I'm new here so if this has been covered and I just missed it please pardon me. Could someone explain to me why The Fly was shot in color and Return of the Fly was in black and white. Was is just money?
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Bob Whaley
Black and white film was cheaper. In those days, sequels were generally made cheaper than the originals. These days, if a movie is a hit, even more money will go into the next one. That's not how it used to be.
... Justin
Not entirely. From Russia with Love cost three times the amount of Dr. No, and then later Bond movies were made with enough money (typically $10 million, with the exception of Moonraker, which cost much more, and the post-LTK entries).
shareWhy are you talking about the James Bond series while we are discussing about an unintentional sequel for easy cash up purposes!!
sharemostly money but maybe the makers felt the black and white added something extra to the filmWhen there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...
Re "the black and white added something to the film." It does for me. I actually prefer this for being in black and white. It makes the lab setting reminiscent of the mad scientist films of the 1940s which I always enjoy. Plus it's wary, warning foreboding watchman.
shareI think it was because the sequel was done on a much lower budget; the filmmakers just didn't have the money to afford to do the picture in color.
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Yes, I've seen Vincent Price interviewed and I'm sure he said it was just money.
In the fifties most films were still shot in b&w and although colour was available it was much more expensive. In those days it was very rare for any film, let alone an sf one, to have a sequel. Nowadays if a film does well there is a sequel almost automatically and it gets more money than the original and becomes a "franchise".
It seems strange to me if money was the object behind this film being made in black and white. If that was the case, why did the Fox studio invest their Cinemascope process into this project. Fox seemed to have a strange ambivalent attitude towards the making and marketing of this film. They left it to be directed by a man who always did cheap quickies. So it seems to be a deliberate attempt to make a drive-in product. But then why hire Vincent Price and give it a Cinemascope format? It doesn't seem to add up at all.
shareI've always felt that shooting a horror film in black and white adds a great deal to the atmosphere.
Cats are delicate dainty animals who suffer from a variety of ailments ... except insomnia.