The Man with Two Heads (1972) User Reviews

An almost watchable film from Andy Milligan

[jrd_73 · 3/10 · 10 March 2011]

Let's get this out in the open: I don't get the cult of Andy Milligan. I can certainly respect a guy determined to make a film no matter how low the budgets, no matter how cheap the film stock, no matter how limited his means. That does not mean that I have to like the end results. Most of Andy Milligan's films are nearly unwatchable for anyone who demands a minimal level of quality. Static shots that run on forever, unconvincing (to say the least) period designs, and bad acting, that is what one gets with Andy Milligan.

Having said all that, The Man with Two Heads is a marked improvement. Oh, it's still bad; let's not delude ourselves on that point. However, this film features a far better leading actor, Denis DeMarne, than normal and a better story (taken from Robert Louis Stevenson of course). There is still the lousy cinematography and the cheap sets (a medical school that consists of four students meeting in someone's basement). Still, compared to Monstrosity? Compared to Carnage? Compared to The Rats Are Coming, The Werewolves Are Here? Compared to them, The Man with Two Heads is a (small) step above.

Milligan does Jekyll and Hyde, with typically amateurish results

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 9 November 2016]

It's easy to mix up Andy Milligan's THE MAN WITH TWO HEADS with THE THING WITH TWO HEADS, a cult movie that came out the same year about a two-headed monster. This film's two-headed creature is a metaphorical one; the film is actually Milligan's version of the Jekyll and Hyde story, and like most of his work from the era (e.g. BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS) it's a period piece that was shot in London. It's also very dull.

Although the film is more coherent than most of Milligan's fare, the truth is that it's not very good. It's not a long film but the pacing drags out endlessly nonetheless. There's the usual combination of slow and talky moments, amateur theatrics-level acting from the unknown cast members, and a few moments of high ham and cheesiness. Milligan can't resist throwing some bloodshed into the mix, which I'm all for, but his films are just too obviously hampered by their low budgets to make much of an impact except in the lowest of cult circles. You can go ahead and watch just about any other version of the Robert Louis Stevenson story and find it more entertaining than this one.

memories

[Fly-10 · 3/10 · 6 June 1999]

A funny thing happened to me as I was browsing around the other day that couldn't be overlooked. Many years ago I saw this awful film. At the time I was kind of spooked by it. It had this kind of quality that will scare a four year old. All in all this is truly bad movie making at its finest. A must see for the experiece.

Andy, WHAT were you thinking?

[reptilicus · 3 April 2001]

A writer for the late, unlamented magazine "Demonique" tried to review this movie but got the plot hopelessly confused with THE INCREDIBLE TWO HEADED TRANSPLANT leading me to think he had not bothered to see Andy Milligan's film at all. The protagonist in Andy's no-budget thriller only has one head. This is actually our favourite Staten Island auteur's take on "Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde". We know we are well off the beaten path when Dr. Jekyll, lecturing his students, injects a disembodied brain with his new serum and it turns green (by shining a green light on it); and when Jekyll instructs his students to dismember a cadaver "So that it can be properly disposed of." and they gleefully hack it to pieces with axes and cleavers! Andy's eccentric touches add an originality to the plot that no one else had ever touched on (well okay maybe Hammer with THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL). The doctor's alter ego visits an S&M club and we get to see such Milligan mainstays as flogging and a man with his eyes poked out with knitting needles. It is clear that Andy really felt the plot had nowhere to go and it becomes a fill-in-the-blank affair when only half the running time has expired. I call THE RATS ARE COMING, THERE WEREWOLVES ARE HERE his best film, this one has to be his worst. If you are a Milligan completist (like myself!) you should see it once though, his quirky charm is indeed evident even here.

Crash course in brain surgery, as they say

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 17 August 2023]

The Amazing Two-Headed Transplant came out in 1971 and The Thing With Two Heads more famously was playing theaters in 1972, but as strange as it is seeing Rosey Grier and Ray Milland share the same body, Andy Milligan can somehow outdo any movie, one or tw0-headed, just by making his normal - well, not really normal - movie.

Don't be put off by the idea that this is based on a classic book like Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mri Hyde. It's still certifiable.

Dr. Jekyll (Dennis DeMarne) has perfected a surgery - well, as much as cracking open a skull and poking a brain can be an operation - that allows him to isolate the evil in the brain. Everyone thinks that this is a ludicrous idea, so he invents a formula that allows someone to become the dark side of their mind. Why would anyone want this? Science is like that. Now, the good doctor becomes Danny Blood, who is everything twisted inside his once medically inclined brain.

Instead of just being with his wife - who definitely wants him - Mary Anne Marsden (Gay Field), Jekyll would rather experiment in the laboratory. His assistant, Jack Smithers (Berwick Kaler), would rather be getting with Jekyll's sister Carla (Jaqueline Lawrence), so in the middle of their tryst, he gets all the formula's notes soaked. That means there's no changing back now.

But does the doctor even want to? I mean, Danny Blood does stuff like force barmaid April Conners (Julia Stratton) to bark like a dog and rides her around quite literally while absolutely shrieking, "You shouldn't be allowed on the face of this earth! You're scum! You're the defecation of the slums of London!"

I mean, if that's consensual, good for you, Danny Blood. But then he decides that topping ladies isn't enough. He needs to kill some to get off.

Who loved the fog machine more? Andy Milligan or Lucio Fulci? I mean, my nose is burning just from watching this and it was made fifty years ago. But whatever. Smoke up all the fog, Andy, and let your characters shout at the heavens.

But no, no one in this movie has two heads.

Another dreadful Milligan mess.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 8 February 2024]

Dr. William Jekyll (Denis DeMarne) perfects a formula that can isolate and treat evil in the brain. Unfortunately, Jekyll's incompetent assistant Jack Smithers (Berwick Kaler) drops the only vial of the serum, and then accidentally spills a liquid over the one existing copy of the formula, covering up his mistake by writing in what he thinks has been eradicated. When Jekyll knocks up a new batch of the serum, using the incorrectly amended formula, he transforms into a wicked fiend who takes pleasure in degrading, humiliating and killing those unfortunate to cross his path.

Andy Milligan's version of Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is incredibly talky, which isn't a good thing when the dialogue is so badly written and the acting is so amateurish. Of course, being a Milligan film, The Man With Two Heads was almost guaranteed to be awful no matter how good or bad the script and performances, the direction being of the low, low calibre we have come to expect from the man who gave us such garbage as The Ghastly Ones (1968), Torture Dungeon (1969), Bloodthirsty Butchers (1970), The Body Beneath (1970), Guru the Mad Monk (1970), The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! (1972), Carnage (1984) and Monstrosity (1987), all of which I have had the misfortune to see.

The photography is horrible, the sound quality is bad, the editing chaotic, and the pace sluggish; as a result, the whole thing is a crushing bore to sit through, despite some cheapo gore effects and one of cinema's more despicable and unhinged Mr. Hydes (although in this film, Jekyll's villainous alter-ego goes by the name of Danny Blood).

2.5/10, generously rounded up to 3 for Danny Blood's ability to whip out a meat cleaver from nowhere, and for the thickest and most sudden pea-souper to ever hit Victorian London.

A Coherent Story from Milligan?

[Michael_Elliott · 23 October 2015]

The Man With Two Heads (1972)

** (out of 4)

Dr. William Jekyll (Denis DeMarne) believes he has come up with a formula that will take the evil out of man. Without any animals or patients to try the formula on the doctor takes it himself and turns into a violent madman.

This film was released the same year as THE THING WITH TWO HEADS so the producer changed the title to THE MAN WITH TWO HEADS but rest assured there's no one here with two heads. This here is obviously Andy Milligan's take on the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story and for the most part it's a half-way decent movie. Milligan has gained a fairly good cult following over the years, although most people consider him one of the worst director's of all time. His ultra-cheap movies are hard to sit through at times because of how awful and boring they are but this here is better than I expected.

Once again this film is a period piece, which is something I don't think really helped too many of the director's movies. For the most part the performances are decent for this type of movie and DeMarne is perfectly capable of pulling off the lead role. The most shocking thing is that Milligan is able to tell a coherent story and it actually makes sense! With that said, even at just 80 minutes the film drags and feels twice as long, which is what keeps it from being more entertaining.