The Deadly Bees (1967)

Director:

Freddie Francis

Writers:

Robert Bloch (screenplay)
H.F. Heard (novel)

Release Date:

April 1967 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Hives of horror! - Excited by the smell of fear, they inflict their fatal stings!

Plot:

Trouble strikes when an exhausted pop singer, sent on a vacation to a farm, realizes that the farm's owner grows deadly bees.

Plot Keywords:

Singer | Bee | Island | Fire | Dog

Cast

Suzanna Leigh	...	Vicki Robbins
Frank Finlay	...	H.W. Manfred
Guy Doleman	...	Ralph Hargrove
Catherine Finn	...	Mary Hargrove
John Harvey	...	Insp. Thompson
Michael Ripper	...	David Hawkins
Anthony Bailey	...	TV Compere
Tim Barrett	...	Det. Harcourt
James Cossins	...	Seagull Island Coroner
Frank Forsyth	...	Seagull Island Doctor
Greta Farrer	...	Sister
Katy Wild	...	Doris Hawkins
Gina Gianelli	...	Secretary
Michael Gwynn	...	Dr. George Lang
Maurice Good	...	Vicki's Agent

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:12 | Norway:16 | USA:Not Rated | Finland:K-16 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Twickenham Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK

Company:

Amicus Productions

Trivia:

The male leads were written for Christopher Lee and Boris Karloff

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Toward the end of the movie, Vicki pulls a burning log out of the fireplace to ward off the bees and holds it in front of her. You can clearly see that the smoke filling the room is coming not from the log but from somewhere under Vicki, even though the room has not caught on fire yet and the fireplace was not generating any smoke.

Quotes:

Mary Hargrove: The dog's meat, have you seen it?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Deadly Bees (#10.5)" (1998)

No buzz about this film

Well...it's not as bad as the other bee film, 'The Swarm,' but that's not saying much. It's just that bees are not as intrinsically scary as say, snakes or rats are. As if the film's producers went through all the small domestic animals, snakes, rats, rabid dogs, spiders and were left with bees.

Amicus productions were always the poor man's Hammer films and although they did one or two half decent horrors, the rest were mainly low budget pap, this been one of the latter.

The only saving graces are that Suzanna Leigh is easy on the eyes and how that as the hero, Guy Doleman was a very unsympathetic character, which made an unusual change. He really seems half-arsed about saving Leigh from any danger she is in, perhaps he'd heard her singing as the pop star she plays in this!

Viewed from today's standards, the special effects are very poor and were probably substandard when it was originally made. And if you can't figure out who the real villain is after 30 minutes or less, then you really shouldn't be allowed out on your own! There's only two suspects to choose from anyway....

It's not as bad as some films I've seen in the horror genre, certainly not the worst but it's just bland and mediocre, which is the last thing you want a horror film to be.