Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.5

Curse of the Fly Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson January 2, 2020

Curse of the Fly (1965) is being released exclusively as part of Scream Factory's five-movie box set, The Fly Collection.

Six years elapsed after The Return of the Fly (1959) and when they determined it was time to make another sequel, producers Robert L. Lippert and Jack Parsons decided to go back to basics. With Curse of the Fly, they brought back the Delambres but this time it's father Henri (Brian Donlevy) and son Martin (George Baker) as household scientists who are part of the family's three generations of inventors. Lippert and Parsons also wanted to re-inject a love story since The Return of the Fly had none and may have contributed to its indifferent reception. Curse of the Fly has a great opening with shattered glass flying directly to the camera lens in slow motion. Patricia Stanley (Carole Gray), a semi-nude woman, has fled from the window of her room. She's escaping from a mental institute and must get past the main gate. As she scoots into the woods, the headlights of an oncoming car approaches. Martin Delambre spots Patricia and offers her his coat. They begin talking and he offers to take her to a hotel for the night. Martin quickly becomes smitten with Patricia and she has the same mutual amorous feelings for him. They marry and he takes her back to the cavernous Delambre home in Montreal. Before their wedding, they've concealed secrets about themselves from the other. Patricia had dreams of becoming a concert pianist but suffered a nervous breakdown. Martin and his father concocted a Teleportation Machine with which they can transport humans elec­tronically between their fam­ily homes in Can­ada and London where Albert Delambre (Michael Graham), Martin's brother, has his residence. British actor Charles Carson steps in the shoes of Herbert Marshall, who was ill as the time and would die a year after this film's release, to portray Inspector Charas. Madame Fournier (Rachel Kempson) from the psych ward joins Charas to track down Patricia.

Picnic in the woods for two lovers.

Curse of the Fly has a solid and worthy premise but writer Harry Spalding's screenplay lacks sustained character and thematic development. Spalding really has something cooking between Martin and Patricia but deviates from that relationship as Martin devotes more time to his experiments in the underground lab. Spalding fails to not only fully explore their past lives but also that of Judith Delambre (Mary Manson), Martin's musically inclined, two-faced wife. The raw materials are all there for a very good sequel but Spalding and director Don Sharp have only cooked half-baked ingredients. While Curse of the Fly is categorically a "creature feature," it doesn't really show the transmutated title character, although a secondary element is submerged into a subplot. When Martin was conducting one of his experiments, a common house fly got en­tangled in the cross wires of his machine. Martin subsequently absorbed some of the bug's qualities. Martin or someone else must routinely give him shots in order to stay alive. He's a lot like a diabetic who needs regular insulin injections.

Curse of the Fly Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Curse of the Fly is the only film in The Fly Collection to make its North American debut on Blu-ray. (The second sequel has been available as part of The Fly: Ultimate Collection in Australia courtesy of Via Vision Entertainment for two years.) The movie appears in its original CinemaScope ratio on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 from Scream Factory. Contrast and grayscale are solid but not spectacular. Black levels and shadow detail are terrific, though. The transfer boasts periodic film artifacts. I noticed thin vertical tramlines during two scenes. My video score is 3.75. Scream has encoded the feature at an average video bitrate of 36000 kbps.

The 86-minute film receives the usual dozen scene selections.

Curse of the Fly Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream supplies a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1605 kbps, 24-bit) as the sole sound track. The original monaural mix is in excellent condition with no audible hiss, pops, crackles, or dropouts. Dialogue is clean and discernible. Composer Bert Shefter's original music effectively underscores the action. My audio score is 4.25.

Scream has provided optional English SDH, which can be switched on through the menu or via remote.

Curse of the Fly Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• NEW Audio Commentary with Author/Film Historian Steve Haberman and Filmmaker/Film Historian Constantine Nasr - Haberman and Nasr are both fans of Curse of the Fly as they deliver as reappraisal of this second sequal on a feature-length track. Then concede that there are surviving production files on the film but do their best to shed light on facts about it that they did find. The two historians contextualize the careers of director Don Sharp, writer Harry Spalding, as well as actors Brian Donlevy, George Baker, Carole Gray, and Burt Kwouk. They also provide analysis of some scenes. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Interview with Actress Mary Manson (7:38, 1080p) - Manson reminisces about a party in the mid-60s when producer Jack Parsons offered her the part of Judith Delambre in Curse of the Fly. Manson also recalls the very early morning hours she spent in the makeup chair and playing the piano with one hand. She watched a DVD of the movie before giving this interview and shows her sharp memory. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Interview with Continuity Supervisor Renee Glynee (5:22, 1080p) - Glynne recalls the films produced by Robert Lippert and Jack Parsons. She also describes the working conditions at Shepperton Studios during the 1950s. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:05, 1080p) - an unrestored trailer for Curse of the Fly displayed in about 1.37:1. It sports scratches, film artifacts, and tape hiss.

• TV Spot (1:03, upscaled to 1080i) - actually a spot advertising both Curse of the Fly and Devils of Darkness. It's presented in 1.33:1 and was culled from a VHS cassette.

• Still Gallery (2:04, 1080i) - the first twenty-two images are high-res black-and-white stills taken during principal photography of Curse of the Fly, including a few behind-the-scenes shots. The last five are color posters, a couple individual one-sheets of Curse of the Fly and a few others where a second feature is illustrated alongside it as part of a double bill.

Curse of the Fly Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Curse of the Fly's locales, some of its characters, and certain plot elements actually remind me of Get Out (2017) and I wonder if Jordan Peele had seen it before making his directorial debut? But Don Sharp's "B" picture isn't close to the movie that Get Out is and remains an average sequel. If you previously owned the four other Fly films and want to complete your collection, you may want to RENT Curse of the Fly first before investing in this box set. It's currently only available in this bundle and unlikely to receive an individual release from Shout! Factory. Scream delivers an above-average transfer that still could have used some more digital cleanup. The audio presentation is superior and the new audio commentary plus two recently recorded interviews should appeal to fans.