The Fly (1958)

The Fly is a 1958 American science fiction horror comedy film directed by Kurt Neumann, written by James Clavell, produced by Kurt Neumann and 20th Century Fox, distributed by 20th Century Fox, musically composed by Paul Sawtell, filmed by Karl Struss, edited by Merill G. White, and it starred David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price, Herbert Marshall, Kathleen Freeman, Betty Lou Gerson, Charles Hebert, Eugene Borden, and Torben Meyer. It was based on a short story of the same name which was written by George Langeelan and released in the United Kingdom in 1957. The Fly received two sequels, Return of the Fly in 1959 and Curse of the Fly in 1969, and a remake of the same name in 1986.

Plot
In Montreal, Quebec, Canada, scientist André Delambre (Al Hedison) is found dead with his head and arm crushed in a hydraulic press. Although his wife Hélène (Patricia Owens) confesses to the crime, she refuses to provide a motive, and begins acting strangely. In particular, she is obsessed with flies, including a supposedly white-headed fly. André's brother, François (Vincent Price), lies and says he caught the white-headed fly; thinking he knows the truth, Hélène explains the circumstances surrounding André's death.

In flashback, André, Hélène, and their son Philippe (Charles Herbert) are a happy family. André has been working on a matter transporter device called the disintegrator-integrator. He initially tests it only on small inanimate objects, such as a newspaper, but he then proceeds to living creatures, including the family's pet cat (which fails to reintegrate, but can be heard meowing somewhere) and a guinea pig. After he is satisfied that these tests are succeeding, he builds a man-sized pair of chambers. One day, Hélène, worried because André has not come up from the basement lab for a couple of days, goes down to find André with a black cloth over his head and a strange deformity on his left hand. Communicating with typed notes only, André tells Hélène that he tried to transport himself but that a fly was caught in the chamber with him, which resulted in the mixing of their atoms. Now, he has the head and left arm of a fly; and the fly has his miniature head and left arm, though he keeps his mind.

André needs Hélène to capture the fly so he can reverse the process. Although she expends great effort in her search, she cannot find it and André's will begins to fade as the fly's instincts take over his brain. Time is running out, and while André can still think like a human, he smashes the equipment, burns his notes, and leads Hélène to the factory. When they arrive, he sets the hydraulic press, puts his head and arm under, and motions for Hélène to push the button. André's arm falls free as the press descends and, trying not to look, she raises the press, replaces the arm, and activates the machine a second time.

Upon hearing this confession, the chief detective on the case, Inspector Charas (Herbert Marshall), deems Hélène insane and guilty of murder. As they are about to haul her away, Philippe tells François he's seen the fly trapped in a web in the back garden. François convinces the inspector to come and see for himself. The two men see the fly, with both André's head and arm, trapped in the web as Phillippe told them. It screams "Help me! Help me!" as a large brown spider advances on it. Just as the spider is about to devour the creature, Charas crushes them both with a rock. Knowing that nobody would believe the truth, he and François decide to declare André's death a suicide so that Hélène is not convicted of murder. In the end, Hélène, François, and Philippe resume their daily lives. Sometime later, Philippe and Hélène are playing croquet in the yard. François arrives to take his nephew to the zoo. In reply to his nephew's query about his father's death, François tells Philippe, "He was searching for the truth. He almost found a great truth but for one instant, he was careless. The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world and the most dangerous". The film closes with Hélène escorting her son and François out of the yard.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Clavell's script successfully treads a fine line between black comedy and po-faced seriousness, and it mixes together surprisingly well.
 * 2) Excellent soundtrack.
 * 3) The Fly is a shockingly sophisticated horror film for the 1950's, whereas most horror films at the time were incredibly campy and cheesy.  Even the sequel to this movie, Return of the Fly, was subject to this unfortunate fate.
 * 4) Great acting.
 * 5) This movie was way ahead of its time, not just in terms of the seriousness, but also for the plot. The main character is a scientist who is trying to create a teleportation machine, and the technicalities behind it are really interesting. Instead of getting inside of a car or a plane you'd just get inside of a machine which would then break down your molecules into millions of pieces, send them through space, and reform them inside of the other machine.
 * 6) Good pacing.
 * 7) The film also does a great job showing the tragedy of the guy's situation.  When he's about to use his machine, a fly sneaks its way inside, which ends up giving him the head and arm of a fly.  After that, the rest of the movie is him just trying to figure out how to turn himself back to normal again.
 * 8) Amazing practical effects.
 * 9) The remake in the 1980's with Jeff Goldblum is often considered to be one of the best horror and science fiction remakes of all time.
 * 10) Good casting.
 * 11) One strongest factor of the picture is its unusual believability.
 * 12) Well written mystery elements as well.
 * 13) The climax has given many viewers chills, the primal terror of that situation never fails, and but the rest is efficient in its solemnity.
 * 14) All of the characters are likable and sympathetic.
 * 15) Contemporary horror fans will likely be struck by how much more dramatic than horrific 'The Fly' is.
 * 16) Well written, interesting dialogue.

Reception
The Fly has a 95% critic rating and a 70% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 3.4/5 on Letterboxd, and a 7.1/10 on the International Movie Database (IMDB).

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