Curse of the Fly is a 1965 American horror science-fiction film and a sequel to Return of the Fly (1959), as the third installment in The Fly film series. It was released in 1965, and unlike the other films in the series was produced in the United Kingdom. The film was directed by Don Sharp and the screenplay was written by Harry Spalding.
Curse of the Fly was rarely seen for many years, as it was the only entry in the Fly film trilogy that did not receive a videotape, laserdisc or online release. It did not receive its home video premiere until 2007, when it was released in a boxed set with the original series of films.
Plot
Martin Delambre is driving to Montreal one night when he sees a young girl by the name of Patricia Stanley running in her underwear. They fall in love and are soon married. However, they both hold secrets: she has recently escaped from a mental asylum; he and his father Henri are engaged in radical experiments in teleportation, which have already had horrific consequences. Martin also suffers recessive fly genes which cause him to age rapidly and he needs a serum to keep him young.
In a rambling mansion in rural Quebec, Martin and Henri have successfully teleported people between there and London, but the previous failures resulted in horribly disfigured and insane victims who are locked in the stables. Martin's first wife Judith is one of them, as are Samuels and Dill, two men who had worked as the Delambres' assistants. Martin's brother Albert mans the London receiving station but wishes to terminate the teleportation project and escape the obsession that has driven his grandfather, his father and his brother. Wan and Tai, a Chinese couple who work for the Delambres in the house as well as in the lab complete the household.
The police and the headmistress of the asylum trace Patricia to the Delambre estate, where they learn that she has married Martin, but it is soon discovered that he had a previous wife whom he did not divorce. Inspector Charas, who had investigated Andre Delambre and is now an old man in the hospital, tells Inspector Ronet about the Delambre family and their experiments.
As the police begin to close in, a mixture of callousness and madness afflicts the Delambres, and they decide to abandon their work and eliminate the evidence of their failures. They subdue and teleport Samuels and Dill, deliberately sending them together so that upon reintegration in London the two men are fused into a single writhing mass. As they intended, Albert is horrified at the sight and kills the thing with an axe, but unknown to them, he destroys the teleportation equipment in the process. Wan, angry at what they have done to Judith, sometimes releases her, ensuring that Pat sees her, but her husband and father in law insist she has had a nightmare. However, Martin finally admits the truth when Pat fears she really is insane. Wan releases Judith again, telling her Pat is in her, Judith's, bedroom, but Judith locks her in the cell and goes after Pat. Pat runs to the lab where Tai is working, and as Pat escapes, Tai tries to stop Judith. She attacks him and he kills her in self defence. Tai releases Wan and tells her what has happened, and they rid themselves of a possible murder charge by teleporting Judith's body. But now, Tai and Wan have had enough and leave the Quebec estate.
On their return from another interview with the police, Henri convinces Martin that they must send the unconscious Patricia to London and then follow in order to escape from the police. Martin resists, afraid that she might be harmed, so Henri volunteers to go first. Martin sends Henri to London, unaware that Albert has destroyed the reintegration equipment. Henri does not rematerialize and is lost. Realizing what has happened, Albert leaves the lab, sobbing, and is not seen again.
Inspector Ronet arrives at the estate, passing Tai and Wan as they drive away. Patricia awakens in the teleportation chamber but escapes before the transmission sequence is complete. Martin pursues her but starts aging again. Without his serum he quickly dies, sprawled across the front seat of his car. Soon after, Ronet finds him reduced to a skeleton, and he escorts the badly shaken Patricia back into the house.