Today, Academy Award-winning actor Ray Milland is best remembered for his performance as an alcoholic in Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend or his role as an affable ex-tennis pro plotting to kill his wife in Alfred Hitchcock's one and only 3-D film, Dial M for Murder. But back in the '70s as the youth revolution came sweeping into Hollywood, it became difficult for the old guard to find work. Some simply retired, but others, such as Joan Crawford and Vincent Price, turned to Z-grade films to stay relevant and keep in front of the cameras -- Ray Milland was also one of the latter group. In the Blaxploitation/sci-fi mash-up, The Thing with Two Heads, Milland plays a dying racist surgeon who hatches a plan to attach his nimble noggin to another body to survive. Unfortunately, the only available donor is a black convict, played by none other than NFL superstar "Rosey" Grier -- and his head ain't goin' nowhere. The Thing with Two Heads screens at 8 p.m. as part of the Strange Brew series at Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue, Maplewood; 314-968-7487 or www.webster.edu/filmseries). Admission is $4.
Wed., Jan. 2, 2013
