The Curse of the Fly

source: The Curse of the Fly

Curse of the Fly (1965) * 1/2 (out of 4) Second sequel to Fox's 1958 hit THE FLY tries something different but in the end it just doesn't work. The movie has a new Delambre (Brian Donlevy) doing more experiments with the help of his father (George Baker) but their plans are nearly ruined after sonny marries a woman (Mary Manson) who will soon learn what's going on. I first saw this film as a kid and hated it but decided to give it a second shot since I could now see it in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Did seeing it that way improve it? No, this is still an extremely boring film from start to finish. I do wonder why on Earth they had to have this as the third film in the series. For starters, the previous film was made several years earlier so I'm curious how many people even remembered the series by the time this one was released. The plot change takes away the human-fly connection in the first two films so once again, why make this a sequel instead of just trying something different? Either way, there are a lot of logical problems in this movie but I could overlook them. What I couldn't overlook is how boring all three characters are and how there's way too much dialogue. The British production is all over this thing as we get one big, long dialogue sequence after another and none of them are very entertaining. The movie has way too much plot being thrown at us and especially since we're hear to see a monster movie. As for the monster, they're certainly no where near those in the first two movies but they're not bad. The mutilated humans have some nice make-up effects and they're quite effective when seen. It's a shame that for the majority of the movie they're in hiding or no where to be found as they're clearly the most entertaining thing. This film has gained somewhat of a following over the years but sometimes I think people just pick movies with bad reputations and then try to "rediscover" them as some sort of mistaken classic. I'm really not sure how anyone could enjoy this film but perhaps some can put up with all the talking better than myself.

I just saw this flick on Fox movies since it first came out. I loved it. First I want to say there is no Fly in this movie. It is about the son and the grandsons of the original creator of the Teleporter machine. The Delamber family. The time line is way off because Brian Donlevy is the son and he is way too old to play him. If my recollection is correct the original Fly took place after WW II. The grandsons are more age appropriate. I just think the Producers needed a famous name for the movie and Donlevy was available. He does play the obsessed scientist very well though. He doesn't care how this life is affecting his sons. One, Albert is very troubled by his dads pursuits. He doesn't have much to do during the movie because he is in London and he just is used as the other half of the teleporter operator. Seems like this is a great high tech way of smuggling illegal aliens ,beam me up Scottie. Because the old man is in England in the beginning of the movie but he cannot legally return to Canada because of all of his hanky panky, his passport has been absconded by the cops. So the teleporter is used to get him back into Canada. Albert has a very important role at the end of the movie but before that all we know is that he is not a happy camper. I am not going to spoil the ending. When Dad gets back home he discovers that number 1 son has taken a wife. This scene is great. The old man is telling the son that it is impossible that he got married because his new wife will bring attention to the family and their experiments. Well the son tells dad that she has no family or friends so no one will look for her. Just as he is saying this to his father the screen cuts to a scene where we see a woman talking to the police about looking for this woman. Well it turns out it was his wife. So now the cops are coming to the Delambres. After that her life with the Delambres goes downhill. Her husband is summoned to the police about the missing woman while he is gone, she discovers something is not right in the old backyard. I will not tell what happens. But the movie has enough going for it to please most fans of these types of movies. We even have a little Jane Eyre and Rebecca story mixed up in the movie. You will know what I am talking about when you see the movie.

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.

(Some Spoilers) Even though "The Curse of the Fly" is the third installment of "The Fly" "The Fly" doesn't at all appear in the film, except for a photo of the original "Fly". Henri Delambre, Brian Donlevy, and grandsons Martin & Albert, George Baker & Michael Graham, are in the movie continuing his fathers work in perfecting the tele-transporter to be used in the future for the benefit of mankind. Even though Pop,Henri is as crazy and fanatical as can be in his pursuits to develop the tele-transporter his two boy's, Martin & Albert, are a bit turned off with his mad dreams that has taken a great toll on his health. Since it was making their lives a total wreck but still go alone with his research. Henri's experiments have taken a number of lives and horribly deformed some of the people that they were tried on, by putting them in that contraption, including Martin's wife Judith, Mary Manson and Martin and Henri themselves. Martin driving one evening sees this young women running down the road dressed only in her bra and panties and takes her to the hotel that he's staying at in Montreal Canada. Learning that her name is Pat, Carole Stanly, Martin in no time at all fall in love with her and the two are married within a week. Back at the Delmbra Mansion Martin continues his experiments with the tele-transporter with the help of his two live-in helpers the butler and maid Tie & Wan, Burt Kwouk & Yette Rees, with Pat blissfully ignorant of what happening in the house. When Martin's father Henri, back in London finds out that he did, got married he almost blows a fuse. Later finding out that Pat is an escapee from a local mental institution when Henri is tele-transported back to Montreal he realizes that now the police and hospital authorities will be snooping around the mansion. Henri gets Martin to show the police his marriage license with Pat to keep them off the premises,in order not for them to find out what he and Martin are doing there. There's another hitch in the plot when the police learn that Martin is still married to Judith, who mysteriously disappeared due to Martin's experiments on her, making his marriage to Pat illegal. Even though both Martin and Pat agreed not to ask each others about their past Pat is suspicious about what Martin is doing behind her back. One night Pat find Judith playing the piano, Pat herself is a pianist, and is terrified at her deformed appearance. Later Pat to her horror finds a number of the persons that Martin used in his experiments locked up outside the mansion. Now Martin himself, his conscience got the best of him, comes clean with her telling Pat what he's been doing at the mansion all these years. Not as good as the original "The Fly" but much better the "The Return of the Fly" with the emphasis on the tele-transporter and how in the end it destroys the Delambre's dream of perfecting it. Henri disappears when he's transported back to London with the receiving tele-transporter destroyed by his, also conscience stricken, son Albert. This has Henri turning into a bunch of loose and dismembered cells atoms and molecules floating in the nothingness of inner space forever.

I wasn't too impressed by "Return of the Fly", but it still fascinated me! When I learnt that there was a third one, I was quite intrigued to see it. I just watched it for the first time on DVD, and I was quite impressed on how smart the story was, and even though there is no Human-Fly monster in it (which, to be honest, is a smart approach), I thought it was more clever to base the movie around the Delambre legacy, rather than focus on the whole "man gets gene-spliced with a fly" blah blah blah! To be honest, I was expecting something REALLY dreadfully cheesy, but surprisingly, I loved it! The visuals (especially, the opening credit sequence, very well thought up!), and the originality of it is superbly done! It's got the classic horror movie style down perfectly! True its not as frightening as say... Alien, but, for its time (1960s), the mutant make up and story are very well sorted! TOTALLY UNDERRATED!

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.

I actually found this film to be the most entertaining in the original Fly trilogy. The strongest and the weakest point of the film is the writing. The main plot is not highly original: the Delambres teleport people but they don't do it very well. But the subplot is very clever. The film starts with a woman escaping from a mental insitution and seemingly nice Delambre picking her up and falling for her. Once they return to Delambres mansion roles are reversed and we realize that it is not really she who is insane but rather the Delambre clan. That is unconventiional and well executed although it could have been made more use of. The second really good aspect of the film is Don Sharp's very stylish directing, particularly the opening sequence and his use of music. All these things put the Curse of the Fly in a class well above the usual SciFi B movie. And Brian Donlevy doesn't look quite as disoriented as in his other later films.

CURSE OF THE FLY (1965) ** (D: Don Sharp) Nice idea; bad execution. The Delambra family contracts a disease and this results in some sporadic mutations now and then. Other than that, a way too dull and talky movie.

Despite the title, there are no flies or fly hybrids in the film other than a photo of the first fly that is briefly shown on the screen. Instead, the film is about the descendants of the scientist from the first film trying to carry on his work--with a few "mistakes" along the way. They, too, are trying to create a matter transference machine but instead of getting mixed with flies, the results were a few deformed people. Instead of dealing with these "freaks" humanely, they just locked them in cells and had their insane servant feed them. Now the fact that there are no fly monsters in the film isn't a bad thing since the plot is still rather interesting and is a pretty decent example of the genre. However, some silly casting and a few clichés don't help it to be all that memorable or worth seeking. Bert Kwouk (of Asian decent) played one servant but the other was played by Yvette Rees who looked about as Asian as a hamster! Also, Carole Gray had a habit of fainting or making stupid choices--making her character seem clichéd and silly. In addition to these odd characters, Brian Donlevy (an old-time Hollywood character actor) and George Baker (a well-respected British actor famous for playing Tiberius in "I, Claudius" as well as many other TV and film roles) are on hand to give the movie some degree of class. Overall, the film has its scary moments but also quite a bit of cheese and flat moments to make it just another 60s horror film. Interesting but far from special.