classicsoncall Review of The Man with Two Brains

The Man with Two Brains (1983)

"I've had the top of her head off, but that's as far as it went."

[7/10 · 26 November 2022]

"The Man with Two Brains" came out during Steve Martin's wild and crazy period of the Eighties, and the movie lives up to the zany comedian's off the wall brand of humor. In it, he portrays world famous brain surgeon Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr, with the picture getting as much mileage as it can out of trying to pronounce his impossible last name. The title may be a bit of a misnomer, because midway in the story, we're introduced to Dr. Alfred Necessiter (David Warner), whose collection of brains in jars sets Hfuhruhurr into spasms of delight, particularly when one of them begins to communicate with him via some sort of unexplained verbal telepathy. You really don't have to explain any of this nonsense in a Steve Martin film, you pretty much just take it for granted. Among the scenes played for diversionary laughs are the 'Duke of Earl' girl (Randi Brooks) with the unusually caustic voice, and the revelation of the Elevator Killer, who to this day remains at large. But the biggest kick I got out of the entire picture was that early scene when Dr. Hfuhruhurr gives the young girl an impossibly long set of directions to call a hospital and she repeats it word for word without batting an eye. You have to read director Carl Reiner's recollection of that scene in IMDb's trivia notes for this movie, and how he ran into that actress over three decades later.