The Deadly Bees

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The Deadly Bees

A promotional poster for The Deadly Bees
Directed by Freddie Francis
Produced by Max J. Rosenberg
Milton Subotsky
Written by Robert Bloch
Anthony Marriott
H.F. Heard (novel)
Starring Suzanna Leigh
Guy Doleman
Frank Finlay
Music by Wilfred Josephs
Cinematography John Wilcox
Editing by Oswald Hafenrichter
Distributed by Amicus Productions
Paramount Pictures (1967USA)
Release date(s) 19 May 1967 (NYC)
Running time 83 min.
Country Flag of United Kingdom United Kingdom
Language English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Deadly Bees is a 1966 British horrorthriller film based on H.F. Heard's novel A Taste for Honey. It was directed by Freddie Francis, and stars Suzanna Leigh, Guy Doleman, and Frank Finlay. It was featured in a 1998 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Critics invariably deride the film, generally citing its uninspired acting, ludicrous special effects, including plastic flies glued to actors' faces to show them being "stung", and continuity errors.

[edit] Plot outline

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film opens with two men from an unnamed ministry commenting 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 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 and disgruntled couple, Ralph and Mary Hargrove (Guy Doleman and Catherine Finn). Ralph is a beekeeper, as is his neighbor, H.W. Manfred (Frank Finlay).

Vicki begins noticing a spate of mysterious happenings. Mary Hargrove and her dog are attacked by the bees and killed, leading Vicki to suspect Hargrove. She and Manfred begin to snoop around. He encourages her to search through Hargrove's papers. In doing this, she finds 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.

Vicki's snooping methods prove to not go unnoticed, and she soon gets attacked by bees in her room at the cottage. She eventually escapes to Manfred's house, where she decides to stay until she can catch the next boat off the island. Manfred begins acting suspicious, so Vicki decides to do some more of her own detective work. She discovers his secret laboratory, which leads him to admit that he indeed is the one who has been causing this all along. He tells Vicki he has been intending to kill Hargrove all along, but now that she knows the secret, he will have to kill her too. She thwarts his attempt, leading him to be stung to death and her to set the house on fire. She escapes the burning house, and leaves the island the next day just as someone from the ministry finally arrives to investigate the deaths.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Quotes

These are quotes from the actual film. For quotes from the MST3K version, please visit the the Wikiquote MST3K article section on The Deadly Bees.

  • "The dog's meat, have you seen it?"

[edit] External links