Monday, August 11, 2008

The Thing With Two Heads

You might have thought that a role in The Thing With Two Heads (1972) would have been beneath Ray Milland’s dignity. But fair dos to the man, he was always prepared to put in a shift. In this flick, Milland plays a racist bigot whose head has been grafted onto the body of a soul brother. The heavy handed liberal message and extremely poor production values have ensured that it regularly makes it onto those '50 worst movies ever made' lists.

The downward trajectory of Milland’s career is quite interesting. At his peak he was playing suave romantic leads opposite the likes of Marlene Dietrich and Lana Turner. His popularity reached its zenith in 1945 when he won a best actor Oscar for his memorable performance as an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend. However, as he got older and his looks began to fade, he switched to b-movies and horror films, appearing in such cult classics as: Dial M For Murder (1954); Premature Burial (1962); and The Man With X-Ray Eyes (1963).

Clearly, he was scraping the barrel by appearing in The Thing with Two Heads, but nevertheless this YouTube trailer is absolutely hilarious, and will spare you the agony of having to watch the whole film. Enjoy.