Return of the Fly Reviews

Filmed in black and white, this disappointing sequel to THE FLY (1958) retained only Vincent Price from the original cast. Some 20 years after the action of the first film, Philippe (Brett Halsey), the son of the scientist who inadvertently became part-man, part-fly, decides to renew his father's experiments, though his uncle, Francois (Price), warns against it. Philippe re-creates the matter transformation mechanisms, then meets the same fate as his dad when his assistant, Alan (David Frankham), a foreign agent intent on getting the secret of the invention, forces him into the device. Now sporting a huge fly-head, a fly-arm, and a fly-leg, Philippe wanders the area exacting revenge from Alan and his cohorts, while Francois tries to capture the tiny fly with Philippe's head, arm, and leg, so that his nephew can be returned to normal. Edward Bernds, who directed many of The Three Stooges shorts, provided rather plodding direction for this movie, which is far less entertaining than the original. Perhaps believing that the audience needed a bigger jolt during the transformation, the filmmakers employed a huge fly-head mask (the script excuses it with some nonsense about the machine causing "giantism"). Unfortunately, the head is so large that the actor underneath it sometimes has trouble holding his head up (he can occasionally be seen holding the mask straight with his good hand while running) and getting through doorways. Still, the film was successful enough to prompt Fox to bring back the Fly again in THE CURSE OF THE FLY (1965).