''Curse of the Fly'' is a 1965 American horror

science-fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...

and a sequel to ''

Return of the Fly ''Return of the Fly'' is a 1959 American horror science-fiction film and sequel to '' The Fly'' (1958). It is the second installment in ''The Fly'' film series. It was released in 1959 as a double feature with '' The Alligator People''. It was ...

'' (1959), as the third installment in ''The Fly'' film series. It was released in 1965, and unlike the other films in the series was produced in the United Kingdom. The film was directed by

Don Sharp Donald Herman Sharp (19 April 192114 December 2011) was an Australian film director. His best known films were made for Hammer Film Productions, Hammer in the 1960s, and included ''The Kiss of the Vampire'' (1963) and ''Rasputin, the Mad Monk' ...

and the screenplay was written by Harry Spalding. ''Curse of the Fly'' was rarely seen for many years, as it was the only entry in the ''Fly'' film trilogy that did not receive a

videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassett ...

laserdisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" or ...

release. It did not receive its home video premiere until 2007, when it was released in a boxed set with the original series of films.

Plot

Martin Delambre is driving to

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

one night when he sees a young girl by the name of Patricia Stanley running in her underwear. They fall in love and are soon married. However, they both hold secrets: she has recently escaped from a mental asylum; he and his father Henri are engaged in radical experiments in teleportation, which have already had horrific consequences. Martin also suffers recessive fly genes which cause him to age rapidly and he needs a serum to keep him young. In a rambling mansion in rural Quebec, Martin and Henri have successfully teleported people between there and London, but the previous failures resulted in horribly disfigured and insane victims who are locked in the stables. Martin's first wife Judith is one of them, as are Samuels and Dill, two men who had worked as the Delambres' assistants. Martin's brother Albert mans the London receiving station but wishes to terminate the teleportation project and escape the obsession that has driven his grandfather, his father and his brother. The police and the headmistress of the asylum trace Patricia to the Delambre estate, where they learn that she has married Martin, but it is soon discovered that he had a previous wife whom he did not divorce. Inspector Charas, who had investigated Andre Delambre and is now an old man in the hospital, tells Inspector Ronet about the Delambre family and their experiments. As the police begin to close in, a mixture of callousness and madness afflicts the Delambres, and they decide to abandon their work and eliminate the evidence of their failures. They subdue and teleport Samuels and Dill, but upon reintegration in London the two men are fused into a single writhing mass. Albert is horrified at the sight and kills the thing with an axe, destroying the teleportation equipment in the process. Tai and Wan, a Chinese couple who had been helping the Delambres, have had enough and leave the Quebec estate. Henri convinces Martin that they must send the unconscious Patricia to London and then follow in order to escape from the police. Martin resists, afraid that she might be harmed, so Henri volunteers to go first. Martin sends Henri to London, unaware that Albert has destroyed the reintegration equipment. Henri does not rematerialize and is lost. Realizing what has happened, Albert leaves the lab, sobbing, and is not seen again. Inspector Ronet arrives at the estate, passing Tai and Wan as they drive away. Patricia awakens in the teleportation chamber but escapes before the transmission sequence is complete. Martin pursues her but starts aging again. Without his serum he quickly dies, sprawled across the front seat of his car. Soon after, Ronet finds him reduced to a skeleton, and he escorts the badly shaken Patricia back into the house.

Cast

Brian Donlevy Waldo Brian Donlevy (February 9, 1901 – April 6, 1972) was an American actor, noted for playing dangerous tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s. He usually appeared in supporting roles. Among his best-known films are ''Beau Geste'' (193 ...

as Henri Delambre * George Baker as Martin Delambre *

Carole Gray Carole Gray (born 1938)
Linked 2017-07-11 is a Southern Rhodesia-born

as Patricia Stanley *

Burt Kwouk Herbert Tsangtse Kwouk, (; ; 18 July 1930 – 24 May 2016) was a British actor, known for his role as Cato in the ''Pink Panther'' films. He made appearances in many television programmes, including a portrayal of Imperial Japanese Army Ma ...

as Tai * Yvette Rees as Wan * Michael Graham as Albert Delambre * Mary Manson as Judith Delambre * Charles Carson as Inspector Charas *

Jeremy Wilkin David Jeremy Wilkin (6 June 1930 – 19 December 2017) was an English actor, best known for his contributions to the television productions of Gerry Anderson. Born in Byfleet, Surrey, Wilkin emigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada after completi ...

s as Inspector Ronet *

Rachel Kempson Rachel, Lady Redgrave (28 May 1910 – 24 May 2003), known primarily by her birth name Rachel Kempson, was an English actress. She married Sir Michael Redgrave, and was the matriarch of the famous acting dynasty. Career Kempson trained at RADA ...

as Madame Fournier

Production

The film was one of a series of movies Robert L. Lippert was making in England, in order to take advantage of the

Eady Levy The Eady Levy was a tax on box-office receipts in the United Kingdom, intended to support the British film industry. It was introduced in 1950 as a voluntary levy as part of the Eady plan, named after Sir Wilfred Eady, a Treasury official. The le ...

. He used an English producer, Jack Parsons. Parsons had previously made ''

Witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...

'' (1964) with director

for Lippert and used them again on ''Curse of the Fly''. Lippert wanted to make a third "Fly" movie.

Harry Spalding Harry Spalding (1913-2008) was an American writer best known for the films he wrote for Robert L. Lippert and director Maury Dexter. He later worked for the Walt Disney Company. He sometimes wrote under the name "Henry Cross". Select Credits * ...

says he was reluctant to do it but Lippert said "you handle it, kid". Although a sequel to ''The Fly'' and ''

'', the

backstory A backstory, background story, back-story, or background is a set of events invented for a plot, presented as preceding and leading up to that plot. It is a literary device of a narrative history all chronologically earlier than the narrative of p ...

used for ''Curse of the Fly'' does not match the continuity of the first two films, but it does build its narrative on elements and characters from those films. ''Curse of the Fly'' centers on Henri and Martin Delambre, identified as the son and grandson of the Andre Delambre character depicted in ''The Fly''. Andre's invention of a teleportation device and subsequent accidental integration with a housefly remain within the backstory. However, his resultant assisted suicide is removed. Instead, his son, apparently a different character from the boy Philippe Delambre depicted in ''The Fly'', was able to put both the altered man and the altered fly back into the teleportation chamber and successfully reverse the integration, as was done with an adult Philippe in ''Return of the Fly''. The dialogue within ''Curse of the Fly'' contains no mention of Philippe, although a photograph shown in the film, which is supposed to be of Andre in his altered form from ''The Fly'', is actually a

production still A film still (sometimes called a publicity still or a production still) is a photograph, taken on or off the set of a movie or television program during production. These photographs are also taken in formal studio settings and venues of opportun ...

from Philippe's transformation in ''Return of the Fly''. Spalding later said: "It wasn't all that bad a script. As a matter of fact, Don Sharp said the opening ten pages, where the girl is coming out of the insane asylum, was the best opening he'd ever had on film".

said he wrote the lead for "a

Claude Rains William Claude Rains (10 November 188930 May 1967) was a British actor whose career spanned almost seven decades. After his American film debut as Dr. Jack Griffin in ''The Invisible Man'' (1933), he appeared in such highly regarded films as '' ...

kind of guy" and was unhappy to get Brian Donlevy. Spalding thought this affected Don Sharp's confidence in the film. Don Sharp later said he felt the script "wasn't good enough" and that he only took the job because he had been working for a long time as a second unit director on ''Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines'' and was desperate to direct again. Despite it, he said there were some strong sequences.

Reception

Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews, grading it B-, cited the film having an eerie atmosphere but called it "disappointing as it never is exciting—just too much chatter over pseudo-science". The film was a

box office disappointment A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...

.John Hamilton, ''The British Independent Horror Film 1951-70'', Hemlock Books, 2013, p 132-136

References

External links

* *
''Curse of the Fly''
at BFI *
Curse of the Fly
' at

TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...