Like father like son
Fifteen years after the death of his father Phillipe Delambre (Brett Halsey) is now an adult. He is determined to complete the Disintegrator-Integrator that his father had been working on before his death. At first his uncle Francois (Vincent Price) refuses to help. Phillipe hires Alan Hines (David Frankham) from Delambre Frere and uses his own finances to support his research and testing. Eventually his funds run out. As a last resort he tells his uncle that he will sell his half of the family company to get the funds he needs. His uncle relents and says he will fund the project but he will also be involved to make sure his nephew doesn’t take any risky chances. Experiments go on as expected. Eventually they can disintegrate animals and re-materialize them later. Their current experiment being stored is a guinea pig.
Unbeknownst to Phillipe Alan is a con man and industrial spy. His real name is Ronald Holmes and he is wanted by the British police. His aim is to steal the blueprints for the machine and sell them to the highest bidder using a fence named Max Barthold (Dan Seymour). Before he can get away with his plan he is confronted by a British agent. Holmes/Hines kills him and “stores” him in the transporter. When the coast is clear he rematerializes the agent only the agent has guinea pig feet and the guinea pig has human hands. He kills the guinea pig and dumps the agent in the river.
Phillipe figures out that Holmes is not on the up and up and confronts him. After a fight Holmes manages to knock Phillipe out. He “stores” him in the transporter as well. In a bit of deranged malevolence he catches a fly and puts it into the transporter with him. He then steals all the blueprints and leaves. On the way out he shoots Francois. Francois manages to re-materialize Phillipe. Of course now Phillipe is part person and part fly. He runs out into the night looking for revenge.
“Return of the Fly” was released in 1959 and was directed by Edward Bernds. The movie was better than I expected it to be. Although the fly head was a little too big for Halsey. He kind of bobbled a little when he ran. And the fly with the human head looked more like a spider.
Also there are a few plot points that are a little off. For example in the first movie Andre’s lab was in the basement of the house. In this one it was in the company foundry until Phillipe moved it to his grandfather’s house. Also, how did Phillipe know that Max was involved? And how did Phillipe get to Max’s funeral parlor before Holmes? Of course just about every horror movie from the 50’s had something not quite right about it. It’s certainly not enough to take away from the film. Of course the first movie was the best but “Return of the Fly” was still quite enjoyable. Also, you don’t need to see “The Fly” to enjoy “Return of the Fly”.
The grossest part, believe it or not, is a guinea pig.