THE DEADLY BEES
UK, 1966, 83 minutes, Colour.
Suzanna Leigh, Guy Dolman, Frank Finlay, Michael Ripper.
Directed by Freddie Francis.
The Deadly Bees anticipates many of the animal menace films of the 1970s including a number of films about bees including The Savage Bees and The Swarm.
This is minor material: a pop singer goes to a farm for holidays and realises that the farmer has deadly bees. Suzanna Leigh is the singer, Guy Dolman the owner of the farm, Frank Finlay the villain.
The film is of interest because it was directed by Freddie Francis. Francis was best known as a cinematographer from the 1950s to 2000. His films include a wide range including Room at the Top and Sons and Lovers in the early 60s as well as The Innocents, The Elephant Man and The French Lieutenant’s Woman in the early 80s and even The Straight Story in 1999. The films that he directed were mainly horror films of a range of topics including The Evil of Frankenstein, Hysteria, The Skull, The Psychopath, Torture Garden.
The screenplay for The Deadly Bees was written by Robert Bloch, author of the novel Psycho and writer of a number of television films and series including episodes for the Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
1. An interesting and entertaining thriller, horror story?
2. How well were the horror conventions used - a remote location, enigmatic hero and villain, the threatened heroine? The danger of bees and their destructive power? Horror atmosphere?
3. Colour photography, locations, music? The special effects especially with the bees?
4. How credible was the plot? Vicky Robbins and her breakdown and her recuperating? Hargroves and Manfred and their cultivating the been? Their sinister and ambiguous behaviour? Scientific rivalry? Madness? The intermeshing of these themes for horror?
5. The focus on Vicky and audiences identifying with her? The pop singer of the sixties? The attractive heroines? The threatened female? Her curiosity, her misreading people? Her discovery of the truth too late? Audience identification with her in fear and threat?
6. The ambiguous Manfred and Hargrove? Surliness covering truth, charm covering villainy? Conventional hero and villain? The playing of the two men to be convincing for the audience disbelief or belief? Hargroves and his wife's death? His reaction to the situation? Manfred and his insinuating himself into Vicky’s confidence? The horror of his madness? Death?
7. The supporting cast, especially Mrs Hargrove, the death of her dog’s her own death?
8. The presentation of the scientific background of the boony their visual presentation, audience fear of them? Questions of the antidote The violent and dramatic sequences with the bees especially in the climax?
9. How well were the conventions of horror used? The thriller techniques? The horror and suspense and the happy ending?
10. Themes of good and evil, right and wrong, the menace of evil and the effect of tear?
