Superfly

Year: 1959

Director: Edward Bernds

Cast: Vincent Price, Brett Halsey, David Frankham

Run Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

This just in, I'm an idiot, and I love what I do way too much. This October I'm already running a Children of the Corn marathon in addition to our annual crossover with Cardboard Science at Kinemalogue. But I did a bad thing. After Hunter assigned me to watch 1958's The Fly, I looked at my shelf and realized I owned the Cronenberg remake, even though I'd never seen it. Then I researched the franchise and learned that the original had two sequels and the remake had one. What's this? A franchise I'd never seen before and barely even knew about? You know I had to get on that crap. 

I was already feeling kind of bad that this Corn marathon coincides with the series we're currently running on my podcast Scream 101, so it's kind of redundant if someone both listens to the podcast and reads my blog (even though that's assuming a lot on your part to begin with). Because of that, I thought I'd do something extra special. So hey! Whatever the twisted genesis, this October I'm running a bonus series on the five entries in The Fly franchise. Maybe I'll get a P.O. box so you can send me those straitjackets with more convenience.

Pictured: Me grappling with my inner completist demons.

Return of the Fly arrived just one year after The Fly sucked a solid chunk of money up through its B-movie proboscis. The studio did what any self-respecting company would do in this situation: rush through a follow-up and slash the budget, reverting this entry to the much cheaper black-and-white, which also helped cover up any seams in the special effects.

So, the plot. The hero of the last film obviously being dead, we pick up with his son, who was eight years old in 1958 but seems to be in his mid-to-late 20's at this point, which would seem to set this film in the late 70's if the filmmakers paid a single shred of attention to detail. But judging by the fact that no fewer than two times we see a door destroyed, only for it to be fully functional and whole in the very next scene, they maybe didn't care too much about such pesky little nuisances as details.

Anyway! The son in question is Philippe Delambre (Brett Halsey, and I certainly don't mind the time jump because he is the cutest), who against the wishes of his uncle François (Vincent Price, the only returning performer) continues his father's research to develop a teleportation device. He does this with the help of his assistant Alan Hinds (David Frankham), who might not be as nice as he seems. Oh, and one of these people is gonna turn into a half-fly half-human monster, but did I need to tell you that?

At cross purposes, the two scientists and the reluctant François pick up their work in a secluded mansion left to Philippe by his grandfather. Also left to him is the housekeeper and her lovely daughter Cecile Bonnard (Danielle De Metz), who becomes an extremely half-assed love interest for Philippe.

But who could blame her?

Return of the Fly certainly indulges in the sequel sin of "the same, only worse" in a lot of aspects (more on that later), but the thing that surprised me is that it's almost as delightful an entry in the 50's science fiction canon. The scenes where the movie shines err on the side of melodrama more than horror, but the first two acts are perhaps even superior. The original has a killer opening but once the filmlong flashback begins, there are many stalls and starts before anything meaningful happens. Here, we don't see any fly action before the 50-minute mark, but the movie is already operating on all cylinders. 

[EN: Be prepared for some medium spoilers, folks, throughout the remainder of the review.]

It is pretty quickly revealed that Alan Hinds is a criminal on the lam who wants to make his fortune by stealing the plans for the teleporter, and his duplicity adds a layer of tension to the repetitive science experiment scenes that wasn't there last time. All three of the characters working on this project have their own purposes and motivations that chafe against the others, and the sheer amount of peering through window curtains and tailing each other in cars is pure confection to any fan of intrigue.

Because Lord knows we won't be sated by eleven more scenes of flashing Science Lights.

There are even two scenes in the pre-fly portion of the film that are extremely effective and harrowing. The first involves a splicing accident that gives a guinea pig human hands in the film's most existentially terrifying special effect. The second is the immediate preamble to the fly-ification (which is actually brought on by duplicity rather than scientific hubris, for a nice change). You see the character in question realize exactly what's about to happen to him, and the dawning horror on his face is almost too much to bear.

Of course, as soon as the fly thing happens, the movie falls the f**k apart. For one thing, it doubles down on a lame element that was only implied in the original film. This film basically posits that the only reason flies aren't bloodthirsty serial killers is that they're too tiny. As soon as it gains human form, it goes on an ill-motivated rampage through town that combines boring shots of him wandering through forests with bizarre slasher-esque kills that don't even involve his giant fly mandibles, which are pretty freaking cool (the fly head here is a much better mask, and while the film indulges in showing it perhaps too much, it nevertheless deserves closer inspection).

Unfortunately, the human-head fly-body situation is a microscopic fraction as chilling as the last time,  and is shown far too early in the third act to be particularly useful toward chilling the spine. And speaking of things from last time that are even worse, we all know Vincent Price was wasted in The Fly, but Return of the Fly treats him like a featured extra, having him deliver a good fifty percent of his performance from bed. The ending is also entirely perfunctory, an unsatisfying button to a film that immediately began deflating the second the horror actually started happening in earnest.

Return of the Fly fails to accomplish its largest goals, but it's still a satisfying romp through the annals of sci-fi history and I'm glad I made the trek. Plus, if nothing else, it gave me a guinea pig moment I'll never forget.

Behold!

TL;DR: Return of the Fly is a reasonably satisfying sequel that ups the ante in pretty lame ways but delivers 50's sci-fi tension like you wouldn't believe.

Rating: 6/10

Word Count: 1150
Reviews In This Series
The Fly (Neumann, 1958)
Return of the Fly (Bernds, 1959)
Curse of the Fly (Sharp, 1965)
The Fly (Cronenberg, 1986)
The Fly II (Walas, 1989)

Cardboard Science: The Metamorphosis

Now, we couldn't just let an October go by without our annual crossover event between Popcorn Culture's Census Bloodbath and Kinemalogue's Cardboard Science. My good internet friend Hunter Allen has assigned me three more 50's sci-fi flicks and you should head over there later this month to catch his thoughts on my three 80's slasher picks. All three of his films this time around hail from the grand year of 1958, but we'll be starting with the one that's probably the most famous, thanks to David Cronenberg's body horror remake from three decades later.

Year: 1958
Director: Kurt Neumann
Cast: David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price
Run Time: 1 hour 34 minutes

Cardboard Science is a project that really takes me out of my comfort zone. I'm not one to shy away from older films or different genres, but the bulk of my cinema knowledge comes from the 1970's to now, and doesn't really involve science fiction the way that it probably should. But that's why it's important to have friends with different interests from yourself, because it's so important to know where the things that you like came from, and The Fly really gave us a lot more than I would have expected.

It really tested the capacity of human facial expressions, as well.

The Fly begins with a terrible crime being committed in a Montreal factory. Andre Delambre (David Hedison, probably best known as James Bond bestie Felix Leiter) has been crushed to death in an industrial press and his wife Helene (Patricia Owens) freely admits to being the one responsible. Andre's brother François (Vincent Price) begins working with the police to figure out what happened to this poor couple, eventually drawing a lengthy confession from Helene that seems quite impossible.

In a lengthy flashback, we see Andre's attempts to perfect a teleportation machine in his basement and Helene's reactions to his untoward obsession. One day, when a housefly gets into the teleportation tube, Andre reaps what he has sown with his hubris and finds that his cells have been mixed up with that of the fly. Helene and her son Phillipe (Charles Herbert) must attempt to find the fly with his human cells, the only shot at getting the proper parts back in order.

I was trying to avoid too many spoilers, but it's tough for a movie that begins with the end and is literally titled The Fly.

A lot of 1950's movies were remade to great effect in the 80's, including The Thing from Another World and my beloved The Blob. The reason these remakes were so good is that they took the political wiliness of those films and adapted it to modern day fears alongside a heaping helping of top notch special effects. The Fly definitely belongs to this category, but of the source films it's definitely the thinnest. Cronenberg had to add a lot of material to give this film anything resembling meaty subtext, because what we get here is some pretty bog-standard "scientist shouldn't have played in God's sandbox" boilerplate.

That's not to say that this is a bad thing. The Fly might be rather shallow, but it has a lot to show for it. For one thing, much like I Married a Monster from Outer Space, it positions its male lead in the monstrous role, almost incidentally causing the film to have a female protagonist. Even now, that's rather hard to find in science fiction, and I appreciate the opportunity to see one whenever it's given.

For another, The Fly embraces its position as a meat and potatoes shocker, wringing tension almost miraculously out of its charmingly low budget. For one thing, the murder mystery opening plot (as bizarrely structured as it is) doles out hints of just how buck wild this situation has gotten at a brutally steady drip. And before Helene finds out the truth, Andre spends his time with a blanket over his head, grunting in desperation to get his wife to understand. If anything, this is even creepier than the eventual reveal, because something is clearly perilously wrong but everything about the situation seems so mundane and domestic at first glance.

Who knows, this could just be an elaborate sex game or something.

There are really only two special effects sequences of note here: one featuring a rather dodgy fly head that is redeemed by its clever depiction of Helene's scream as viewed through multifaceted insect eyes, and the other... Well, the other is probably the most iconic element of this film and that's for a reason, my friend. I shan't necessarily spoil it, but you know what scene I'm talking about, and even though you can see some of the strings sixty years later, it's still bone-chilling. It's particularly gruesome and nihilistic for a film of this vintage, using its fantastical effects to show how very wrong a path a man's hubris can lead him down.

While I wouldn't say the whole movie is like this, The Fly does definitely have a rather intense approach to some of its material. The opening murder is pretty brutal and slathered in stage blood, and the hopelessness of the whole situation is certainly not lost on its participants. And there are actual, permanent casualties, including but not limited to the Delambre's poor pet cat.

What it lacks in substance, it makes up for by alternating between being a fun sci-fi romp and pure gut-punch nihilistic horror. It's a shame Vincent Price isn't asked to participate in either of these things, though, because he is well and truly wasted as "guy who eventually gets the story to happen." All the insane acting moments are given to Patricia Owens, who does as well as she can, but she's no Vincent Price.

Nevertheless, The Fly is satisfying in a way that a lot of horror of this vintage kind of isn't. It's not afraid to take certain risks, and it's almost wicked in this fearlessness. It's definitely not my favorite of the movies that Hunter has assigned for me, but I'm glad I gained a reason to see it and that I saw it before viewing the Cronenberg version. Watching those films the other way around seems like a recipe for disappointment, because it's so much more stripped-down and inelegant, but the way I see it, it's just peachy with me.

That which is indistinguishable from magic:

• The basic science of this is actually pretty credible, in that their understanding of atoms and how they work is pretty consistent with contemporary understanding. 
• That said, the filmmakers seem to think that we'll be so fascinated by flashing lights that we'll want to watch the same sequence of pseudoscientific events thirteen times over, and at length.

The morality of the past, in the future!:

• It's harder for the men to comprehend the fact that a woman operated heavy machinery than that she murdered her own husband.
• Helene's six-year-old son talks about how she told him to set the weird-looking fly free then asked him to catch it again an hour later with this little chestnut: "She changed her mind, you know how women are." I guess they started 'em young back then.
• Andre hilariously lounges in his lawn chair while wearing a full suit.

Sensawunda:

• There's an implication that Andre's fly hand might be evil, because... why not, I guess?
• I just want to bring up the sound design, which I forgot to mention. I won't forget about the noise involved when Fly-Andre drinks milk anytime soon.

TL;DR: The Fly is a fun little cheapie shocker with an excellent, showstopping finale.
Rating: 7/10
Word Count: 1269
Reviews In This Series
The Fly (Neumann, 1958)
Return of the Fly (Bernds, 1959)
Curse of the Fly (Sharp, 1965)
The Fly (Cronenberg, 1986)
The Fly II (Walas, 1989)

Cardboard Science on Popcorn Culture
2014: Invaders from Mars (1953) The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Them! (1954)
2015: The Giant Claw (1957) It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) The Brain from Planet Arous (1957)
2016: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Godzilla (1954) The Beginning of the End (1957)
2017: It Conquered the World (1958) I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) Forbidden Planet (1956)
2018: The Fly (1958) Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (1958) Fiend Without a Face (1958)
2019: Mysterious Island (1961) Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

Census Bloodbath on Kinemalogue
2014: My Bloody Valentine (1981) Pieces (1982) The Burning (1981)
2015: Terror Train (1980) The House on Sorority Row (1983) Killer Party (1986)
2016: The Initiation (1984) Chopping Mall (1986) I, Madman  (1989)
2017: Slumber Party Massacre (1982) Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987) Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
2018: The Prowler (1981) Slumber Party Massacre II (1987) Death Spa (1989)
2019: Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge (1989) Psycho III (1986) StageFright: Aquarius (1987)