THE RETURN OF THE FLY (1959)

After the huge financial and critical  success of THE FLY 20th Century Fox immediately rushed a sequel into production. Signing star Vincent Price to return and reducing the budget to guarantee a profit, RETURN OF THE FLY was shot in black and white and released in 1959- merely a year after the release of the first film. Often criticized as a very poor follow up, fifty-five years after the fact the sequel is actually not a bad little movie. It certainly hasn't got the originality of the first, or its interesting flashback structure, but as a '50s creature feature it has plenty of charms to recommend it.

 The movie picks up the story 15 years after the end of the first film. Helene Delambre has died and at her funeral, a reporter asking questions about the mysterious events surrounding her husband's death accosts her now adult son Phillipe (Brett Halsey) and his uncle Francois (Price). Inspector Beachum — who we are told helped Charas on the Delambre case all those years ago — warns off the reporter. Phillipe confronts his uncle and demands to be told the truth of his father's death. When the whole tragic tale is laid before him Phillipe reveals his intention to continue the work on the disintegrator/integrator machine. Francois is horrified and refuses to financially back the work as too dangerous. Undaunted, Phillipe pushes forward with the help of electronics expert Alan Hinds (David Frankham), hired away from Delambre Industries. Alan seems a godsend in the effort to recreate the original machine until we learn that he's a criminal on the run from the British police, wanted for theft and murder. The ruthless Hinds strikes a deal with a local fence to sell the plans for the teleporter to the highest bidder but on the night he is ready to steal the necessary papers, Phillipe stumbles across his plot and attempts to stop him. Phillipe is knocked unconscious and Hinds decides that the best way to get rid of him is to put him in the machine and disintegrate him. Knowing of Phillipe's fear of flies (brought on by the knowledge of his father's accident) he sadistically places a housefly in the chamber with the helpless man. Hinds escapes with the plans and shoots Francois in the process. When Phillipe is reintegrated he and the fly have switched body parts in the same manner as his father. Cue musical sting!

Return of the Fly holds up very well as a good B-movie right up until Phillipe comes out of the machine. While many have criticized the first film for its oversized fly headpiece, this film compounds that perceived error by making the headpiece huge and quite unwieldy. I have to strain to keep from laughing at poor Brett Halsey (or whoever they stuck that thing onto) stumbling through the woods in day for night shots whacking that oversized fly helmet on low hanging tree limbs. There's even one shot in which I swear the fellow is holding the contraption onto his shoulders as he leans too far to one side. But I have to admit that as bad as I find these moments, I still like the film. For the most part it's a good follow up to the superior original with some good ideas and a nasty streak courtesy of the vicious Mr. Hinds. And while the second film is better paced than THE FLY, it still commits the sad error of not utilizing Price enough. He gets some good scenes in the last 20 minutes, as he fights to help his nephew even though he has a bullet wound, but Price should have been more central to the story.

Tarzan paperback novel covers

These amazing covers by Neal Adams and Boris Vallejo are a few of the many reasons I jumped at reading these great adventure stories. How can you not want to find out what happens in these images that simply crackle with energy? 

Goblin tours the United States!

That is correct! For the first time in their history Italian rock band Goblin will be touring North America this Fall. And I have my ticket to the Atlanta show already! Woo hoo!! That is technically the very first American show they will play so I will be there for a truly historic musical event.

For those unaware of the reason for this excitement, Goblin is the band responsible for the scores for the Dario Argento films, DEEP RED, SUSPIRIA and SLEEPLESS as well as for several other fine horror films. They even contributed to Romero's patchwork score for DAWN OF THE DEAD. I am thrilled to be able to see these guys play live- an event I never thought I would live to witness. 

Here are the tour dates for the US and Canada- 

10/01 – Atlanta, GA @ The Loft *
10/03 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel *
10/04 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar *
10/05 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts *
10/06 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg *
10/09 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair *
10/10 – Montreal, QC @ Le National *
10/11 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House *
10/12 – Pontiac, MI @ Crofoot Ballroom *
10/13 – Chicago, IL @ Metro  *
10/15 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre *
10/18 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos *
10/19 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater *
10/20 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom *
10/22 – Hollywood, CA @ Egyptian Theater

Tarzan Movie trailers!

NaschyCast #39- TARZAN IN KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1974)

When we started this podcast centered on the works of Paul Naschy I had no idea it would take us to some of the places we have gone. I never expected to delve into an acidic view of religion and human nature filtered through a Medieval tale of ribald wickedness (EL CAMINANTE); a dark but funny look at modern Spanish society (NAKED MADRID);  or a sympathetic look at a real life killer (THE FRENCHMAN'S GARDEN). None of those subjects were on my radar but even they seem like a natural extension of Naschy's career compared to the thought of our favorite Spanish werewolf running around in a Tarzan movie. WTF? How did this happen?

First it must be made clear that Naschy does NOT play Tarzan. There have been dozens of screen Jungle Lords but I'm not sure anyone would have been able to suspend their disbelief enough to accept that peculiar casting. No- in TARZAN IN KING SOLOMON'S MINES Naschy plays the part of the Great White Hunter with criminal intent. He sports a mustache, a rifle, canned meat and the coolest Safari hat in Africa. The movie also stars the dark eyed German beauty Nadiuska in the role of the love interest. She is returning to the podcast for her second appearance in a Naschy film after her work in THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK.

We doubt much, if any, of this movie was shot in Africa (other than the stock footage!) but its still a jungle adventure so surely it will be fun. Right? We'll see. Troy and I discuss our first encounters with the greatest of Edgar Rice Burroughs' creations; good and bad Tarzan actors; favorite versions of the character in film; jungle movies as a genre; etc. We try to stay on track but this subject is fertile ground and there are just too many vines to choose from. Please write and let us know what you think of the show. The email address is naschycast@gmail.com and the Facebook group is in full swing. If you get the show through iTunes please take the time to rate and review us. And thanks for listening!

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Jungle Movie Poster Art

I'm editing the next NaschyCast featuring a lot of Tarzan talk so these kinds of movies are on my mind. Fun stuff!

The Joy of THE CURSE OF THE DOLL PEOPLE (1961)

Recently the fine folks over at the B-Movie Podcast covered the mad little Mexican horror picture THE CURSE OF THE DOLL PEOPLE (1961) and brought to my attention that there exists a longer version of the film. Regular show guest Juan of Fifth Dimension Films joined the podcasters and was able to detail the scenes that were cut out by the United States distributor. This was an eye opening conversation! There are a number of different sequences cut and their removal reduces the running time of the feature by over 15 minutes – which is exactly what was wanted, of course. The shorter the film, the easier it was to pair with another movie for the big double feature money. The problem is that when you start hacking out big chunks of the film you run the risk of making the story confusing or completely nonsensical which is what happened with THE CURSE OF THE DOLL PEOPLE.

In prep to listen to the B-Movie hosts talk about the movie I rewatched it for the first time in years and found that my less than stellar memories of it were accurate. The story lost me on more than one occasion with character motivations a mystery, unexplained information driving the plot forward and bizarre coincidences making things seem sillier minute by minute. There are more than a few moments when I was struggling to figure out whom certain characters were so that I could understand why they would be doing what they were doing! These detriments are a shame as the film’s central idea is pretty good and the sight of the three foot tall ‘dolls’ creeping around killing people is often chilling. But the missing pieces of the story are a major hindrance to enjoying the movie that can’t really be overcome by simple B-Movie love or grit! 

The very good news is that it is now possible to see the full length version of this movie! That’s right! The Spanish language 86 minute long print of it is now available and can be purchased from Fifth Dimension Films. The DVD has easy to read English subtitles and the image is far sharper than the crappy video copy I first saw over a decade ago. The benefit to seeing the entire movie is that you can finally figure out what is actually happening as well as how certain characters are related (!) and even discover a bit more motivation for the bad guy’s evil plan – even though it still doesn’t make too much sense. I can highly recommend checking out this disc and indeed their entire catalog. Juan has a huge collection of rare and hard to find movies over there that will make any B-Movie fan drool with desire. Where else are you gonna find FACE OF FIRE (1959), HAND OF DEATH (1962) or THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957)? Go on over and check out Juan's site and tell him The Bloody Pit sent ya!