The Fly (1958)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Kurt Neumann

Writers:

George Langelaan (story)
James Clavell (writer)

Release Date:

1958 (Norway)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

If she looked upon the horror her husband had become... she would scream for the rest of her life!

Plot:

A scientist has a horrific accident when he tries to use his newly invented teleportation device.

Plot Keywords:

Fly | Scientist | Inspector | Teleportation | Told In Flashback

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

David Hedison	...	Andre Delambre (as Al Hedison)
Patricia Owens	...	Helene Delambre
Vincent Price	...	François Delambre
Herbert Marshall	...	Insp. Charas
Kathleen Freeman	...	Emma (Delambre maid)
Betty Lou Gerson	...	Nurse Andersone
Charles Herbert	...	Philippe Delambre

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | West Germany:12 (f) (re-rated) | West Germany:16 (nf) (original rating) | USA:TV-PG (tv rating) | UK:15 (video rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:X (original rating) | UK:PG (video re-rating) (2001) | USA:Unrated

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

This became the biggest box office hit for director Kurt Neumann, but he never knew it. He died a month after the premiere, and only a week before it went into general release.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When the fly is first revealed in the spider's web, when Vincent Price's character is unaware, you see the fly struggling in the web. The string used to make the fly shake is visible.

Quotes:

Andre Delambre: Help me! Help meeee!

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Dexter's Laboratory: Old Flame/Don't Be a Hero/My Favorite Martian (#2.28)" (1998)

Scenes engraved on the mind

It's been said again and again that this is a good horror film. A Very Good film. But it is more than that.

I can still hear with my mind's ear (is that right?) the sound of the hydraulic press "WHUMP" and the echo. Then again that "WHUMP" ... is there another sound experience that reverberates through a movie like that?

Sure, surround sound, THX, all that tech stuff, but the sound as the manifestation of the crime that encircles this story, the horror as the mind tries to put together the images that (finally) is seen in a flashback as this scene bookends the start and "finish" of the plot.

The inner struggle of the scientist as he fights with his human hand to control the spasms of his "fly" arm is both horrible and heart-wrenching.

The shock as the cloth is torn away from the scientist's head... the fly's POV shot with facets and mirrors of the the screaming face of the scientist's poor wife! The scene at the spider's web as the shrill voice begs "help me... help me"

The horror of murder of a man/thing and a thing/man being shown and even compared in sharp (but obvious) dialogue.

You MUST see this and experience the earlier days of horror -when classics like this, like "The Thing From Another World," like "It, the Terror From Beyond Space" (the original model of Alien) exhibit a freshness and a palpable terror that remakes cannot capture, whatever wonderful special effects are thrown in to add to the creepiness. Sure these later gorefest horror films are good. I buy them all the time. But they are a different genre. The Fly with Vincent Price is NOT the same story as The Fly with Jeff Goldblum. It's not really a remake as a retelling.

See the original. It is rich with emotion and intelligence, not to mention some pretty fine acting for what was really a "B" movie.