Founded by Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg, Amicus Productions is best known for not only being the main competition to the legendary Hammer Films in the 1960's but also for sharing many of the actors such as Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Their most famous films were the numerous horror anthology movies they released, a lot of them written by Psycho author Robert Bloch, such as Asylum and the EC Comics adaptation, Tales from the Crypt. Perhaps, then, this is what makes the presence of The Deadly Bees on their resume all the more interesting. As far as I can tell it's the only "Nature Runs Amok" type of film they made and was quite a departure from their gothic themed genre films.

Things open in the city of Westminster where officials receive a letter from the remote Seagull Island that threatens to unleash a strain of killer bees on the mainland. It's shrugged off by our readers and tossed into the garbage after they proclaim the sender is "quite a nutter". There's really no purpose for this other than mild foreshadowing as we quickly jump to a scene of the mod band, The Birds, performing live on television. During the performance their singer, Vicki Robbins (Suzanna Leigh) collapses, apparently due to stress.

Vicki sees her doctor who recommends she take three weeks off away from the limelight and suggests she go to, wait for it, Seagull Island where his friend Ralph Hargrove (Guy Doleman) would be happy to put her up. Upon arriving, Vicki meets Ralph and his distant wife, learns her host is raising bees, and meets the neighbouring Manfred (Frank Finlay), who's currently in a feud with the Hargrove's as they're both trying to raise the perfect bees.

From here we get plenty of shots of gloved hands shaking out honeycombs, a bunch of so-so scenes meant to make Vicki suspicious as she finds a syringe and scarf on Ralph's grounds that are tired into bee related deaths in the area, and a few mild attack scenes that usually involve a (quite bad looking) process that overlays footage of flying bees over the action going on. Vicki also meanders around the island listening to Manfred's blather about how great an insect bees are while trying to piece together who's responsible for the deaths (which is obvious to us, anyway) which leads to a "big reveal" finale that elicits yawns more than shock.

In the lead role, Leigh doesn't come across as a particularly good actress but she does look good in her bra and did go on to co-star in Hammer's Lust for a Vampire and the Harry Nilsson/Ringo Starr spoof, Son of Dracula. Finlay is over-the-top from the get go and doesn't help matters in regards to the film's mystery elements. Doleman is just "there" making no impression either way with Catherine Finn, playing his crotchety wife, coming across best here.

In the hands of veteran British cinematographer-cum-director Freddie Francis, The Deadly Bees is a competently made low-scale thriller. The script by Bloch and Anthony Marriott is pretty dull going, things aren't overly exciting, and only the attack of Finn's character manages to rise above the weak effects. Make no mistake, this isn't a very good movie and owes quite a bit to Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 classic The Birds, but I've certainly seen worse in this sub-genre, plus it'll give you the opportunity to chuckle when they dub in human-made yelp noises during the attack of Hargrove's dog. (Chris Hartley, 10/15/08)

Directed By: Freddie Francis.
Written By: Robert Bloch, Anthony Marriott.

Starring: Suzanna Leigh, Frank Finlay, Guy Doleman, Catherine Finn.

Picture Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: For a movie that was produced over forty years ago, Legends's transfer of The Deadly Bees looks pretty darn good. There's some mild specks scattered throughout but the picture here is generally nice and clean.

Extras: As with most of Legend's releases of Paramount back catalogue titles there's absolutely nothing here but it's still nice to see more obscure titles such as this arrive on DVD. Plus, I love the artwork they've slapped on the box.

Visit Legend Films for more info.