The Curse of the Fly (1965)



Movie Title: The Curse of the Fly

Year Released: 1965

Rated: Approved

Runtime: 1h 26m

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Director: Don Sharp

Writer: Harry Spalding

Starring: Brian Donlevy, George Baker, Carole Gray, Yvette Rees, Burt Kwouk, Michael Graham, Jeremy Wilkin, Charles Carson, Mary Manson, Rachel Kempson, Warren Stanhope,

Review: After escaping from a mental institution, Patricia (Carole Gray) is rescued by scientist Martin Delambre (George Baker), the grandson of Andre Delambre, creator of the teleporter machine in The Fly (1958). After being together for less than one week, naturally, the two fall in love and marry. Once they return to "Casa de Delambre", Pat begins to uncover her husband's secret experiments and his family's horrific past. Will it be happily ever after or will she fall victim to The Curse of the Fly?

I don't even know where to begin with this mess of a movie. Well, I guess I'll start with the title: The Curse of the Fly. There's no fly in this movie. The title should be The Delambre Curse or The Transporter Terror or Atom and Evil, something like that, not The Curse of the Fly. Also, Brian Donlevy is playing Henri Delambre, and his sons Martin and Albert are played by George Baker and Michael Graham. Henri is the son of Andre Delambre, the scientist that was mistakenly transformed into a half-man half-fly creature in the original film. But Henri should actually be playing Philippe Delambre, the son of Andre, a character that was established and a huge part of both previous entries in this Sci-Fi film series, The Fly (1958) and Return of the Fly (1959), respectively. What the heck? That doesn't make any sense if you are linking these three films together.

Now with that said, The Curse of the Fly is has too much going on and doesn't work out any of its interesting ideas to keep the audience compelled to how things are going to play out. Here are a list of plots and subplots that are initiated and lazily abandoned:

1. Patricia (Carole Gray) escapes from a mental hospital. Madame Fournier (Rachel Kempson), who was caring for her, attempts to find her, does, and then doesn't try and get this disturbed woman back to the institution.

2. The curious Inspector Ronet (Jeremy Wilkin) investigates the Delambre family and its newest member, Patricia, which gives us a retelling of the original film. He wants to learn more, but doesn't do more than take the Delambre's word on things that don't add up as fact.

3. Martin Delambre had a wife, Judith (Mary Manson), before he married Patricia. She mysteriously vanished. But we learn that she was "altered" in a transporter experiment that went wrong, along with two lab assistants. They are kept in cages and treated like animals. Why? For what purpose other than to escape, cause trouble, and have our heroine question her sanity. But what happened to Judith? What did she go through the transporter? I want to know what the heck happened and why! It's never really addressed for some reason.

4. Martin Delambre suffers from some mysterious illness and must have an injection to keep him from rapidly aging for some reason. Is this due to the transporter device? Did he test it on himself? Is it because of mutated genes from his family tree. Is it just a stupid thing to add to this over-plotted mess to get inexplicably unresolved. Sure. That's fine. Why not?

5. Albert Delambre is stationed in London, and even though his family is Canadian, he's British for some reason. What?! Why?!

6. Henri Delambre teleports himself from Canada to London and then must transport back because he doesn't have his passport - NO, I'M NOT KIDDING! This actually happens!

7. I'm sure that I missed three or four more subplots that made me scratch my head and question screenwriter Harry Spalding actually intentions with his screenplay. Maybe he was trying to render audiences insane with this befuddling B-Movie.

I watched this for the very first time the other night and I just didn't understand what the point of this movie was, other than to fill out a double-bill at the drive-in back in what I like to call, "The Day." It's boring, not scary at all, and could have been something interesting by going somewhere new instead of a retread of the previous two films.

The Curse of the Fly has no fly, no Vincent Price, and countless subplots that add up to an infuriating 86 minutes of me yelling at the screen and wishing that I was stuck to a sheet of fly paper or smacked continuously in the face with a fly swatter. That would have been more fun! This waste of time can buzz off!

Stars (out of 4):
       

Fun Fact: Vincent Price is missing from this, the third and final installment of the series. By the time this was produced, Price was under contract to American International Pictures.



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