Return of the Fly (1959)

15 years after the events of "The Fly," Andre's son does some transportation experimentation of his own.

Director:

Edward Bernds

Writers:

Edward Bernds (screenplay), George Langelaan (short story "The Fly")

Stars:

Vincent Price, Brett Halsey, David Frankham

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Vincent Price	...	Francois Delambre
Brett Halsey	...	Philippe Delambre
David Frankham	...	Ronald Holmes, alias Alan Hinds
John Sutton	...	Insp. Beecham
Dan Seymour	...	Max Barthold
Danielle De Metz	...	Cecile Bonnard
Jack Daly	...	Granville (reporter)
Janine Grandel	...	Mme. Bonnard
Michael Mark	...	Gaston (watchman)
Richard Flato	...	Sgt. Dubois
Gregg Martell	...	Cop
Barry Bernard	...	Lt. MacLish
Pat O'Hara	...	Insp. Evans
Francisco Villalobos	...	Priest
Joan Cotton	...	Nurse

Storyline

Fifteen years after his father's experiments with matter transmission fail, Philippe Delambre and his uncle François attempt to create a matter transmission device on their own. However, their experiments have disastrous results, turning Philippe into a horrible half-man, half-fly creature.

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Plot Keywords:

experiment | fly | giant insect | laboratory | based on short story | 

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Taglines:

Out of the World of Atomic Mutation It Rises - With the Dread Curse of the Father Upon It!

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

July 1959 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Volta do Homem Mosca

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$225,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Associated Producers (API)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It has been erroneously reported that "The corpse shown on the slab in the morgue just before Max Barthold receive visit from the Fly, has six fingers (sic) in his left foot." The left foot has only five toes, but the angle makes the ball of the foot appear as if it may be a sixth toe.

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Goofs

When Alan is about to run the detective's car into the lake, he first takes a rock and places it on the gas pedal of the car. During that scene, when he is leaning into the driver's side of the car, an arm reaches up for the steering wheel - obviously the stunt driver who was going to drive the "driverless" car.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Francois Delambre: [voice over] Here passes from this earth Helene Delambre, widow of my brother, Andre, whom I loved deeply, hopelessly. She was destroyed in the end by dreadful memories, a recollection of horrors that did not dim as the years went on, but instead grew monstrously, and left her mind shocked and unsteady, so that death, when it came, was a blessed release.

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Connections

Referenced in Coupling: Gymnes alitheies (2007)

User Reviews

Following in father's footsteps.

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.