Leofwine_draca It's generally considered that production company Amicus were capable of making some top-notch anthologies, but when they concentrated on single-story horror yarns the results were often - not always, but more often than not - disappointing. THE DEADLY BEES may be notable as the first of the (thankfully irregular) "killer bee" movies but on all accounts it's a crushing bore. A dry script (from the usually reliable Robert Bloch, at that), insanely boring direction from Freddie Francis (this coming from a fan of his usually despised film LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF) and a total lack of action and thrills on all accounts drag this one down from the start and only people with really high tolerance levels or an affection for British cinema from the period will find this watchable.The cast of characters is an unappealing one and none of the actors or actresses come away looking good in their roles. The identity of the bee-murderer is insanely obvious right from their very introduction and only a very young child would have trouble spotting which of the two bee-keepers is the secret killer. Come on Bloch, Marriott, et al: surely you can do better than this child's play!? The bee-attack sequences are lacking in technical skill, poorly-superimposed over the action and so detracting from any realism the film strives to create. The music is over the top and works against the film and the only good thing you can say is that the shots are composed well and the cinematography is solid.Suzanna Leigh is quite a respected actress from the period but you wouldn't guess it from this turn, which is undoubtedly her worst performance ever. Looking constipated when she strives to look scared and reduced to running around in her underwear at other times, she's totally lacking in believability and is more often than not laughable - a far cry from the fragile beauty she played in LUST FOR A VAMPIRE. Guy Doleman is a wooden jerk and Frank Finlay hams it up so much you'd think he previously worked as a butcher. While it's nice to see some familiar horror faces lower down in the cast - Michael Ripper, typecast again as BOTH a barman and a policeman and former Frankenstein's Monster Michael Gwynn as a doctor, they're uniformly wasted. No wonder this lacklustre film is so often forgotten when in discussion of British horror.

Chase_Witherspoon A London pop star suffering exhaustion is sent to convalesce in the country-side where she encounters a toxic mix of deranged ambition and a hybridized strain of killer bees that threatens not only her fragile sanity, but also her life. Leigh is a relative lightweight amongst her accomplished co-stars, with Doleman as the no-nonsense farmer and Finlay as his eccentric neighbour jostling for position as the dominant bee keeper. It's a rather unusual premise on which to base a complex whodunit, but provides a surprisingly strong basis for the mystery to unfold. Doleman's strained relationship with his apparently invalided wife, and the curiosities of relationships in an isolated rural community serve as an intervening backdrop to the troubled Leigh and her increasing concern at the strange events she witnesses.Veteran Hammer-horror director Francis has crafted an eerie little mystery, lacking none of the essential ingredients of a conventional mystery, with the notable exception of an impartial investigator. Most of the detective work is done by the protagonists, drip feeding the naive Leigh with twisted facts to conjure alibis and implicate the culprit. Francis does a fine job of concealing the mystery, carefully playing the doubt card, and tempering clues with red herrings and faux staging.Opening to the groovy fusion of art-house pop culture, Leigh's character is framed as a victim of excesses in a progressive London scene (there's an implied drug addiction, but it's vague) and from there, the film juxtaposes to the opposite extreme - an ultra conservative, socially incestuous rural setting, a deep isolation both geographically and socially for the central character. It's an engaging tussle between old-fashioned values and an emerging modern liberalism.Slated by critics, the film almost cheats itself with its bold title, because it's not ostensibly a movie of this genre. The bees are present as a vehicle only, and certainly they have comparably little to offer by way of shock value. But the intrigue that the many layers build, is compelling. Try it from a different angle and you may like what you find.

preppy-3 Dreary horror film. Exhausted pop singer Vicki Robbins (Susanna Leigh) needs a vacation. She goes to a farm on an island where a local keeps bees. For no reason the bees start attacking and killing people and animals. There's more but that's about all you need to know.I caught this on a Saturday afternoon TV back in the 1970s. I thought it might be mildly amusing. It wasn't. It was just deadly dull. All the characters are obnoxious, the special effects are hilariously bad, the outdoor scenes are very obviously shot indoors, it's ridiculously obvious who's doing it and the murders are done so badly I thought it was a joke. Add to that a leaden pace and nothing even remotely scary (unless a bunch of bees buzzing around terrifies you). The actors are OK considering how stupid the story is but there's nothing here worth watching. Amicus (a poor man's version of Hammer) did this. They did some great horror movies like "Asylum", "The House That Dripped Blood" and "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors" BUT this is not one of them. A rightfully forgotten horror film. I give it a 2.

Michael_Elliott Deadly Bees, The (1967) ** (out of 4) Robert Bloch wrote the screenplay to this film, which has a pop singer (Suzanna Leigh) going to get rest at a country home only to arrive as an outbreak of bee attacks start to happen. It appears that these aren't just any bees but instead specially trained by a psychotic beekeeper. Bloch is of course best known for his novel, which turned into Hitchcock's Psycho but he certainly missed the boat here. There's a big mystery wrapped around the film as to who is the beekeeper but it's very obviously from the opening ten minutes. I'm not sure if the screenplay was just bad or if Francis didn't like Block and decided to give away the secret early on. Either way, there's really not too much going for this film as the performances are all rather bland and that includes the lead Leigh. Not for a second did I buy her as a pop singer and the opening music is just torture on the ears. The screenplay introduces several characters and subplots but none of them every come out to anything. This Amicus production does benefit from some rather gruesome death scenes but the special effects don't hold up too well today.