Curse of the Fly

1965's "Curse of the Fly" was a Robert L. Lippert production from the same team responsible for Lon Chaney's 1964 "Witchcraft," a genuinely well crafted script by Harry Spalding directed with real flair by Don Sharp following his Hammer entries "The Kiss of the Vampire" and "The Devil-Ship Pirates," and soon to kick off Christopher Lee's Fu Manchu series. The lack of a similar human creature with fly head may have contributed to its relative failure, at the box office as well as audience interest, but it turns out to be a return to the increased human drama that was such a standout feature of Kurt Neumann's 1958 original, kicking off with a striking opening in slow motion, shattered glass emerging from the broken window of a mental institution and the escape of Carole Gray's Patricia Stanley clad only in her underwear. Running down the dark road in full view of motorists, it's not long before George Baker's Martin Delambre picks her up and takes her to Montreal, a whirlwind romance resulting in a quickie marriage before returning to the country estate owned by his father Henri (top billed Brian Donlevy). Husband and wife also happen to be keeping secrets from each other, she a concert pianist who suffered a nervous breakdown at the sudden death of her demanding mother, he and his London brother Albert (Michael Graham) the offspring of the former Philippe from "Return of the Fly," the renamed Henri now an elderly man more obsessed than ever in continuing the teleportation methods begun by his late father, two lab assistants plus Martin's first wife all failed monstrosities locked away in outdoor cells. Henri's once happy ending in the second sequel was merely temporary, the fly genes making their presence felt by their relatively brief lifespans, Martin suffering from a condition of rapid aging requiring an injection of a special serum to keep him alive, a fate the normal Albert was fortunately spared. Patricia sees her disfigured predecessor playing piano in the middle of the night, wonders if she's losing her sanity all over again, Henri dissuading Martin from revealing the terrible truth to the new arrival until his love for her forces his hand. With the police investigation tightening like a noose around their necks, Henri has his staff set out to destroy every trace of evidence, but after two subjects are reintegrated together into one formless, inhuman blob, Albert takes matters into his own hands to cut off their London destination. Those who dismiss this sequel for its British origins must take into account the Canadian setting for all three titles, a long neglected gem for viewers who had little opportunity to see it. The role of Henri was written for Claude Rains, Brian Donlevy a weak substitute on wobbly alcoholic legs, ten years after his forceful rendition of Nigel Kneale's Quatermass in both "The Quatermass Xperiment" and "Quatermass 2," while returning from "Witchcraft" is the witch herself, Yvette Rees, a Barbara Steele lookalike here made up in stereotypical Asian as Wan, wife of Burt Kwouk's Tai (Tai-Wan?), her mission to terrorize the second wife in defense of the first.

I saw this as a kid and had read that it was the worst of the series. I don't think so! This one is the scariest, weirdest, most atmospheric and most unsettling of the FLY series. I think that if this film wasn't having to be compared to the first two, it would be more highly spoken of. The scene where the heroine discovers just who (or what) is playing the piano in the middle of the night sent chills up my spine. This film has enough ghoulish imagery that really stays with you long after you've seen it (and for me it's been over 20 years). The opening escape scene is ahead of it's time with the mental patient running in slow motion with the title credits over it. Some of the mutants are very quite disturbing to look at and there are plot twists and turns applenty. Basically, no one is safe or sacred in this dark final film in the series. I could talk more but I would spoil it for those who have never seen it. It used to be on television frequently but has now disappeared. However, it's well worth the trouble of finding it. This has the mark of a truly great horror film - it will continue to live in your memory long after your initial viewing. I am wishing for a DVD of it someday. The sad part is that it is the unfavorable comparisons to the original on the part of most critics that probably keep Fox from releasing a video of it. Let's hope they wise up and preserve it on disc before the negative is destroyed. That would be an un-fitting end for CURSE OF THE FLY which is an unsung masterpiece of a horror film.

The "curse" of the fly, is the "curse" of the DeLambre family, whom has lost family members experimenting with teleportation. Two of the family members bodies had been intermixed with the bodies of house flies in two earlier films. Hence, the "curse of the fly." No one turns into a "fly" in this one; but there are plenty of gruesome results nonetheless. Nothing in the film is better than the opening sequence, as heroine Carol Gray escapes from an asylum, only to meet and marry one of the "mad" DeLambres. The slow motion shattering glass creates quite an eerie effect. Much of what occurs in the film is gruesome rather than horrific. However, nothing is more frightening than Brian Donleavy carrying on a rational conversation arguing FOR the teleportation experiments, with his back covered in horrible radiation burns, the result of his self-experimentation. This is a powerful moment in an, otherwise, fairly routine programmer.

The Curse of the Fly is the third and the worst of the three Fly movies. This was made in Britain in 1965, six years after The Return of the Fly and has very little to do with the first two Fly movies.

The son of the original inventor of the transportation machine is continuing with his experiments and as a result of these, he has created mutants which he is keeping locked up in his mansion. At the end, the transporter is destroyed.

Despite this movie being rather disappointing, it has a decent cast: Brian Donlevy (The Quatermass Xperiment, Quatermass 2), George Baker (Inspecter Wexford in The Ruth Rendall Mysteries), Carole Gray (Island of Terror) and Burt Kwouk (who can currently be seen in Last of the Summer Wine).

Despite the above, Curse of the Fly is not totally unwatchable.

Rating: 2 stars out of 5.

Curse of the Fly may well be a surprise to you, as it was to me. Expecting some typically cheap, cheesy '60s B Horror film, I instead found a film that captured my attention with a better than average storyline, good acting, interesting, if dated, theories on teleportation, and some rather subtle humor. Burt Kwouk, who played the Chinese houseboy "Kato" in the Pink Panther films to Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau, and who seemed to be forever perpetrating sneak attacks on Clouseau, likewise turns up in this film as a Chinese houseboy, sans the martial arts bits. This time however, Kwouk is named "Tai". Yvette Rees, who plays the Chinese house'girl', as it were, is named "Wan". Tai and Wan? Taiwan?

Somebody obviously had a lot of fun writing the screenplay.

The opening scene, featuring the beautiful Carole Gray as Patricia Stanley escaping from a mental institution in her underwear as the opening credits roll, is one of the oddest introductory scenes to be seen in a film of this genre. Absolutely recommended for all fans of horror, suspense, '60s b&w's, camp, and films featuring unintentional humor