Return Of The Fly (1959)
Vincent Price stars in the sequel to 1950s sci-fi horror film The Fly. The son of the first film's transformed scientist returns to his father's lab and vows that his experiments in matter transference must continue
"Fear that will fasten its choking grip on you" promised the trailer for Edward Bernds' sci-fly sequel, "as weird experiments spawn the twisted monstrosities of a living hell. The return of the fly, smashing anything that stands in his way!"
So potent was the premise of 1958's The Fly that Edward Bernds' sequel was rushed out a year later, once more to ponder "the forbidden science of transmigration". Of the first film's cast only Vincent Price survives, and he's very familiar with the territory: shameless opportunism meant the same sets were employed, this time shot in gloomy black and white rather then the costly colour that made Kurt Neumann's earlier film such a vivid landmark in 1950s horror. Bernds, who in the 1950s and 1960s directed a handful of Three Stooges films and made Zsa Zsa Gabor a tightly trussed misandrist in Queen Of Outer Space, brings an element of humour - not all of it intentional - to one of the weakest of the Fly films, and one which Price himself struggled to take seriously.
Set some time after the events of The Fly, Delambre (Halsey) is the son of the scientist whose experiments with an insufficiently insulated matter transference machine gave him the head of a fly. Against the advice of his uncle (Price), and without any clear qualifications for the job, Philippe dusts off the machine and vows to carry on his old man's experiments. But a spy (Frankham) throws a spanner - or more accurately another fly - into the works, and Philippe follows his father into the mutation zone. Bernds' addition to the plot comes in the form of Philippe's wife Francois (De Metz), as she goes in search of the transmigrated insect, now talking in squeaky voice while sporting her husband's head, and attempts to reverse the transformation.
Bernds ditches the proto-body horror weirdness of the first film in favour of B-movie thriller convention; the budget isn't up to the startling visual innovations of The Fly, and unlike David Cronenberg's 1986 film, which was full of sympathy for Jeff Goldblum's transforming man, here the fly is a lumbering, villainous monster, albeit one costumed in what looks suspiciously like a deep sea diver's helmet.
The dialogue is so over-loaded with exposition that you barely notice what might otherwise be sudden swerves into earnest absurdity. At 78 minutes the story drags like wet carpet, and though Price may have been giggling when Bernds' called "cut", the rest of the cast doggedly refuse to acknowledge the campier aspects of a film that features a human corpse with the hands and feet of a guinea pig.
This review originally appeared at Film4.com
So potent was the premise of 1958's The Fly that Edward Bernds' sequel was rushed out a year later, once more to ponder "the forbidden science of transmigration". Of the first film's cast only Vincent Price survives, and he's very familiar with the territory: shameless opportunism meant the same sets were employed, this time shot in gloomy black and white rather then the costly colour that made Kurt Neumann's earlier film such a vivid landmark in 1950s horror. Bernds, who in the 1950s and 1960s directed a handful of Three Stooges films and made Zsa Zsa Gabor a tightly trussed misandrist in Queen Of Outer Space, brings an element of humour - not all of it intentional - to one of the weakest of the Fly films, and one which Price himself struggled to take seriously.
Set some time after the events of The Fly, Delambre (Halsey) is the son of the scientist whose experiments with an insufficiently insulated matter transference machine gave him the head of a fly. Against the advice of his uncle (Price), and without any clear qualifications for the job, Philippe dusts off the machine and vows to carry on his old man's experiments. But a spy (Frankham) throws a spanner - or more accurately another fly - into the works, and Philippe follows his father into the mutation zone. Bernds' addition to the plot comes in the form of Philippe's wife Francois (De Metz), as she goes in search of the transmigrated insect, now talking in squeaky voice while sporting her husband's head, and attempts to reverse the transformation.
Bernds ditches the proto-body horror weirdness of the first film in favour of B-movie thriller convention; the budget isn't up to the startling visual innovations of The Fly, and unlike David Cronenberg's 1986 film, which was full of sympathy for Jeff Goldblum's transforming man, here the fly is a lumbering, villainous monster, albeit one costumed in what looks suspiciously like a deep sea diver's helmet.
The dialogue is so over-loaded with exposition that you barely notice what might otherwise be sudden swerves into earnest absurdity. At 78 minutes the story drags like wet carpet, and though Price may have been giggling when Bernds' called "cut", the rest of the cast doggedly refuse to acknowledge the campier aspects of a film that features a human corpse with the hands and feet of a guinea pig.
This review originally appeared at Film4.com
