SNODS, CLODS and severed heads
We used to deal with DTC's (Donor Transplant Co-Ordinators) but now we deal with Senior Nurses in Organ Donation and Clinical Leads in Organ Donation, or SNODs and CLODS in other words. Not sure if they were consulted about the name change - I suspect not. One CLOD was having trouble erecting a banner stand, so I asked her to send it over to see if I could get it up in our office. I not only got it up, it stayed up all night. I told the CLOD and she said she'd talk to one of her SNODs about it. I think she was impressed. And this is my working life, difficult as it is to believe.
While the banner stand was upright, it radiated a powerful message about organ donation into the surrounding area. Ben the temp did a double take when he encountered it on leaving - almost, he was moved to hand one of his kidneys to a colleague right there and then. I explained that this was a new marketing strategy. Instead of targeting the widest possible number of people, the new focus, 'going forward', would be on much smaller audiences: for example, him. 'If any street theatre breaks out in your vicinity, you'll know what it's about.'
All this exposure to the message has had its effect on me too. I have been conducting my own research into organ donation in the way I know best - by exposing myself to films on the subject. It may be that The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant starring Bruce Dern is not the most scientifically-credible guide to the field (half-close your eyes, and you're watching a Will Ferrell comedy) but we learn some valuable things. Don't sew a violent madman's head onto the body of an educationally-challenged hulk, for example.
Which brings me to The Man With The Severed Head, just out on DVD from Arrowdrome. Whoever they are. When I bought this in HMV the man said, as they are forced to do, 'Have you found everything you're looking for?' No, as it turned out.
I suspect that this isn't the best introduction to Paul Naschy, Europe's greatest horror icon (if you forget that England is in Europe). However, it must serve as mine. Naschy plays a thief who gets a bullet in the brain. Luckily he knows a doctor who knows a doctor who is an expert in 'the field of brain transplants', this being apparently the only cure for his affliction, though the doctor, through the terrible dubbing, does warn that there might be 'personality problems'. What, a brain transplant causing a personality change? I've learned something already.
But first an unwilling donor must be found. Exercising rigorous quality control, Naschy's cohorts immediately settle upon Naschy's arch-enemy, a man known only as 'the Sadist' - hmm, nope, can't see a problem here. As it turns out, this is 'only' a partial brain transplant, and therefore wrapped up in minutes by the doctor's wife (because the doctor's hands don't work for some reason I failed to grasp). It is an operation whose finer points are clearly hard to take in, since they have eluded even the author of the blurb on the back of the DVD, which claims that Naschy's brain is transplanted into the Sadist's body. This makes much more sense, but it isn't what happens in the film. Just as well, I suppose, since as a vehicle for Naschy the film would have been a bit of a damp squib if, having spent the first half of it in a state of unconsciousness, his character was, on awakening, played by somebody else.
As it is, we get a decent helping of Naschy running amok with a bandage round his head, glowering balefully. It seems that having part of a sadistic criminal's brain inserted into yours can transform you, through some kind of weird supernatural process, into a sadistic criminal. Although, since we saw very little of Naschy before the bullet hit him, we have to take it as read that he wasn't like this anyway.
Also present on the DVD are 'additional erotic scenes'. These are much more fun, I find, if you think of them, not as deleted scenes, but as behind-the-scenes footage - as if the whole film was just an excuse for everyone to get together and have sex. Which, as I understand it, is indeed the reason most films get made.
Curiously, one of these 'erotic scenes' merely shows a nude female corpse toppling out of a wardrobe. One for specialised tastes, I suppose.
As for the film's effectiveness as a marketing tool for organ donation, I am going to have to rate this one: low. Next week: Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed.
While the banner stand was upright, it radiated a powerful message about organ donation into the surrounding area. Ben the temp did a double take when he encountered it on leaving - almost, he was moved to hand one of his kidneys to a colleague right there and then. I explained that this was a new marketing strategy. Instead of targeting the widest possible number of people, the new focus, 'going forward', would be on much smaller audiences: for example, him. 'If any street theatre breaks out in your vicinity, you'll know what it's about.'
All this exposure to the message has had its effect on me too. I have been conducting my own research into organ donation in the way I know best - by exposing myself to films on the subject. It may be that The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant starring Bruce Dern is not the most scientifically-credible guide to the field (half-close your eyes, and you're watching a Will Ferrell comedy) but we learn some valuable things. Don't sew a violent madman's head onto the body of an educationally-challenged hulk, for example.
Which brings me to The Man With The Severed Head, just out on DVD from Arrowdrome. Whoever they are. When I bought this in HMV the man said, as they are forced to do, 'Have you found everything you're looking for?' No, as it turned out.
I suspect that this isn't the best introduction to Paul Naschy, Europe's greatest horror icon (if you forget that England is in Europe). However, it must serve as mine. Naschy plays a thief who gets a bullet in the brain. Luckily he knows a doctor who knows a doctor who is an expert in 'the field of brain transplants', this being apparently the only cure for his affliction, though the doctor, through the terrible dubbing, does warn that there might be 'personality problems'. What, a brain transplant causing a personality change? I've learned something already.
But first an unwilling donor must be found. Exercising rigorous quality control, Naschy's cohorts immediately settle upon Naschy's arch-enemy, a man known only as 'the Sadist' - hmm, nope, can't see a problem here. As it turns out, this is 'only' a partial brain transplant, and therefore wrapped up in minutes by the doctor's wife (because the doctor's hands don't work for some reason I failed to grasp). It is an operation whose finer points are clearly hard to take in, since they have eluded even the author of the blurb on the back of the DVD, which claims that Naschy's brain is transplanted into the Sadist's body. This makes much more sense, but it isn't what happens in the film. Just as well, I suppose, since as a vehicle for Naschy the film would have been a bit of a damp squib if, having spent the first half of it in a state of unconsciousness, his character was, on awakening, played by somebody else.
As it is, we get a decent helping of Naschy running amok with a bandage round his head, glowering balefully. It seems that having part of a sadistic criminal's brain inserted into yours can transform you, through some kind of weird supernatural process, into a sadistic criminal. Although, since we saw very little of Naschy before the bullet hit him, we have to take it as read that he wasn't like this anyway.
Also present on the DVD are 'additional erotic scenes'. These are much more fun, I find, if you think of them, not as deleted scenes, but as behind-the-scenes footage - as if the whole film was just an excuse for everyone to get together and have sex. Which, as I understand it, is indeed the reason most films get made.
Curiously, one of these 'erotic scenes' merely shows a nude female corpse toppling out of a wardrobe. One for specialised tastes, I suppose.
As for the film's effectiveness as a marketing tool for organ donation, I am going to have to rate this one: low. Next week: Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed.
posted by martin at 10:29 AM
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