The Thing with Two Heads is a 1972 American blaxploitation science fiction comedy film directed by Lee Frost and starring Ray Milland, Rosey Grier, Don Marshall, Roger Perry, Kathy Baumann, and Chelsea Brown.
Kirshner returns to his hospital institute to oversee an operation performed by his friend and associate doctor, Phillip Desmond.
Kirshner successfully removes the second head of the creature, and tells Desmond he is ready for his own transplant to a healthy donor.
One convict is led to the chair - an African-American himself, named Jack Moss- and he decides to volunteer for the science experiment because he is innocent of the crime he was supposed to have committed.
Williams tells Kirshner that he is dead wrong about that, as the removal procedure is easily done without the aid of the surgical team.
Desmond arrives with a nurse and an associate, who find Kirshner's detached head lying on the utensil table, hooked up to a heart and lung machine which keeps him alive.
The Thing with Two Heads is known for its soundtrack, produced by Michael Viner for MGM Records with a rotating cast of studio musicians whom he called the Incredible Bongo Band.
[3] The movie also features early work from makeup artist Rick Baker, a future Oscar winner.
[7] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave it two stars out of four, writing that after the operation, the thing "seems to exist only to be chased," adding, "Only the film's occasional humor keeps one in one's seat.
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.
"[10] Geoff Brown of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the two lead actors both gave "convincing performances" but wished that the filmmakers had done more with the premise, finding that the extended chase sequence "takes too much attention away from the movie's extraordinary hero.