*** (out of ****)
Funnymen Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks first met in the 1950s while working in the writers room for comedian Sid Caesar. Reiner would repeatedly refer to Brooks as one of the funniest men he ever met. The two would go on to create their own comedy magic in the 1960s releasing the comedy album, "The 2,000 Year Old Man". The routine would allow the men to frequently appear on various talk shows and variety shows throughout the decade. Eventually each man went out on their own to make feature length comedies.
Many decades ago I saw a television special that aired on PBS - during one of their pledge drives - called "Caesar's Writers". It was hosted by Billy Crystal and featured Sid Caesar and his many writers through the years, including Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Neil and Danny Simon, Larry Gelbart and Aaron Ruben talking about their time together working on Caesar's TV shows in the 1950s - "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour". The shows and these men helped solidify "Jewish humor" as "America's humor". During the show Neil Simon admits after working together everyone became members of each other's fan club, following their careers.
This is all a long way of getting around to say, "The Man With Two Brains" (1983) is Carl Reiner's answer to Mel Brooks and "Young Frankenstein" (1974). I would never suggest anything as nefarious as deep rooted jealousy between the two men but clearly Reiner was somewhat influenced by "Young Frankenstein". Otherwise I have no real way of explaining the existence of the movie. Both movies are tributes to the cinema of yesterday. Brooks spoofed the horror genre - more specifically the first three "Frankenstein" movies - and Reiner pokes fun at science fiction and "mad scientist" movies, which "Frankenstein" (1931) qualifies as one of.
"The Man With Two Brains" was Carl Reiner and Steve Martin's third collaboration (of four) coming after "The Jerk" (1979) and "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (1981), which was itself another homage to the Hollywood of the past - a satire of film noir. The experience of that movie, which inserted classic movie clips into a modern day story - long before "Forrest Gump" (1994) - may have served as an inspiration for "The Man With Two Brains". Unfortunately, unlike "Dead Men" and "Young Frankenstein" this isn't as lovely a tribute to the genre it is spoofing. Both "Dead Men" and "Young Frankenstein" were shot in black & white to capture the visual representation of the time period. Both movies had musical scores that paid homage to the spirit of the genres being spoofed. And most importantly, both movies were parodies of movies and genres that I believe are far more ingrained into the pop culture than anything "Two Brains" is targeting.
For whatever reason - most likely cost - Reiner wasn't able to duplicate the technical artistry of "Dead Men" which had incredible cinematography, production and costume designs and music. I'm sure a studio executive told Reiner you CAN'T make two black & white movies back-to-back in the 1980s! We have color now! Brooks coincidentally was told the same thing after "Young Frankenstein" when he pitched his next movie, "Silent Movie" (1976). "Two Brains" was coming to us in a changing comedy landscape. Audiences had been subjected to not only the outlandish nature of Brooks' comedies but "Airplane!" (1980) and Steve Martin's "wild and crazy guy" stand-up. "Two Brains" is competing with the zany "Airplane!" style of humor as much as it is "Young Frankenstein".
All four of the Reiner / Martin collaborations served the purpose of being showcases for Martin's humor, trying to adapt his stand-up style to the big screen. During this time period and using this criteria as the standard, nothing comes close to matching "The Jerk". "Dead Men", while technically a superior movie, stunts Martin's style. "Two Brains" seems to be an equal balance between Reiner's and Martin's comedic sensibilities. Depending upon where you stand on the issue this may explain why "Two Brains" didn't enjoy the same success culturally, financially and popularity as "The Jerk".
In "The Man With Two Brains" Martin plays a renowned brain surgeon Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr, an obvious nod to the goofy character names given to Groucho Marx and W.C. Fields. The pronunciation of the name is one of the movie's long running gags, with the doctor helpfully informing others the name is pronounced as it is spelled (!). Dr. Hfuhruhurr has created a new method for performing brain surgery. He calls it the "cranial screw-top" where he is able to simply screw the top portion of a cranium off. Luckily the movie offers no explanation on how this is accomplished. We simply see Dr. Hfuhruhrr twisting away and repeatedly demanding someone get the damn cats out of the operating room (another running gag).
Dr. Hfuhruhurr is also still grieving the loss of his wife Rebecca, just like in the Hitchcock movie. While giving an interview in his car, he accidentally hits a woman running in the street, Dolores (Kathleen Turner). Immediately drawn to her beauty, the doctor is desperate to save her life by performing his screw top brain surgery. Everything is a success and during Dolores' recovery, Dr. Hfuhruhurr falls in love with her and the two get married. An incredibly funny scene involves the doctor speaking to a portrait of his deceased wife, asking her to show him a sign if she objects.
What Dr. Hfuhruhurr doesn't know however is Dolores was responsible for the death of her ex-husband and possibly other men as well, whom she simply marries for their money. Will Dr. Hfuhruhurr be her next victim? Will he discover Dolores secret? Before anything can happen, Dr. Hfuhruhurr meets another doctor in Vienna who is also engaging in experimental brain surgery methods. Dr. Necessiter (David Warner) is able to keep the brain of dead corpuses alive but only if they have died a certain way. They must have died while being injected with glass cleaning solution. This presents an amazing coincidence since a serial killer is going around murdering people in elevators by using glass cleaning solution!
Through the miracle of movie science, one of the brains is able to telepathically communicate with Dr. Hfuhruhurr and no one else. Dr. Hfuhruhurr begins to fall in love with the brain while his wife Dolores begins to feel neglected. The doctor is truly a man caught between two brains.
With the goofy title alone it is clear what "The Man With Two Brains" is aiming for - spoofing 1950s and 60s science fiction movies with equally goofy titles like "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" (1962), "Donovan's Brain" (1953) - which is directly referenced, and older titles like "The Man Who Changed His Mind" (1936). It is also hitting on similar themes presented in those movies which had strong anti-science messages, revolving around men playing God and/or showing a complete lack of respect for tradition and culture. The true motivating factor behind Dr. Hfuhruhurr's work is to achieve fame and fortune and eventually love but not to make the world a better place.
The nature of the movie allows more freedom for Martin and to be his wild and crazy self. And as simply a showcase for that, "The Man With Two Brains" succeeds though I never personally felt the movie reaches the level of greatness that I would reserve for zany comedies of the 1930s and 40s starring the Marx Brothers, Wheeler and Woolsey in "Diplomaniacs" (1933), Olsen & Johnson in "Hellzapoppin'" (1941) or W.C. Fields in "Million Dollar Legs" (1932).
Still I must admit I do admire the movie's spirit and cornball jokes. I love when Dr. Hfuhruhurr enters a man's condo building, he finds the inside of his unit to be an old mansion. I love that the walls in the condo are so paper thin that they are actually made of paper. Or that a next door neighbor had a battering ram immediately available to be borrowed. The screw-top method of brain surgery is inspired as is the gag about the scientist's laboratory equipment being coin operated.
And yet part of me wishes the vulgarity of the movie would have been toned down. This I attribute to Martin. I wouldn't consider myself a prude but how much better would "The Man With Two Brains" have been if it relied more on wit than flat out sex jokes? The contrast of 1940s sensibility and Martin's modern humor was meant to serve as the center piece in "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" though the un-evenness of style didn't always work. Unfortunately, I suspect that may have been why "The Man With Two Brains" didn't try to truly capture the period of the movies being satirized. It restricts Martin too much. The Martin / Reiner collaborations rank among Reiner's best films but not necessarily among Martin's - with the exception of "The Jerk". It is difficult to find the right balance between the two men's comedy. Notice how Martin would eventually tone down the vulgarity after this period with Reiner and those movies would become either critical successes and/or fan favorites - "Three Amigos" (1986), "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" (1987), "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" (1988) and "Father of the Bride" (1991).
For Carl Reiner's part we can see why the film's satire of classic Hollywood would appeal to him and most likely were his contributions to the collaboration with Martin. Sid Caesar's TV shows were known for their movie spoofs which Reiner not only wrote the sketches for but acted in as well. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that Reiner considered "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" his best movie. Whether or not Steve Martin would admit it, Carl Reiner helped refine Martin's humor and give it structure. "The Man With Two Brains" also ever so slightly hits on one of Reiner's favorite themes - men looking to achieve fame.
"The Man With Two Brains" isn't a great comedy but it is occasionally funny and sometimes truly inspired. Unfortunately, it doesn't feel like the same care was given to this topic as had been with "Dead Men" but again there's no denying the movie is funny.
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