Return of the Fly

Nice black & white follow-up to the colorful 1958's original. Philippe Delambre decides to continue his father's work, at the disapproval of his uncle François (an ever so great Vincent Price, reprising his role from the first film, this time having a lot more screen time). Inevitably, things go wrong again, but not the way one might expect they would. Actually, the subplot about betrayal and revenge is the one that drives this film and keeps it all interesting. And if you want to know what comes out of the second tele-pod when you throw a human and a hamster together in the first, then all you have to do is watch this sequel to know the answer. Decent classic horror entertainment. And a damn decent sequel to boot.

This rushed sequel to 1958's classic THE FLY is actually more entertaining than the original thanks to a faster pace and a greater emphasis on action and chills.

The original fly's son, Philippe, is now a brilliant young scientist in his own right. He seeks to reconstruct the teleportation device that erroneously turned his pops into a frightening (well, silly, actually) insect man. With the project a success, a crooked assistant -- in an apparent murder attempt -- teleports Philippe along with a fly (clever writing, I must say). Like father, like son, this bug man is out to terrorize. But maybe, just maybe the man within the beast can be salvaged.

With decent performances from Brett Halsey and the returning Vincent Price, this 1959 outing deserves its own place on the mantle of great black and white horror entries.

BRETT HALSEY is one of those handsome young actors from the '50s who never quite made it to stardom, and following the trend of other such actors, he fled to Europe where he found a niche for a decade or so in adventure films. He was certainly a competent enough actor and it's a shame Fox never groomed him for major stardom.

Nor did Fox have enough faith in this one to use technicolor (as they did for the original). As sequels go, it's just a fair job on an obviously shoestring budget--and basically, without giving any of the storyline away, it's a story of revenge.

It's all suitably photographed in low key B&W lighting that gives it the proper atmosphere. The performers are capable enough--including Halsey, Vincent Price, John Sutton and Dan Seymour--but their material is scarcely worthy of their combined talents. Fans of this sort of science fiction will no doubt find it has a certain amount of interest.

Anyone who enjoyed "The Fly" will want to see this and probably not be too critical of the shortcomings--although the special effects are not quite as harrowing as they could be.

Summing up: Okay for a viewing, but not likely to be the kind of horror flick anyone will want to revisit.

My words for this film are going to be less harsh than others for the simple fact that this film, in no way superior or even comparable to the original, is entertaining. The story has the little boy from the first Fly film, Phillipe, coming back to carry out the work of his father, against the express wishes of Vincent Price, his uncle. The plot is very predictable and the acting is nothing more than adequate(Vinnie notwithstanding). The film is in black and white, and in general very cheaply made. What then does it have going for it? Well, for one it has a nice performance by Vincent Price. Another thing is it has some bizarre scenes and murders, things lacking from the original. The guinea pig scene is reason enough to see the film.

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".