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(1959) ***1/2

"What if Phillipe does not have the mind of a human, but the murderous brain of a fly?" That's Vincent Price talking, being a little harsh on flies.

Since the original movie was about a guy who inadvertently swaps his head and one hand with that of a fly, and this movie was about his son who somehow does the exact same thing, I was getting ready for the doozy of all plot contrivances. I was thinking I might have to make this review all about decoding the gay undertones of the relationship between the visionary scientist Phillipe and his assistant Alan, a smarmy British guy with a ridiculous thin mustache.

However, imagine my delight when it turns out the assistant is really Ronnie Holmes, one of those electronic expert/crook types, bent on stealing the transporter idea for himself. He hides a corpse by disintegrating it while there's still a disintegrated guinea pig in the machine's workings, and when they reintegrate, the corpse has big furry white hands and the guinea pig has little human ones. Yes! And then he steps on it. Even better, after a rough confrontation leaves Phillipe unconscious on the floor, Ronnie pulls the same disposal stunt. As an afterthought, knowing of his friend's phobia of flies, and what will happen, he tosses a fly in there on purpose! What a bastard!

This is just the way a sequel should behave, I think: broaden the concept, expand the cast and the plot. Ironically, the search from that point is not for the fly with the guy's head, but for the guy, proving you can sneak around downtown Montreal even if your head's the size of a hoppity-hop. In close quarters, the monster is pretty darn creepy, thanks in part to the fly foot he's also got that provides an eerie dragging sound. From a distance he looks kind of silly, but at least the head looks like an actual fly's head, which isn't really true of the first one.

Unlike The Fly, Return of the Fly is in black and white. It was only released a year later, I assume on a thin budget. Nevertheless, it delivers. An excellent entry out of the gate.

I know it's not going to last even another day, but I can't believe I'm in the lead at all. Eat my dust!