The Fly Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
If she looked upon the horror her husband had become... she would scream for the rest of her life!
Horror Of The Winged Menace !
Terrifying! Nerve Shattering! Bloodcurdling!
She had to kill the thing her husband had become -- But could she?
Once it was human... even as you and I!
The monster created by atoms gone wild
The fly with the head of a man...! And the man with the head of a fly!
It's the terror-topper first introduced to the public in "Playboy" Magazine!
100$ if you prove it can't happen!
For your own good we urge you not to see it alone!
Scientist Andre Delambre becomes obsessed with his latest creation, a matter transporter. He has varying degrees of success with it. He eventually decides to use a human subject, himself, with tragic consequences. During the transferance, his atoms become merged with a fly, which was accidentally let into the machine. He winds up with the fly's head and one of it's arms and the fly winds up with Andre's head and arm. Eventually, Andre's wife, Helene discovers his secret and must make a decision whether to let him continue to live like that or to do the unthinkable and euthanize him to end his suffering.
| David Hedison | Andre Delambre |
| Patricia Owens | Helene Delambre |
| Vincent Price | François Delambre |
| Herbert Marshall | Insp. Charas |
| Kathleen Freeman | Emma |
| Betty Lou Gerson | Nurse Andersone |
| Charles Herbert | Philippe Delambre |
| Eugene Borden | Dr. Ejoute |
| Harry Carter | Orderly |
| Arthur Dulac | French waiter |
| Torben Meyer | Gaston |
| Franz Roehn | Police doctor |
| Charles Tannen | Doctor |
| Bess Flowers | Lady at the ballet |
| Kurt Neumann |
7.00 out of 10 (4701 votes)
Visitor Reviews
ONE OF THE ALL-TIME CLASSICS!
posted on 30 Aug 2009Seeing this on the late, lamented 4:30 Movie on New York City's WABC TV back in the mid-'70's was a real eye-opener. Here was a movie that pretty much has no action whatsoever and my ten-year-old self sat riveted to it. I went into it knowing that it had something to do with a guy who turns into fly or something, but in no way did I expect such a tragic, intelligent and downright disturbing movie! And I defy you to be able to say that the ending didn't scar you for life!
Fascinating and terrifying!
posted on 10 Jun 2009The original version of "The Fly" has apparently been forgotten due to two powerful reasons. First, the bad quality of its two sequels turned the horror of the first into campy silliness; and second and more important, the fact that David Cronenberg's 1986 remake is a perfect film in every sense sent the movie to oblivion almost instantly. A shame indeed, as "The Fly" is more than a simple creature feature, it is a powerful mix of Gothic horror and science-fiction with something very important that distinguish it from the rest of the movies of its era: a good dose of class.On a dark night, François Delambre (Vincent Price), receives the most tragic news he could had received, his dear brother Andre (David Hedison) has been murdered and the killer is no one else than Andre's beloved wife, Helene (Patricia Owens). Everything points out to insanity as the cause of the murder, but as Helene tells the tragic story behind the murder, François and his good friend, the Insp. Charas (Herbert Marshall), discover a grotesque tale of science gone wrong, very wrong.Kurt Neumann, a veteran director who spent the 40s making the famous Tarzan series of movies with Johnny Weissmuller, brought the class of the old style of the 30s film-making to George Langelaan's tale of love and horror. Neumann finds the perfect equilibrium between Gothic atmospheres and the beautiful color technique, in a very good mix between old style and modern (for its time) technology. The suspense is superbly handled and while the slow pacing of the film may turn off modern viewers, it is vital for the shock and power of the two crucial final scenes.Like Cronenberg's remake, the movie's main theme is love, but unlike the modern version, here the focus is on Andre's wife Helene, who must face her fears in order to save her husband of the cruel fate his accident unleashed. Neumann carefully builds up the relationships between characters in a way that makes us care for them, making the fatal accident even more dreadful and frightening as the family's life will never be the same after it.Patricia Owens is terrific as the main character, and it is her character the one that carries the film. She is perfect as the woman who would do anything to save the man she loves, and her performance transmits the emotions of despair and angst in a very believable way. David Hedison is very good as Andre, and while at first he seems quite average, his performance as the mute monster is outstanding. Vincent Price may be only a supporting actor here, and in a very different role than we are used to see him. However, he delivers his lines with his usual charm and his presence fits perfectly the classy elegance Neumann crafted in the film.Of course, one has to talk about the special effects, as this is where the movie has dated the most. Nowadays, and thanks to the silly make-up used in the following sequels, the Fly's make-up is seen as clumsy instead of grotesque and its impact has been enormously diminished; however, it is safe to say that contrary to its sequels, here they still work, thanks to Neumann's choice of showing them only in the crucial moments. Depsite being clumsy and silly for today's standards, "The Fly"'s special effects still manage to give the scares."The Fly" has been definitely overshadowed by its superior remake, however, this film still has a lot of power and despite having two silly films as sequels, this one has a characteristic that makes it stand out among the rest, it has that class and elegance that old Gothic horrors of the 30s had. It is a shame that Neumann didn't live to see the success of "The Fly", but at least he finally got the chance to show his talents in this powerful horror movie. 8/10
Cool Movie
posted on 01 Jun 2009Excellent Movie that Bended the Rules of Movie for Years to Come, But Haven't all of Vincent Price's Movies?? It's Terrifying as well as Sad. No One, After Seeing this Movie, Will ever Forget the "Help Me, Help Me" Scene. I Still Can See It Plain as Day. A Great Sci Fi/Horror Movie Recommended for Everyone!!!
Sheer terror
posted on 11 May 2009I saw this film in Pittsburgh in 1958, and it knocked my socks in the creek! The terror, for an eleven year old, rivaled the Pippin at Kennywood Park. It is almost the perfect horror film. It contains what most monster/horror genre films of the 50's completely lack: foreplay. Movies like the very good "Them" would tease you for a few moments in the beginning, but the monster(s) would be fully revealed ten minutes in, and inevitably the Army vs. monster cliche would occupy the balance. This one was different! The tension and foreboding are palpable. You know something dreadful has happened, and Andre, with that cloth over his head, scene after scene, is almost unbearable, even after repeated viewings. The slurping soup scene is typical: weird and surreal, only nominally quite tame. I kept looking around the theater to make sure there were other people still with me, a feeling not recaptured until the excellent "Halloween". And the climax, when his wife hopefully and naively pulls the shroud from Andre, is one of those film scenes imprinted on my memory like a retinal image of the sun. (Am I getting carried away here?) Like the aforementioned "Halloween", the terror of this one can only be experienced in the dark, immediate atmosphere of the cinema; the VCR at home, no matter how sophisticated, is just too familiar a setting, more's the pity. One reason movie exhibitors will be around for a long time.
creepy beyond compare
posted on 28 Feb 2009in terms of creepiness, this flick takes a back seat to no horror film. the goldblum et al remake is a gory over-the-top, special-effects show-off in comparison. instead this one grabs your psychological neck, shakes it about and forces you to answer serious questions regarding the scientific exploits of man. while doing so it hermetically seals you in a world of misguided, pitiless hubris. if that sounds like a bit too much, just give it your time and try to go to sleep without thinking, "why the hell would anyone proceed so far" and without thinking of ways to save the poor, doomed scientist. it is a tale of inevitability and loss that brings into stark contrast the foolish doings of man against a backdrop of an inhumane and unforgiving nature. view at your own risk... do not view at your own horror- enjoyment's peril!
Fly high.
posted on 05 Jan 2009George Langelaan is an absolutely original writer,whose obsessions are time and death.Although English,he used to write in French , he's been living in France for a long time.Richard Matheson might be his American equivalent."The fly" is a "long" short story which Neumann and his scenarist James Clavell respected faithfully.Some might regret the sheet thrown on the hero's head once "it" happened.But by showing something too soon and too much,you end up destroying imagination,that's the main flaw of many a contemporary horror movie,brimming with make-up and special effects. And James Clavell deserves congratulations for having avoided the de rigueur happy end -particularly when a family,complete with child,is involved- at the time .Nothing in the -good,however-remake can equal the fly with a human head caught up in the cobweb.This sequence will haunt you long after you have seen the movie.
....said the spider to the fly.
posted on 12 Jun 2008"The Fly" is one of the better giant insect movies of the 50s. It starts out with the discovery by a night watchman of the grisly killing of scientist Andre Delambre (Al Hedison aka David Hedison) apparently at the hands of his wife Helene (Patricia Owens). She calls Andre's brother Francois (Vincent Price) to tell him of the tragedy. Francois in turn, calls in Inspector Charas (Herbert Marshall) and together they question Helene to try to find out what happened. In a flashback, we learn that Andre had been experimenting with transporting matter at light speed from one point to another. When he reached the stage of using a human in the tests, he had used himself. Unfortunately, when he transported himself, unbeknownst to him a common fly had been in the disintegrator with him. When they re-integrated things were not quite as they had been before. Of course no one really believes Helene's story until Francois and the Inspector are shown the unfortunate fly by Andre and Helene's son Philippe (Charles Herbert). Director Kurt Neumann builds up the suspense by first letting us guess what has happened in the laboratory and then delaying the unmasking of Andre as long as possible. That scene reminded me of the unmasking of the Phantom in Lon Chaney's "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925). The wide screen is used to great effect in that scene when Helene first sees what has happened to her husband, and we then see multiple images of her, much in the way that we believe a fly would see it, screaming in terror. The fly makeup was, I thought, quite convincing and who can ever forget the final scene when a spider is closing in on the title character (Help me, please...Help me..).
Excellent piece of 50's horror/sci-fi.
posted on 19 Feb 2008The Fly starts as a night watchman at a factory discovers the dead body of scientist Andre Delambre (David Hedison) with his head & arm having been crushed in a large industrial hydraulic press, he also sees Andre's wife Helene (Patricia Owens) running away. Helene phones Andre's brother François (Vincent Price) & openly admits to killing Andre, unsure of what to do François phones Inspector Charas (Herbert Marshall). Together they find Andre's body & Helene becomes the obvious suspect, however while she admits to killing Andre she says she didn't murder him. If found guilty Helene would hang so François manages to convince her to tell him & Charas the truth, the horrible truth of a scientific experiment gone hideously wrong...Produced & directed by Kurt Neumann The Fly is easily one of the greatest sci-fi horror films of the fifties that stands up remarkably well even today when viewed in the cynical age in which we live during 2008. The script by James Clavell was based on a short story by George Langelaan which first appeared in a 1957 edition of Playboy of all places, The Fly has a very solid & often intelligent script that works but boy there are some errors & plot holes which are difficult to overlook at times. Probably the most basic is that both Andre & the Fly swap heads with a tiny little fly buzzing around with David Hedison's head & Hedison being left with a giant Fly head which is alright in principal but why does the Fly head retain all of Andre's memories, thoughts & intelligence? Surely besides being stuck with a Fly head the Fly's brain would have been inside it. Still if you can overlook this then there's a really fine film here. I suppose the moral message The Fly tries to put across is that technology is developing too quickly & there's a heavy handy speech in here which seems somewhat forced. The film has a really nice narrative, it starts off as a pure mystery with Andre's body being found & through a lengthy flashback the horrible truth is revealed. The first seventy odd minutes of The Fly is really gripping & intriguing stuff with some nice drama & character driven moments too, one could say the film loses some impact when the Fly creature is revealed because it's a bit of a let down in appearance. The ending is difficult to rate, on the one hand the basic concept is sound & works but in execution the special effects are poor & the filmmakers seem far too determined to have a happy ending with everyone standing around playing croquet in their garden! (apparently forced onto the production by Fox studio executives who wanted a happy ending...)Director Neumann tragically committed suicide a month after it's premiere & just one week before it went on general release which is a shame since The Fly was a big box-office success & surely he would have had a chance to make it really big in Hollywood. He directs the The Fly well enough, the colour photography is a little garish at times but the film looks nice enough & he keeps the monster under wraps & hidden until the end & thus prolonging the tension. Of course a lot of sci-fi & horror films from the 50's were all about mutant monsters & giant bugs but there's more to The Fly than just that, it's very well thought out & constructed. The Fly was remade by Canadian director David Cronenberg during the mid 80's & one has to say it's the better film although the two are very different & Cronenberg's Fly presents a far more realistic, sombre, powerful & dramatic interpretation of the source material in what is easily one of the best horror films ever made in my opinion.With a supposed budget of about $700,000 The Fly is well made although I doubt it will impress many modern audiences. The acting is pretty good although like a lot of fifties sci-fi films a little wooden at times, genre favourite Vincent Price turns in a nice performance.The Fly is a classic fifties sci-fi horror film that stands up really well even today although David Cronenberg's remake is far superior, I liked it a lot & apart from a few questionable plot holes & lapses in scientific logic it's a great film. Vincent Price returned for the sequel Return of the Fly (1959) & a further sequel Curse of the Fly (1965) was also made, surprisingly both were shot in black and white & therefore one would assume were cheap cash-ins. It doesn't finish there either folks since Fox are making yet another remake called The Fly (2008) although is it a remake of this fifties original or Cronenberg's eighties remake?
Very Enjoyable Horror/Sci-Fi Feature, Very Nicely Done
posted on 22 Sep 2007This enjoyable horror/science-fiction feature is a very nicely done movie that does full justice to one of the best short stories of its genre. James Clavell's adaptation of the George Langelaan story is very well conceived for the screen, the cast does a good job with the characters, and Kurt Neumann's direction makes fine use of the possibilities in the material.Although the story is a familiar one, one of the classics of its kind, if you happen never to have read it or seen any of the movie versions, it would probably be most enjoyable to go into it without knowing anything at all. But even for those who are very familiar with the various versions of the story, this one still works quite well. One of the things it does particularly well is that it patiently builds up the suspense, and it hints at various possibilities just long enough so that the key developments will have the maximum effect.Herbert Marshall and Vincent Price work well as the pair who is trying to figure out a very mysterious state of affairs, and Patricia Owens gives her character the right blend of charm and extreme anxiety. As the scientist André, David (Al) Hedison is pretty bland in his earlier scenes, but once the mishap occurs, his gestures and mannerisms work well in conveying his desperation and the fearful possibilities it has brought.The special effects are wisely used with restraint, and although the story itself is good enough that it does not have to rely on them to have an effect, the visual tricks do look quite good for their time. The movie overall still looks very good, and it deserves its place as one of the most popular movies of its kind.
Love means never having to say you're a fly
posted on 13 Sep 2007If you are a horror fan and have never watched the original The Fly then you don't know what horror is. Based on a short story by George Langelaan the first version stayed very close and true to the story of a man who accidentally switched his hand and head with a common housefly when he experimented with his teleportation machine.Beginning like a mystery and crime movie it gradually dissolves into a horrific one when we learn about the true nature of the murder. It is creepy and disconcerting in progressive doses.From the time his wife, the accused, Patricia Owens, relates the story to us the hairs on the back of our necks will slowly rise with it. It's the kind of story that is good for a dark stormy night, at the campfire or in the cemetery.Although this movie doesn't serve Vincent Price as well as his other greats, he still carry that charm and debonair of a gentleman with him. Patricia Owens was very convincing as the wife who witnessed the horror and lived to tell about it.Not to spoil the most unforgettable ending of the movie to those who don't already know, this is a masterpiece, and a very rare one. What makes it even more unsettling is the love story that revolves around it.
very well-made horror flick from the fifties
posted on 09 Jul 2007Standing somewhat apart from other horror films of its type is 1958's 'The Fly.' The locale is Montreal and there is a definite French flavor to the movie. The well-known author James Clavell wrote the screenplay and the story switches back and forth from the present to the events of the past few weeks and days, told in flashback sequences. While 'The Fly' adheres to many horror film conventions, such as the zealous scientist going too far in his experiments and 'playing God,' it does so in a more stylish way than most other horror/sci-fi movies of the fifties. David (here, 'Al') Hedison and Vincent Price star as the scientist and his brother, respectively, but it is really Patricia Owens as Helene Delambre, the scientist's wife, who carries the film. She convincingly relays the maddening ordeal both she and Andre (her husband) must endure once a teleportation experiment of his goes horribly wrong. Alternately panicky then resolved, resolute then terribly frightened, Owens is very good at portraying a woman running the gamut of emotions. At one point, she even feigns insanity to protect her husband and child. Hedison is fine too, in a part that has him wearing a black cloth over his head much of the time. Also worth noting are Herbert Marshall as the police inspector, adding a measure of solemn dignity to the proceedings, and the great character actress Kathleen Freeman as the Delambre's housekeeper. Hedison's Andre, using himself to test the teleporter, finds himself merged with a housefly that was in the device, unnoticed, during the experiment. He then has the head and one arm of the fly, while the fly has the same from him. Andre finds his own identity slipping away in favor of the fly's. A desperate search begins to find the affected fly so that a second experiment, hopefully correcting the first, can take place. It would be easy for the film to become ludicrous at any point but it never does. It's all insanely convincing, including the now-famous ending, when the fly is finally found in a spider's web, about to be eaten, and a close-up shows us Andre's face, his expression a crazed look of pure terror as the spider approaches, his tiny voice screaming, "Help me! Help me!" To paraphrase Inspector Charas, who kills both fly and spider with a rock, it's an ending no moviegoer is likely to forget. 'The Fly' was a medium-budget film and it surprised everyone involved by becoming a huge hit, grossing over six times its cost. It went on to spawn two sequels and is rightly considered a classic of the genre, a first-rate example of horror cinema.
"Did your brother ever experiment with animals?"
posted on 09 Jun 2007I've heard from numerous people, who had witnessed this film as children, that it terrified them to such an extent that they were simple unable to watch it for years afterward. Though time (and David Cronenberg's bloody and brilliant 1986 remake) has hugely diminished its impact on modern audiences, I can certainly see why, upon its initial release, Kurt Neumann's 'The Fly' scared so many people out of their wits.There are three moments in the film that really got to me – in the first, a hooded Andre Delambre (David Hedison, credited here as Al Hedison) sits at his desk, trying voicelessly to explain to his wife (Patricia Owens) that his experiment has gone horribly wrong, that a fly inside the chamber of his teleportation device has cross-mutated several of their genes together. When she reveals that she unknowingly released the "white-headed fly" that could reverse his hideous mistake, Andre rises angrily from his desk, and we notice that his left hand has been hideously replaced by a hairy insect claw. Immediately, we understand that something truly horrific has happened to Helene's beloved husband.Until this second moment, Andre has been very careful to keep his appearance hidden from his wife (and from us). At Helene's urging, he agrees to go through the teleportation device again, on the off-chance that it precipitates a reversal in the original transmutation. The procedure offers the audience a momentary glimmer of hope (despite our already knowing Andre's eventual fate), and when Helene suddenly tears off Andre's hood to prove that everything is normal again, we receive quite a horrific shock. A hideous fly's head, complete with glowing red eyes and a quivering proboscis, has taken the place of Andre's. We glimpse Helene's screams of terror through the fly's mosaic compound vision, and we instantly know that the mind behind this vision is doomed.The third moment is well-known, and long-remembered by all who see this film. After Helene, following her husband's final wish, kills him in the metal press, Andre's brother François (Vincent Price) must find the elusive "white-headed fly" to prove Helene's story to the detective in charge of investigating Andre's death (Herbert Marshall). Helene's young son, Phillipe (Charles Herbert), is the one who eventually finds it. Entangled in a spider web, the fly – with Andre's screaming head protruding from its abdomen! – is about to be attacked by the resident arachnid. Inspector Charis (Marshall) mercifully kills both the spider and the "insect" with a rock. Andre's unimaginable suffering has finally come to an end...
Only Half a Man.
posted on 13 May 2007This is the original "The Fly." I never did see David Cronenberg's remake except for a few snippets, but those snippets convinced me that Cronenberg was following his usual impulse to make the viewer's skin crawl. Some of us don't really need that. If we want our skins to crawl all we have to do is get out of bed in the morning. (I'll except Cronenberg's "Dead Ringers" from those generalization, a truly spooky movie without a pander in it.) As the original, this 1959 version stands tall. They actually seem to have intended to make a horror/science fiction movie rather than a comedy, and yet they've achieved both.It's a horrifying story of a Montreal scientist, Al Hedison, who invents a teleportation machine that deconstructs objects and sends their elements at the speed of light to a glass box where they are reassembled in their original form. Even the champagne retains its chill. There are, of course, always a few small problems to be ironed out. The printing on a cheap ash tray comes out backward. The pet cat, Dandelot, gets lost somewhere between the transmitter and the receiver. "Where is she now?" asks the desperate wife, Patricia Owens. "Somewhere out in space. A stream of cat atoms," Hedison replies wonderingly. The fact that Dandelot has been thoroughly disassembled doesn't stop her atomic stream from going MEOWWW as it sails off into the ether. (I warned you this was funny.) The general idea is that there are some things man was never meant to know. This used to be called hubris. The story of blundering into the unknown and coming up with unexpected consequences seems to have been especially common in the 19th century when theology was coming to grips with scientific breakthroughs like Darwinism. The theme had a resurgence in the SF movies of the 1950s, following the atomic bomb but "Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus" is still the holotype.The movie resonates with all sorts of familiar ideas and images. When Hedison's teleporter transmits the words "Made in Japan" backwards, he wordlessly walks away from his wife to sit at his desk and work on the problem. Just when they were planning a romantic evening together too. Hedison was never more than just half a man from the beginning. At any rate the scene reminded me of the opening of James Joyce's "Ulysses," when the atheist Buck Mulligan mocks the Catholic mass by intoning ritualistic mumbo jumbo over his bowl of shaving cream, claiming he's transforming it into the body and blood of the Savior. Looking down puzzled at the untransformed shaving cream, he says, "Oops. A bit of trouble with those white corpuscles." Hedison has the head and one arm of a fly, and the fly part is slowly fighting the rest of him for dominance. At one point he's trying to type a note to his wife with his human hand and the fly hand grasps the other's wrist and begins struggling with it, and all we can see is Dr. Strangelove and his gloved hand, which insists on saluting Hitler and strangling its owner.It is, however, a reasonably well-done, if not exactly expert, horror film. We want Hedison to get himself together again but his supporters can never seem to find that fly with the "white head." At the end, after Hedison is safely cleaned and pressed, his brother (Vincent Price) and the skeptical police inspector (Herbert Marshall) stumble upon the fly with Hedison's head and arm. The "thing" is caught in a web and about to be eaten by a spider. "HELP ME! HELP ME!" it cries in a terrified yet comically tinny voice before Marshall comes unglued and smashes spider and fly with a rock. This scene, with Price and Marshall bent over, peering at the fly in the web, was subject to innumerable retakes because the two actors kept cracking up with laughter and ruining the shot. It really IS kind of funny.
I never thought it could happen to me...
posted on 10 Jan 2007Wow.. I'm 19 years old living in 2004 and I saw this movie.. And it scared the living crap outta me!!!! I mean, wow... Great Great GREAT movie.. I asked my mom when she watched and how old she was. She said she saw it when it came out and she was about 15 and she said it scared me more than it did. Especially the very last scene... *That* did me in... I have an acute arachnophobia, and there's a spider in last scene (That's all I'm sayin') that really got me scared...So parents.. If you want to show your kids a movie from your time, but you want to scare your kids for being bad at the same time, give 'em this film.
I'm still scared of The Fly
posted on 10 Jan 20071958 and 'The Fly'. Who could ever forget it. At the age of 9 or so, I was a horror movie veteran, or so I thought. I would attend the Saturday matinees of a local theater, armed with my THIRTY FIVE CENTS, which was good for an admission, a huge coke and a Butterfinger as long as my forearm.The theater was, as usual, very dark and of the 3,000 seats, 2996 we unoccupied, the norm on a Saturday afternoon. The sunset times had been carefully memorized as to not be foolishly caught in the dark walking home from a horror flick.In spite of the subtle warnings from a couple of neighborhood kids who had already seen 'The Fly', I remained confident, having survived several movies, including 'Them' and 'The Invisible Man'. The movie was terrifying enough, but nothing in my 9-year old brain prepared me for the absolutely numbing terror that assaulted my senses at the end of the movie. My 16 oz. cup, containing now only ice left my grasp and clattered noisily on the cold floor and the last vestige of the sticky Butterfinger froze in my open mouth as I was transfixed on the terrifying ending. I knew that I was in trouble.I walked the 3/4 mile home, BACKWARDS and in the middle of the street as to not encounter any bush or shrub, ALL of which I was sure contained the nightmarish image that was forever burned into my brain. Now I understood why none of the kids who had seen the movie boasted or talked about it, they were still too terrified.10/10 for terror.
Silly Sci-fi
posted on 20 Dec 2006Silly sci-fi film bears little resemblance to the grim, grotesque 1986 remake today's filmgoers know. Future character actor David Hedison (credited here as Al Hedison) is Andre Delambre, a brilliant scientist whose teleportation device promises to change the world. Instead, it morphs him into a half man, half fly creature when one of the annoying insects is accidentally teleported with him.Unfortunately, the film doesn't do this great concept justice. The creature spends too much time sulking in the basement when it could be on a terrifying rampage (as any fan of good horror would expect!). Moreover, the film focuses too much on the family's reaction to the "man fly" -- sometimes giving it the feel of one of those "serious" episodes of a family sitcom -- and their desperate quest to find the fly in question so the two sets of atoms can be unmeshed. And the climax? It's deliberately hokey.Still, if one goes in with the right expectations, "The Fly" can be enjoyable enough and, if you're in the right mood, good for a few unintentional laughs. The film was followed one year later by a superior sequel, "Return of the Fly."
Jeff Goldblum can't carry Vincent Price's...
posted on 28 Aug 2006...talent in a horror movie. Obviously, this IS the Fly movie to see. Let us review.A night watchman at the Delambre family factory discovers Andre smashed to a grease spot under a press, with wife Helene at the controls. Brother Francois is called, followed by the police. It seems that the lovely Helene has committed murder...or has she?We then go to the backstory, where Andre has developed a teleportation device. (Interestingly, the sound it makes before disintegrating an object bears a strong resemblence to the sound the Martian warships make before firing in War of the Worlds - listen closely!) An amazing thing is all of this is done with *analog* technology. As an electric company employee, I'd like to have been a fly on the wall (no pun intended) to watch this guy's electric meter spin. His bills had to be a doozy.Andre teleports ashtrays, newspapers, and even the family cat before testing it on himself. Sadly, a fly entered the chamber with Andre during one test.
He should know better - things like this happen in the B movie universe.Slowly but surely, Andre loses the humanity he beautifully demonstrates in his love for all life and reverence for God. In exchange, he becomes all too much like the fly who was unfortunate enough to share a teleportation chamber with him. The tension as Andre slowly loses his battle is thick, only relieved when both mutated beings are dispatched. It is this tension and horror that is lost in the subsequent remake.Sterno says this Fly is okay to have in your house.
Underrated sci-fi gem
posted on 12 Apr 2006THE FLY (1958) *** One of the all time classic horror/sci-fi films and easily one of the best of the 1950s monster movies: scientist Al (David) Hedison's experimentation with a teleporter/molecular scrambler goes horribly awry when he and a housefly are combined and hideously transforms him into a grotesque fly/man. Check out the makeup! Vincent Price co-stars as a concerned family member. One of the all time scariest endings: "Help MEEEE!!" Noteworthy: acclaimed novelist James Clavell ("Sho-Gun") penned the screenplay.
Ah, I don't think a fly swatter is going to work!
posted on 30 Aug 2009After killing her husband Helene Delambre recounts the story of why she done it. Her husband was a scientist who was deeply into his work and through those long days and weeks he makes a big breakthrough in science by inventing a teleportation machine that can transmit matter from one spot to another. After some glitches he fine tunes the device and decides to test it by using himself as a guinea pig. While, in the process of this test, a housefly gets caught inside with him and when he emerges from the other capsule he shares its genetic structure and physical attributes."The Fly" is classic Sci-Fi / horror from the 50s and what a nice surprise this was! Unlike many of its kind in the 50s, this one didn't have a childish feel. The context may seem silly here, but its executed with enough skill and handled in a relax manner by director Kurt Neumann to set above the rest. Just don't be expecting a monster on the rampage tale. This one veers more towards a much more broaden and imaginative story with a certain eeriness contained in its psychological material rather than visuals. Even though it doesn't scare you witless, it still does provide a couple of memorable and ingenious shocks that are hard to put out of your mind. The film opens with the horrific outcome of Helene's husband Andre and then it goes into flashback mode where we learn the fate of Dr. Andre Delambre. What does make it surprisingly good is that we're treated with such passionately vivid characters and a interesting set-up that pulls you in by taking a more serious approach with a dabble of irony along the way. The talkative first hour slowly builds up to its taut last half-an-hour, where we get a smart and venomously bleak climax. Although, it could have done without that preachy conclusion. The rational script by James Clavell works by being incredibly dense with it thriving on some quick wit and sincerity. The story is more about a woman trying to save the man she loves as he slowly fights the genetic effects of the fly's DNA. He may seem hideous on the outside, but inside he is still more so human and he's trying his best to keep control of his dieing humanity. This is proved by how much he cares for his family's safety when he's willingly to take his own life for the best of everyone. It's practical story telling at its best. The look of the film is top shape with it being shot in vibrant Technicolor and the key is that the deformity is kept hidden, but when it's revealed it actually stands up rather well. It's ugly, that's for sure, but still it looks rather competent. They're also an inventive touch when we see the creature for the first time with multiple frames being used to represent the reflection from human fly's eyes. In Cronenberg's version we see the grotesque transformation, but because of the times and effects we don't see it here, but more so the aftermath of the mishap. All of the devices and gadgets in Andre's lab are well presented and the mounted score adds in a forceful touch with nice crisp sound effects. The performances are more than great by the likes of Al Edison, Patricia Owens, and Herbert Marshall and even though Vincent Price had a supporting role, you'll be in awe of his effortlessly suave performance.An excellent classic of its field that's more concern about telling a moving and fascinating story than just giving us pointless action and cheap thrills to spice up proceedings. The more you stick it out, the more compelling it does become.