The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Blistering performances.

Henri Delambre (Brian Donlevy) is obsessively continuing the experiments started by his father and has succeeded in creating a machine that can transport human beings. He managed to transport himself from London back to Montreal, but ended up with radiation burns as a result. Despite his determination to carry on with his work, Henri's two sons, Albert (Michael Graham) and Martin (George Baker), are fed up and want to settle down into ordinary lives. Martin has married Patricia Stanley (Carole Gray) who, unknown to him has escaped from the local asylum. When she discovers three people - including Martin's real wife, Judith), who have been turned into deformed mutants as a result of Henri's botched experiments imprisoned in cells at the rear of the Delambre's country mansion; Inspector Charas (Charles Carson) of the local police is called. He becomes suspicious that the Delambre family are carrying on the failed work of Henri's father and, as a result, Henri attempts to destroy all the evidence and transport himself back to London. But, as you will expect, it all goes horribly wrong...A better than expected conclusion to The Fly trilogy which is notable because, unlike its two US made predecessors, this was shot at Shepperton in England at a time when that studio was struggling to find films to make and had laid off many employees. The film is pure scientific mumbo jumbo of the cheesy, drive in b-movie kind. Nevertheless, in the hands of the talented director Don Sharp, the results are better and a bit more polished than one would have expected. The opening sequence in which Patricia Stanley escapes from the asylum wearing only a nightdress is splendidly shot in slow motion as the credits unscroll and the theme tune played by the Royal Philharmonia Orchestra features, perhaps, the most beautiful and haunting piano forte of any horror film. In addition, there is another masterfully staged shock sequence where Patricia awakes in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm to hear piano music playing. When she goes to investigate she encounters Martin's real wife, the disfigured Judith, who was a distinguished pianist, at the piano. We learn that one of the Delambre's servants, Wan (played by the excellent Yvette Rees who was standout in Don Sharp's minor chiller, Witchcraft (1964) was devoted to her mistress and is not happy that Patricia has married Martin and stages the night time encounter so that Judith can attack her. The film is shot in excellent, unsettling black and white by Basil Emmott, a real veteran of British b-movies. Performances are generally good all round but Brian Donlevy who was superb in the Hammer Quatermass movies is less effective here as the mad scientist Delambre. Another let down is the climax that does not quite make the horrific impact upon the audience than it seeks perhaps due to the limitations of the budget and the schedule which I suspect was very tight indeed.All in all, Curse Of The Fly emerges as a better than average conclusion to The Fly trilogy which, to be honest, was never that strong anyway thanks to the handling of its director and crew who perhaps invested more effort into it than it deserved.

Third and final film in "The Fly" trilogy is set many years later, where three descendants of Andre Delambre are still trying to perfect the teleportation device, so that they can help humanity(and make a fortune) Carole Gray plays a mental asylum escapee who has married grandson Martin(played by George Baker) while his father(played by Brian Donlevy) is unhappy about it, but accepts her. She will discover that some unfortunate deformed people who had unsuccessfully gone through the machine are hidden away in the mansion, but survived. This will push her over the edge, as the Delambre family seems doomed... Pointless and inept attempt to revive this series is again damaged by a low budget, with ineffective makeup F/X and black & white filming, not to mention an unsatisfying end.

Oddly plotted, yet strangely compelling second sequel to The Fly has the next generation of Delambres, Henri(Brian Donlevy)and son Martin(George Baker)still attempting to make their teleportation machine work, with a decent degree of success..they were able to travel from Quebec to London, but not without consequences. Martin is plagued with rapid aging unless he is injected with a serum and Henri suffers from radiation burns. Three lab assistants, including Martin's wife Judith(Mary Manson)were tragically altered by mutations due to trips through the teleportation device. Henri has a second son in London, Al(Michael Graham)who operates the other teleportation device, but is conflicted and disturbed with his father's disregard for the lives affected by the experiments. Al is fed up, and longs for a happy, normal life away from teleportation devices and labs. Martin makes a rather bad decision when he marries Patricia Stanley(Carole Gray), a patient who broke free from an asylum(in the bizarre opening title sequence, quite a weird way to open a sequel to The Fly)..Pat is in the asylum due to a nervous breakdown as a result of the death of an overbearing mother demanding her to excel at playing the piano. Henri is alarmed at Martin's marriage due to the risk of their experiments being disrupted. The plot thickens because Henri and Martin keep Judith and their student lab assistants, now monstrous mutations, locked in sheds like diseased animals! Even worse is Wan(Yvette Rees, in poor oriental make-up), the wife of the Delambres' Chinese assistant Tai(Burt Kwouk)who is repulsed at Martin's decision to re-marry even though he's still attached legally to Judith. Wan responds by secretly tormenting Pat by reminding her of Judith's presence, with Henri and Martin covering up her treatment by saying she is merely having bad dreams. Pat begins to question her own sanity, while Wan(who I believed was in love with Judith;it just seems that way, I could be wrong)continues to torture her in manipulative ways. Soon, a detective, Inspector Ronet(Jeremy Wilkins)..called to find the whereabouts of Pat by Madame Fournier, the head of the mental institution..begins to delve into the history of the Delambre threatening the whole teleportation operation. Tragic results spurn from Henri's insistence to continue as Wan stupidly releases Judith from her cage...Certainly flawed, but I found it rather fascinating for some reason..maybe it's the way the story is arranged. The make-up of the mutated victims is terrible. Yet, I felt director Don Sharp made a rather entertaining little feature despite the material's limitations. That opening credits with shattering glass exploding at the screen, with Carole Gray escaping with nothing but undergarments, running ins slow motion is certainly an eye-opener. You have that angle of an emotionally disturbed, yet quite beautiful, young woman entering the life of a scientist who is weakened by aging that attacks with such painful force(George Baker makes it look like a heart-attack was occurring), experimenting with his father on transporting humans from one place to another instantaneously. The scientist is actually already married to a woman he keeps locked up in a shed, has completely disregarded her, his father who has turned a blind eye to the effects of their experiments because of his undaunted desire to see his family's legacy completed. This is a lot of drama, not even including Wan and her antics throwing everything out of proportion. I think the film's strongest scene is at the end when Henri must get rid of the two lab assistants, having his son Al commit a dirty deed that puts all the madness into perspective. Clouded by his mad, dogged desire to see the teleportation experiments succeed(and especially removing themselves from the possibility of being apprehended by the police for their illegal conduct, amoral decisions and treatment towards victims of their failed science)Henri will do whatever it takes, no matter what consequences result. Not a successful film, but an interesting failure. I never thought it was boring, that's for sure.

One of the best horror movies of the 50s is without a doubt the 1958 version of "The Fly", the story of a scientist who gets fused with a common fly when a experiment goes awfully wrong. Directed by Kurt Neumann and starring David Hedison and Vincent Price, "The Fly" went on to become an enormous hit thanks to its effective mix of mystery, suspense and horror. As usual, to the surprising success of "The Fly" followed the making of a sequel, "Return of the Fly", released immediately the following year and with Price reprising his role. However, the change of focus from suspense to shock and horror, together with the rushed shooting and the low-budget made "Return of the Fly" an inferior product that did nothing but give a bad reputation to the series. This reputation extended to the third and final film, 1965's "Curse of the Fly", which is often labeled unfairly as "one of the bad sequels" when actually, it is a minor jewel of science fiction."Curse of the Fly" follows once again, Henri Delambre (Brian Donlevy), who despite having been almost destroyed by his father Teleportation machine in his youth, he has spent his life continuing his father's work. Now he has his two sons working with him, and the Delambres have finally achieved transatlantic Teleportation, with Martin Delambre (George Baker) coordinating the Canadian side and Albert Delambre (Michael Graham) the British side. However, not everything is going well for the Delambres, as after a series of disastrous failures both Martin and Albert are disenchanted with the project and are willing to start a normal life. Henri's experiments will become endangered once again when Martin marries Pat Stanley (Carole Gray), as the newly arrived bride has secrets of her own that could unleash the curse of the Delambres, the curse of the Fly.Writer Harry Spalding does a terrific job in bringing back the series to its original themes of mystery and suspense, and while he downplays horror in favor of sci-fi, the story carries an appropriate feeling of doom. Spalding's script is very respectful of the themes exposed in George Langelaan's original short story, and unlike "Return of the Fly", it recaptures the Gothic atmosphere of the original movie and manages to tie in everything exposed in the previous films and give a proper conclusion to the Delambres' saga. The addition of an element of madness to the story is really clever, and allowed director Don Sharp some chilling scenes. As the backbone of the movie, it is truly Spalding's script what separates "Curse of the Fly" from other b-movies of its time, and returns the series to its former glory, at least for a last dance.Better known for his work with Hammer Studios, director Don Sharp took the job of bringing Spalding's script to life while he was still at the top of his game. Already familiar with low-budget conditions of work, Sharp hides his monsters in the shadows and employs atmosphere and music to create the horrors of the Delambres' house, and by doing this not only his monsters become more realistic and menacing, he also returns to the series' roots by focusing the horror in the unknown and the unseen. Basil Emmott's excellent cinematography is of great importance for this, as paired with Bert Shefter's eerie score create an ominous atmosphere of dread that suits the Gothic style of the series to perfection. In many ways, "Curse of the Fly" feels like a science fiction version of those low-budget Hammer thrillers of the 60s like "Nightmare" or "Paranoiac".Being produced in the United Kingdom, "Curse of the Fly" showcases a lot of British talent in its cast, which overall means a significant improvement over "Return of the Fly". Brian Donlevy of "Quatermass" fame appears as the aging Henri Delambre, who despite all the tragedies he has lived insist in fulfilling his father's dream. Donlevy's performance as the tragic scientist is quite subtle, yet of great power. George Baker is for the most part effective, and even when at times appear a bit wooden he manages to carry the film without problems. As the troubled Pat Stanley, Carole Gray delivers probably the best performance of the film, giving a very natural performance in her role. The performances by the supporting cast are nothing special, but most make a good job with their roles. Burt Kwouk and Yvette Rees do have some quite good scenes as the Asian servants Tai and Wan.As often happens with sequels, low-budgets can really become the Achilles' heel of a movie, and "Curse of the Fly" is no exception. While Don Sharp does a great job into hiding it during most of the movie, it is impossible not to notice that the make-up work in the movie is pretty bad and probably the worst thing in the film. Also due to budgetary constrains, the designs for the Teleportation machines look sadly poor and even anachronistic (they look like something out of a 50s film), cheapening some of the film's best scenes. Still, thanks to the high quality of Spalding's screenplay, most of those quibbles can be easily ignored as the film's story is simply captivating. The masterful direction by Don Sharp also helps in this as for the most part he manages to disguise the movie's flaws.Often dismissed as another cheesy horror from the 60s, "Curse of the Fly" is actually a fine piece of cinema that ultimately redeems the series in this the last chapter of the saga. One would have wished a better budget for this story, as the epic tragedy of "The Fly" is ended in an amazing fashion here. However, Don Sharp really made wonders with what he got (a true trademark of a Hammer alumni) and delivered a product worth of praise. While of course not as good as Neumann's classic, "Curse of the Fly" is definitely an unfairly hidden gem of science fiction. 7/10