The Thing with Two Heads

"They transplanted a white bigot's head on a soul brother's body!" reads the tagline for this 1972 cult oddity starring Ray Milland as racist doctor Maxwell Kirshner, suffering from a fatal condition, who plans to graft his own head onto another living body. After a successful experiment with a gorilla and a surreal chase with a two-headed ape (a guy in an ape suit, of course) running through suburbia, Kirshner goes into a coma and his protégé moves Kirshner's head onto a death row prisoner named Jack Moss (Rosey Grier), who also happens to be a black man. Although essentially an example of grindhouse ‘70s sci-fi cinema, a case might be made for the film's racial politics, as the white head—colonized on a black man—tries to claim ownership of that body even while the black head is still alive. But that would be giving too much credit to a ridiculous flick that practically begs the audience to overlook its cheap effects (the dummy head of Milland looks like it's about to fall off during an extended dirt-bike chase, while the close-ups make it look like Milland is standing on tiptoe trying to peek over Grier's shoulder). When Jack shows up at his girlfriend's place with this unwanted passenger, she asks: "I was wondering… do you have two of anything else?" Yes, it's infamously bad, but that's why it's a cult film—perhaps the weirdest, silliest drive-in movie ever made about race relations. Optional. (S. Axmaker)