Tonight's movie was "Curse of The Fly"(1965), the third and final film in that dipteric series. It's quite different than the first two Flies (and keep in mind that we're talking about the original films, not the mid-80s remakes). For one thing, it was made at Shepperton Studios in England, making it a Veddy Brrittissh! production. For another, there are no actual flies present. This in not a problem as the movie is plenty weird without them, but I just wanted to let you know in advance.
As the movie opens, a young woman has just escaped from an asylum in Montreal. That's weird from the get-go, because how many movies take place in Canada, "Strange Brew" notwithstanding? . As she runs down the highway, a man pulls over to help. He has no idea she's a mental patient and doesn't ask why she's in her underwear. He merely offers her his sweater and a ride back to his hotel, which she accepts. It turns out he's a scientist, in town to pick up some "equipment" that he will transport back to his home in Quebec the next morning. Because the woman has no place to go, he gives her a place to stay. Within a week, they've fallen in love and married.
This presents a problem to Brian Donlevy, erstwhile Hollywood Star and the current patriarch of the Delambre clan. To backtrack : in the First "Fly", his grandfather David Hedison conducted experiments with a teleportation machine, which went awry when a fly got inside. It also caused a problem for kids worldwide, who were traumatised for life when The Fly was revealed to the audience. In "Return of The Fly", a similar fate befell Vincent Price, who played "Uncle Philip Delambre". Now the enterprise has been passed on to Donlevy, as "Henri Delambre". He works with his son Albert in a laboratory in London. Martin, his other son, mans the lab in Quebec, which is situated in the Delambre family mansion. He's the son who has just been married.
When he announces the marriage to his father, Henri wants to come back to Quebec right away, to meet the bride. He asks Martin to set up the new equipment - a teleportation machine to match the one in London. "Let's try it right now", says Henri. "I'll be the first volunteer". Martin is cautious. "But Father, don't you think we should use one of the animals first"? "Why"?, says Henri. "We've learned from my grandfather's mistakes. Let me try it. I'll be the first man to cross the Atlantic in seconds"!
So they do it, and Henri teleports from London to Quebec, little the worse for wear. He meets Martin's new wife, whose name is Patricia (Carole Gray). Outwardly, he's pleased and welcomes her to the family. But in secret, he asks Martin what in hell he was thinking. "How could you get married? Sooner or later you'll have to tell her about our work! How will you explain it"?
Martin doesn't think that will be a problem. It seems he has other plans for Patricia.
Meanwhile, the administrator of the asylum has gone to the police to report Patricia's escape. Clues lead to the Delambre House, which the head detective is familiar with because the family has a history of being a bunch of fly-headed nutjobs. Henri presents a facade of respectability and has money, so it's harder to challenge his assertions that his experiments are legitimate. "We only use animals", he reports. But the detective still smells a rat. As for Patricia, Martin says that, as his wife, she's now exempt from having to return to the asylum. The detective leaves frustrated but vows to return.
Inside, Henri is livid. "You didn't tell me she's an escaped lunatic"!, he shouts. Martin only shrugs. "I didn't know it myself until just now. But don't you see, Father? It's perfect. She has no family, no friends. If there's trouble, no one will come looking for her". Martin hasn't considered the detective, who he assumes is gone for good.
The Delambres have two helpers, a Chinese couple who take care of the household. "Tai", the husband, assists in the science lab while his wife "Wan" cooks and looks after "the animals", which are kept outside in stalls.
One night. Patricia awakens to hear a piano being played in the living room. As a pianist herself, she gets out of bed to investigate, but when she gets to the living room the music has stopped. No one is there. When she reports it to Martin the next morning, he gaslights her, telling her it was only a dream. But we in the audience know it was real. We saw a woman playing the piano, and we saw Wan usher her out, the moment she heard Patricia approaching. The woman's name is Judith, and now the plot thickens, because........(drum roll please).........she's Martin's first wife!
Yes, Martin is engaged in bigamy, but as we've seen, it doesn't appear to bother him. Nor does the possibility of Patricia finding out about the experiments. If she does, he'll just lock her out in the stalls, as he's done with Judith. Yep - that's where she's kept, hidden away. Judith is one of the "animals" Henri mentioned when he was speaking to the detective : "We only use animals in our experiments". She used to be Martin's wife, but now she's all messed up, with only one "good" hand to play the piano. You don't wanna see her other hand, or her face.
When the detective eventually returns, asking to see the laboratory, Henri tells him to get a search warrant. This is only a delaying tactic, because he knows the cops will be back. The Delambres will be finished if that happens, so Henri calls Albert in London. "Prepare to transfer everything. The animals, the equipment, Martin and myself, it's all got to go. The police are coming. We've got to teleport it all".
But Wan, the caretaker, feels sorry for the "animals", particularly Judith, whom she feeds and gives comfort. While Albert is preparing the teleportation equipment in London, Wan lets the "animals" out of their stalls in Quebec. As you can imagine, they're none too happy with Henri and Martin Delambre.
This makes for a thrilling conclusion, as everyone converges on the laboratory at once : the "animals", the police, and the Delambres, who are trying to hightail it outta there by way of their machine. "The Curse of The Fly" is a very good film with a nicely paced script, which peels away the secrets one by one as the tension ratchets up. The lab is fantastic and has everything a family of Mad Scientists could ever want, and the set of stalls where the "animals" are kept is appropriately dungeon-like. There's only one problem, and it's The Usual One : the movie runs too long, 92 minutes. It needs to be cut to 75 or 80, which brings it down one rating, from Two Bigs to Two Solid Thumbs Up, but it's still extremely watchable, and definitely weird. As mentioned, there are no flies but that's not a problem because you get "animals" instead. Give it a view, it's recommended! //////
That's all for this evening. I had a nice Hundred Degree Hike at Aliso this afternoon. Now for a little reading. I'm still working on the Sitchin book. Hope you had a nice day, see you at the Usual Time. :):)
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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