Return of the Fly

This is the kind of sequel that can be rather enjoyable as long as you don't hold it up to the standard of the original. It does bear the signs of a movie that was conceived primarily to capitalize on the popularity of its predecessor, and as a result it is hardly as carefully constructed. But as light entertainment, it works well enough.

The first part of the movie connects things up pretty efficiently with the original story, and it's kind of fun to go back to André's wrecked lab, which looks just as it should. Brett Halsey plays André's son Philippe, who is determined to follow in his father's footsteps. While the setup could have led in a number of different directions, the story that actually follows puts an emphasis on action, and it uses the special visual effects rather more freely than in the original "Fly".

From a scientific viewpoint, the whole premise of both movies is far-fetched at best, but in the original, you rarely thought about it because the story was so tightly constructed. In the sequel, the implausibility of the whole thing is harder to ignore. It doesn't detract that much from the entertainment value, but it is a noticeable difference from the first movie.

Except for Vincent Price, the cast is new, but solid. While the production might have a couple of rough edges this time, most of it still looks good enough. Overall, with the right expectations this is a generally entertaining light feature.

While the fly "makeup" is as ridiculous as in the original, it's got nothing on the guinea pig paws. Add in obvious, under-lining music, delayed reactions, a clumsy fly-man, some overacting, action reminiscent of the old "Batman" series, "help me, help me" revisited, some fly-staring, 50s special effects - the "disintegrator-integrator" machine of the old beep-beep type (you can imagine the sounds), not to mention the creatures themselves, is amusing as anything - and some rodent-squelching, and you got yourself laughs aplenty.

The editing is really messy and ugly; there's much dead air in between, even though the film barely runs for 80 minutes! The camera-work is awkward as well.

The cliché-filled dialogue is often amusing, intentionally or not, with some of the highlights being the "if I tell you, it'll haunt you for the rest of your life" exchange, the whole bad guy routine and "the murderous brain of the fly". The what?

I don't think this was done tongue-in-cheek. It's basically the same story as in the original, which makes it seem redundant, but hey, it's mostly entertaining, so I guess that evens it out. Notice how I used the word "mostly".

"Return of the Fly" doesn't look as slick as its' predecessor, but it has something going for it that the first didn't: a better story and execution.

The film stars Vincent Price, reprising his role from the original. The basic plot is that the son of the scientist decides to carry on with his old man's experiments. The title pretty much gives away what's going to happen.

Or does it? One of the joys of "Return of the Fly" is that it's not a retread of the original film. It's a continuation that takes many unexpected twists and turns to its' (predictable) finale. The script, by 3 Stooges vet Edward L. Bernds (who also directed)also has large doses of black comedy in addition to the horror and drama. It also gives us characters we care about while the original had a scientific detachment to the characters. The result: a film that somehow manages to top the original.

One negative: if the original was in color, why is this in black and white?

**** out of 4 stars

Phillippe the son of the infamous Dr. Delambre, who still has an air of mystery around his death, is now a young man who has taken over his father's work, which his uncle Francois wants him to forget about. Though he gets conned into backing the experiment and that's only if he can supervise the project, so it doesn't happen again. The experiment is going quite well, up until later on when Phillippe finds out his mischievous assistant has betrayed him, as he's secretly selling the idea of the teleportation device to another backer. So, to stop the word getting out, his assistant provides him with the same fate that his father had fought. Now, it's a race against time for Francois and Inspector Beecham to save Phillippe from the same aftermath of his father.

Right of the back of the original film, comes a rather quickie of a sequel that doesn't push any limits. Firstly, no way does it come close to the superior original, but as an automatic b-grade monster feature, it's provides enough rollicking fun. Well, when you got Price on show, how can you go wrong? What we get is a bland story structure that lacks an ounce of life and astuteness, though it does have a few inspired moments, but these are far and in between many inferior sequences that come off just plain ordinary with some confusing plot details. The original managed to work around the silly context, but here it tends accept it by working in laughable story turns and monster effects. Even the dialog seems more like schlock, without the savvy and witty dialog that made the first film naturally engaging. The performances are all but cold and lifeless, but with the obvious exception of Vincent Price. He just has a spellbinding presence that when the words roll of his tongue, it has a Shakespearean vibe, no matter how bad the lines were. Price's performance is definitely this film's anchor. The rest of the characters I didn't care for, as they are rather unsympathetic and foolish.

There was just more attention to fabricating unpleasant and cheap thrills, which are more out of control with a monster out for revenge hook-line. It's more violent than its predecessor too. I give it credit that it's more exciting in its basic dementia of its creation, but hell the treatment of the story and effects were laughable. That's unintentionally, though. This one seems more serious, but it's outlandishly executed in a drab fashion. But ironically everything works out in the long run with a happy ending for all… well for the good guys. Now the effects are decent, but when it came to the fly's head on the human body. Why was it that huge!? It looks stupid! Sure, it looks even more hideous, but you got to be kidding, it was funny watching the guy running along while holding onto it, so it doesn't fall off. You could easily tell the guy was having trouble with it, even so when walking! They really out did themselves on that one.

Another note was that the pacing is rather brisk, gladly. Also it does provide slight dose of suspense and atmosphere, but more so it's preoccupied in its second-rate chills and mayhem instead. The flick is shot in black and white, and it does look rather sharp and crisp in detail. Plus there's some showy photography and framework that adds a bit more creative eye to the wailing production. The story's actions on this occasion were just too ridiculous to take seriously with it getting more risible the further it goes, but it seems pretty unaware to all of that.

It's not all that bad, but the quality is replaced by big chunks of camp that's more interested in wowing us with ludicrous action, rather then the strain it has on the characters and their relationships. Still, there's b-grade fun to be had here.

"The Return of the Fly" takes place many years after "The Fly". The dead scientist from the original film had a son, Philippe, and this young man has grown up and has a fixation of finishing his father's experiments...the same one that turned him into two fly/human hybrids. However, what he doesn't know is that his friend and lab assistant, Alan, is evil and plans on stealing the project. Ultimately, Alan deliberately turns Philippe into the hybrids and shoots Philippe's uncle (Vincent Price) as well!! What a jerk-face! Can they manage to find both fly-brids and reintegrate them back to the creatures they once were? And, can Alan be punished for his infamy?

Rarely would I say this, but this sequel is about equal in quality to the original film. Considering it came out only a year later, this isn't such a huge surprise. It also managed to be creative and original as well as entertaining. Well worth seeing...just like the prior film.