
Quote
A long-time personal favorite of mine. The bit where Lila rejects Rosie’s advances and walks out of the room, following which he looks at Ray and comments something along the lines of “And now you see, you’ve got to go!” always does it for me.
Apropos of nothing, a friend’s mother was a stewardess in the 70s and was taught to cross-stitch by Rosie Grier on a trans-Atlantic flight. She had him as a passenger again some time later and showed him a quilt she was working on, using what he’d taught her. He asked her to let him see the quilt and spent the rest of the flight embroidering one of the squares for her. Now that is class! And yes, the work is lovely.
#15 by lyzard on August 19, 2014 - 10:22 pm
Quote
The man is a class act from start to finish. Which is why I feel really bad about doing this. Not bad enough not to do it, but, you know…
#16 by Alaric on August 20, 2014 - 5:13 pm
Quote
I’m frankly kind of amazed you haven’t reviewed Skyjacked yet.
Now I want to see an Adventures of Jack Moss TV series, taking place in the ’70s, of course. One episode he’s thwarting a UFO invasion, the next he’s teaming up with Evel Knievel to fight Bigfoot, the next he’s having a bigot’s head transplanted onto his body, the next he’s involved in a kung fu battle at a discotheque where punk rockers with psychic powers (powered by min-pyramids, of course) are throwing pet rocks at guys with horrible-looking perms…