This film is, well, amazing. And trashy, awful, dirty, and offensive. But amazing. This 70minute epic is laid out mostly through a series of interview flashbacks à la Citizen Kane, only the central character, Arthur Barlen, isn't dead or rich, he's just on the run. Determined to find him is his uncle Detective Bill Barlen. And why is he on the run? And what is this fucking movie about, exactly? It goes like this:

Arthur Barlen is a shy, mild mannered twenty-something. You know the type: parted hair, sweater vests, khakis, the date that always gets you home on time. About eight months before the narrative begins, Arthur visits one Dr. Meade for a routine appendectomy. He takes a liking to the doctor's assistant, Felix, and they quickly become best friends. Felix, an outgoing playboy, seems determined to help Arthur lose his virginity. But sadly, Felix dies of “a very rare virus.”

Distraught, Arthur asks Dr. Meade to perform a dangerous penis transplant operation. “I want you to put Felix's penis on me!” he begs. Dr. Meade refuses, arguing firstly that such a dangerous operation would make him no better than a murderer. But besides which, he continues, sexual desire is an emotional process, not physical. But Arthur's mind is made up and he resorts to blackmailing the good doctor to ensure compliance. The surgery is a success.

Or is it? Arthur feels more or less normal... except... gold earrings. Felix used to “[get] terribly excited, passionate,” at the sight of gold earrings. It would seem that the penis brought with it this affinity, only times infinity. The mere glimpse of glimmering gold turns sensitive Arthur into a gibbering sex maniac and casual killer. So strong is his compulsion he accidentally kills his longtime sweetheart Ann Thorne and is forced to go underground.

Despite the precinct's policy against working on cases involving relatives, Detective Bill Barlen is granted just 24 hours to locate his deranged nephew. But with nothing more than an address book to go on, his search is slow going at best. Will he find Arthur in time? And before he kills again?

By the time The Amazing Transplant came to fruition, Doris Wishman had been making celluloid love for over a decade. This was, however, only her second feature to be shot in color. And holy fucking Gwendoline in Yik-Yak is this colorful! The sets and costumes are so ridiculously vibrant as to be positively blinding. It is astonishing to think she achieved such visual depth with the inferior film stocks available at the time. And aside from some unavoidable, penetrating scratches on the negative, the Something Weird DVD transfer is gorgeous.

Wishman pushed the bounds of morality to the breaking point with unabashed sexual content and downright gratuitous nudity. And like the films of her peer, Russ Meyer, the softcore threads are but one ingredient in the intelligent and darkly satirical tapestry. Amidst the silliness, Wishman fearlessly addresses hard subjects like homosexuality, disease, rape, prostitution. The fact that anyone, let alone a woman, was able to accomplish this is mind boggling. To put it into perspective, it would be another year and half before the release of Deep Throat.

The Amazing Transplant, despite being more than three and a half decades old, is a thoroughly entertaining experience. For some reason, Hollywood has opted not to rape and recycle her body of work ad nauseam, which means it feels just as imaginative and fresh as ever. Highly recommended!