THE DEADLY BEES

 

THE DEADLY BEES (1967) is one of the lesser entries in the Amicus catalog, despite being directed by Freddie Francis. I purchased it on Blu-ray at a discount (what did you expect?). 

Pop music star Vicky Robbins (Suzanna Leigh) suffers a nervous breakdown while performing on a TV show. Her doctor sends her out to a remote farm on Seagull Island for some rest and recuperation. The couple who own the farm, the Hargroves, are not the most welcoming people in the world--Mr. Hargrove (Guy Doleman) is dour and mysterious, while his wife (Catherine Finn) spends her time sitting around smoking cigarettes and looking depressed. Hargrove is a beekeeper, as is the quirky Manfred (Frank Finlay), a neighbor who takes an interest in Vicky. Soon both Hargrove's dog and his wife are killed due to bee attacks, and Vicky fears she may be next. 

All the information one can find about THE DEADLY BEES on the internet and in print points out that the movie had major script problems. Famed horror writer Robert Bloch wrote the original script (based on a novel called A TASTE OF HONEY by H.F. Heard), but it didn't impress Freddie Francis, who had it rewritten by Anthony Marriott. The result is a slow and at times confusing plot that appears to be missing valuable story points. In interviews Amicus producer Milton Subotsky always claimed to have re-edited most of the films he was attached to in order to make them "work". I don't think THE DEADLY BEES works, but I do believe that this time Subotsky did do some major tinkering. A number of sequences in this film end abruptly, and one gets the sense that there are certain scenes that were cut out. At one point it appears that a character has been killed off, but it is later revealed, in an off-hand manner, that the person survived after all, even though they are never shown again. 

The very idea of being inundated by huge swarms of bees is inherently nasty, but the actual bee attacks here are underwhelming. They mainly consist of bees haphazardly superimposed over footage of actors flailing about. The matte work is mediocre, and one never believes that any of the characters are in danger. I certainly don't believe that performers on a movie set should be put at any risk, but if you make a movie titled THE DEADLY BEES, and the result is that one doesn't get a charge out of the bees attacking anybody, there isn't much of a point to it. 

Freddie Francis always stated that he didn't like horror films to begin with, and in THE DEADLY BEES he seemed more interested in the desultory married life of the Hargroves than in any shocking thrills. In some ways the movie tries to be a murder mystery, but there isn't much suspense--there's only two beekeepers on the island, and both of them act suspicious. When the man behind it all is finally revealed, and he goes into a lengthy explanation of how he did it, I immediately started to wonder why the other beekeeper didn't do certain things in the beginning to stop all this from happening. 

Suzanna Leigh handles the attractive damsel in distress role well, but she doesn't have much to work with, and she has to fight off bees at one point while in her underwear. (There's an attempt to try and use Vicky's breakdown as an excuse to belittle her suspicions, but this isn't fully developed.) Guy Doleman is so brooding and disagreeable as Mr. Hargrove that he becomes too much of a suspect, and Frank Finlay is such a milquetoast you just know that he's hiding something. 

The supporting cast is filled with faces known to Hammer/Amicus/English Gothic fans. Michael Ripper plays (of course) the man who runs the island's pub, and his daughter is played by Katy Wild, who was the mute beggar girl in THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN. (There's a hint that Wild's character is having an affair with Mr. Hargrove, but this isn't fully developed either.) Someone else from THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (also directed by Freddie Francis) shows up here--Caron Gardner, who was the Burgomaster's sexy wife in the earlier film, has a cameo as Vicky's manager's secretary. Michael Gwynn, who was in a number of Hammers, is Vicky's doctor, and Alister Williamson (the man behind the mask in THE OBLONG BOX) is a police official. 

The most notable thing about THE DEADLY BEES is that it predates the Killer Bee craze of the latter part of the 1970s, which spawned a set of other below average "insects on the rampage" flicks. When one thinks about it, has there ever been a decent killer bee movie??