Le Retour de la mouche

"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

"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.

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.

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.

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.