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

This is the kind of sequel that can be rather enjoyable as long as you don't hold it up to the standard of the original. It does bear the signs of a movie that was conceived primarily to capitalize on the popularity of its predecessor, and as a result it is hardly as carefully constructed. But as light entertainment, it works well enough.

The first part of the movie connects things up pretty efficiently with the original story, and it's kind of fun to go back to André's wrecked lab, which looks just as it should. Brett Halsey plays André's son Philippe, who is determined to follow in his father's footsteps. While the setup could have led in a number of different directions, the story that actually follows puts an emphasis on action, and it uses the special visual effects rather more freely than in the original "Fly".

From a scientific viewpoint, the whole premise of both movies is far-fetched at best, but in the original, you rarely thought about it because the story was so tightly constructed. In the sequel, the implausibility of the whole thing is harder to ignore. It doesn't detract that much from the entertainment value, but it is a noticeable difference from the first movie.

Except for Vincent Price, the cast is new, but solid. While the production might have a couple of rough edges this time, most of it still looks good enough. Overall, with the right expectations this is a generally entertaining light feature.

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.

THE FLY was a fairly classy, atmospheric sci-fi movie with some horror overtones. It was fun and campy, but also somewhat disturbing in its depiction of a man losing his humanity, a theme which was explored more deeply in David Cronenberg's astonishing remake.

RETURN OF THE FLY is basically a cheap follow-up which is better than it should be. This is mostly due to the always reliable Vincent Price, who returns as the brother of the scientist who became the fly-monster in the original. Here, he desperately tries to sway his nephew from following in his father's footsteps.

The movie concentrates on the son's attempts to recreate his father's teleportation equipment with a hesitant Price helping out, then shifts gears as his other partner, a British ex-con, is discovered to be attempting to steal the research.

This leads to a few misadventures with the teleportation machine resulting in a man becoming a human guinea pig (literally), and ultimately the son becoming a fly-monster himself.

Shot in stark black and white (as opposed to the original's lush Technicolor), RETURN OF THE FLY has a sleazy, grindhouse quality to it. Whereas the original explored the horror of losing one's mind and physical being, this time it's basically just a "monster roaming the countryside" scenario, with any psychological or philisophical aspects thrown out the window in favor of cheap thrills. And while the make-up effects are somewhat improved upon, the ridiculous optical effect of the son's head on a fly's body is unintentionally funny.

Overall, however, it's entertaining enough, and above average for the B-horror movies of the era, though it may be disappointing for fans of the original.