Le dard mortel

Amicus production studios never looked more like a poor man's Hammer than with this silly and totally fright-free creature-feature revolving on behaviorally manipulated bees. You surely can't expect much from a movie about killer bees ("The Swarm" made that more than clear) but at least I was hoping for something a little better than this, considering the great names that were involved in the production. "The Deadly Bees" was scripted by Robert Bloch (he wrote "Psycho", for God's sake!) and directed by Freddie Francis (who also did "The Creeping Flesh" and "The Skull"). Eminent names, for sure, but this is a film better left undiscovered. The story is ordinary and full of holes and illogicalness. We're introduced to a pop-singer on the verge of a total breakdown and her doctor orders her to take a vacation on a calm, remote farmer-island. She agrees to spend two weeks on Ralph Hargrove's farm, but it soon becomes clear that he only has eyes for his beehives. Vicky makes friends with another bee farmer and they both suspect that Ralph intends to train his bees as killer devices. Isn't it remarkable how this tiny island homes two bee farmers whereas another guy is the local doctor, detective and pub-owner all at once? The script is full of similar stupidities like this, altered with some of the cheesiest dialogs. The special effects and make up are poor, but that's forgivable since it's not easy to make bees look horrific in front of a camera lens. The "surprise" twist at the end is one you can see coming from miles away and the seriousness of the actors only make it hilarious. Still, there are some neat exterior filming locations and a unique guest appearance from rock band "The Birds".

It's generally considered that production company Amicus were capable of making some top-notch anthologies, but when they concentrated on single-story horror yarns the results were often - not always, but more often than not - disappointing. THE DEADLY BEES may be notable as the first of the (thankfully irregular) "killer bee" movies but on all accounts it's a crushing bore. A dry script (from the usually reliable Robert Bloch, at that), insanely boring direction from Freddie Francis (this coming from a fan of his usually despised film LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF) and a total lack of action and thrills on all accounts drag this one down from the start and only people with really high tolerance levels or an affection for British cinema from the period will find this watchable.

The cast of characters is an unappealing one and none of the actors or actresses come away looking good in their roles. The identity of the bee-murderer is insanely obvious right from their very introduction and only a very young child would have trouble spotting which of the two bee-keepers is the secret killer. Come on Bloch, Marriott, et al: surely you can do better than this child's play!? The bee-attack sequences are lacking in technical skill, poorly-superimposed over the action and so detracting from any realism the film strives to create. The music is over the top and works against the film and the only good thing you can say is that the shots are composed well and the cinematography is solid.

Suzanna Leigh is quite a respected actress from the period but you wouldn't guess it from this turn, which is undoubtedly her worst performance ever. Looking constipated when she strives to look scared and reduced to running around in her underwear at other times, she's totally lacking in believability and is more often than not laughable - a far cry from the fragile beauty she played in LUST FOR A VAMPIRE. Guy Doleman is a wooden jerk and Frank Finlay hams it up so much you'd think he previously worked as a butcher. While it's nice to see some familiar horror faces lower down in the cast - Michael Ripper, typecast again as BOTH a barman and a policeman and former Frankenstein's Monster Michael Gwynn as a doctor, they're uniformly wasted. No wonder this lacklustre film is so often forgotten when in discussion of British horror.

Deadly Bees, The (1967)

** (out of 4)

Robert Bloch wrote the screenplay to this film, which has a pop singer (Suzanna Leigh) going to get rest at a country home only to arrive as an outbreak of bee attacks start to happen. It appears that these aren't just any bees but instead specially trained by a psychotic beekeeper. Bloch is of course best known for his novel, which turned into Hitchcock's Psycho but he certainly missed the boat here. There's a big mystery wrapped around the film as to who is the beekeeper but it's very obviously from the opening ten minutes. I'm not sure if the screenplay was just bad or if Francis didn't like Block and decided to give away the secret early on. Either way, there's really not too much going for this film as the performances are all rather bland and that includes the lead Leigh. Not for a second did I buy her as a pop singer and the opening music is just torture on the ears. The screenplay introduces several characters and subplots but none of them every come out to anything. This Amicus production does benefit from some rather gruesome death scenes but the special effects don't hold up too well today.

Killer bees don't always make for the best 'monsters' in the horror genre, but this British thriller is an exception.

Pop singer vacations on an island with a local bee keeper, while a mysterious swarm of bees has caused the death of a woman.

The Deadly Bees isn't as dull a film as some make it out to be. It has some nice high-powered shock sequences even though the bee FX aren't always convincing. The makeup FX aren't bad, namely the great work on an ill-fated Catherine Finn. The story is a decent mystery, based upon H.W. Herd's novel A Taste for Honey. The direction of Freddie Francis is pretty good, the sets are well constructed and the art direction is excellent. There's also a great dramatic music score to boot.

The cast is quite good. Suzanna Leigh is a decent heroine, but it's really leading actors Guy Doleman and Frank Finlay that turn in the best performances as some feuding, menacing bee keepers.

All around not bad. Certainly the best killer bee movie around and an underrated work.

*** out of ****

The Deadly Bees would be much more aptly titled were it called The Deadly Bore. Made by the company Amicus (a half-hearted sixties rival to Hammer) and directed by the usually reliable Freddie Francis, this is a truly terrible film.

Suzanna Leigh looks pretty but acts badly as a pop star suffering from exhaustion. Her agent sends her to Seagull Island to recover, and she finds herself lodging at a strange, isolated little farm run by Guy Doleman and his unhappy wife. Doleman breeds bees, as does nearby resident Frank Finlay, and things start to go wrong when a mutant breed of killer bee begins to attack and kill people and animals on the island. Finlay persuades Leigh that the bees responsible have been bred by Doleman, and solicits her help in gathering evidence to have him arrested.

The special effects are pitiful. The bee attacks look so unconvincing that they provoke humour rather than terror. All right, so it's a limited budget 60s film, so the effects are hardly likely to be the best, but surely they could've done better than this! Furthermore, the characters make no sense whatsoever. For instance, some of the events going on simply don't seem to perturb Doleman in the slightest; Leigh reacts strangely much of the time; and Finlay's character seems to be a different person from one scene to the next. Even the "shock" twist at the end is telegraphed miles in advance. I won't reveal the solution here, but as you're watching this film the likelihood is that you'll figure out what's going on long before the heroine does!