The Deadly Bees is a 1967 British horror film based on H.F. Heard's 1941 novel A Taste for Honey. It was directed by Freddie Francis, and stars Suzanna Leigh, Guy Doleman, and Frank Finlay. The original screenplay was by Robert Bloch but was rewritten by Anthony Marriott. The film was released theatrically in the United States in 1967 and was featured in a 1998 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Heard's novel, which was a sort of Sherlock Holmes pastiche, had been previously adapted for television as a 60-minute drama episode of The Elgin Hour: Season 1, Episode 11 under the title "Sting of Death" (22 February 1955), starring Boris Karloff as the detective character from Heard's novel, Mr Mycroft. According to H.F. Heard's official website, kinescopes of this TV dramatization survive, and, in 2014, it was made commercially available for home video as one of several features in a DVD, released by Synergy Entertainment, titled Sherlock Holmes: The Archive Collection Vol. 1.
Plot
The film opens with two men from an unnamed ministry commenting on a spate of letters from a beekeeper claiming to have developed a strain of killer bees. They dismiss him as a lunatic, though his letters claim he will start killing people if he is not taken seriously.
Meanwhile, pop singer Vicki Robbins (Suzanna Leigh) collapses from exhaustion on television and is sent to recuperate in a cottage on Seagull Island. The proprietors of the "rest home" are a depressed, disgruntled couple, Ralph and Mary Hargrove (Guy Doleman and Catherine Finn). Ralph is a beekeeper, as is his neighbor, H.W. Manfred (Frank Finlay). Manfred claims to control his bees via a tape recording of a high note made by a death's-head moth, which hypnotizes them.
Vicki begins to notice mysterious happenings. Mary's dog and later Mary herself are attacked by the bees and killed, leading Vicki to suspect Hargrove. She and Manfred start to snoop around; he encourages her to search through Hargrove's papers, and she discovers that Hargrove has managed to isolate "the smell of fear" into a liquid form. Manfred tells her this must mean that Hargrove has been baiting the bees with this substance. Bees soon attack Vicki in her room at the cottage, and she later escapes to Manfred's house. He tells her he will go back to Hargrove's farm to collect evidence, but this arouses Vicki's suspicion.
Vicki searches Manfred's house and discovers his secret laboratory, and when he returns, he admits that he was the killer. He tells her that he used his visit to the other farm as a pretense to plant the fear pheromone and kill Hargrove, his target all along, as he suspected Manfred's ill intentions. Now that she knows his secret, he must kill Vicki too. However, she thwarts his attempt by destroying his moth recording, leading him to be stung to death and crash through a banister but also accidentally setting the house on fire. Meanwhile, Manfred's bees swarm and attack the pubmaster, investigating the Hargrove place. Hargrove chases after him with a smoker and saves him by telling him to throw away the jacket. Hargrove and the pubmaster rush to Manfred's and see the house on fire, and they save a trapped Vicki just in time.
Vicki leaves the island the next day, just as a bowler-hatted ministry official finally arrives to investigate the deaths.
Cast
Suzanna Leigh as Vicki Robbins
Frank Finlay as H.W. Manfred
Guy Doleman as Ralph Hargrove
Catherine Finn as Mary Hargrove
John Harvey as Thompson
Michael Ripper as David Hawkins
Anthony Bailey as Compere
Tim Barrett as Harcourt
James Cossins as Coroner
Frank Forsyth as Doctor
Katy Wild as Doris Hawkins
Greta Farrer as Sister
Gina Gianelli as Secretary
Michael Gwynn as Dr. George Lang
Maurice Good as Agent
The television sequence toward the beginning features a performance by British pop group The Birds (not to be confused with American group The Byrds). The group's lead guitarist is Ronnie Wood (later of The Faces and The Rolling Stones) and the sequence was filmed on 14 January 1966 at Shepperton Studios.
Production
Though the script was originally adapted from Heard's novel by noted author Robert Bloch, best known for Psycho, critics invariably derided the film, citing its uninspired acting, ludicrous special effects (including plastic flies glued to actors' faces to show them being "stung"), and continuity errors.