THE FLY (1958)

DIRECTED by Kurt Neumann.

SCREENPLAY by James Clavell based on the short story "The Fly" by George Langelaan.

STARRING  - David Hedison (credited as Al Hedison) as Andre Delambre/The Fly,  Patricia Owens as Helene Delambre,  Vincent Price as Francois Delambre,  Herbert Marshall as Inspector Charas,  Charles Herbert as Phillipe Delambre.

PLOT - In Montreal, French Canadian scientist Andre Delambre is found dead, his head and arm crushed to a pulp beneath a hydraulic press. Andre's wife, Helene, phones her brother in law, Francois, and confesses to her husband's murder and turns herself over to the police.

Inspector Charas is placed in charge of the case. Helene confirms that she did indeed kill Andre but refuses to provide a motive. All she will say is that she loved her husband dearly. Helene also seems to have developed an obsession with finding a "white headed fly".

Francois eventually persuades Helene to come clean and in a flashback sequence she relates her tragic tale...

It seems that Andre invented a teleportation device that he hoped would benefit mankind. However, upon testing the device, using himself as a human guinea pig, something went disastrously wrong. A housefly accidentally flew into the teleportation chamber whilst Andre was in there. Both the fly and Andre got teleported together and in the process thier molecules merged. The result - Andre ended up with the head and arm of a fly.

Andre slowly begins to descend into despairing madness. Helene must try to find and capture the insect that flew into the teleporter. Only then would Andre be able to reverse the process and regain his humanity. But as we have already seen, this was not to be the case. The hydraulic press beckons...

TAGLINE  - THE MONSTER CREATED BY ATOMS GONE WILD !!!

PERFORMANCES  - Once again, the Price is right and Vincent finds himself in yet another classic movie. However, despite his prominence on some of the various movie posters and video/DVD covers, Vincent Price does NOT play the main character in this movie.

Price's character, Francois, only really appears in the framing story. His main function being that of coaxing Helene into revealing what happened to cause her to kill her own husband. He's as good as he ever is but he's in it far too infrequently and gets far too little to do for this to be ranked as one of his top tier performances. Price would play a far more prominent role in this films sequal - Return Of The Fly, the following year.

Taking up the task of carrying the main body of the film is Patricia Owens as Helene. It is through her eyes that we see most of the story unfold. There was a trend in 50's sci-fi/horror cinema for female lead characters to be a tad underdeveloped. All too often the heroine would stand around either screaming, fainting or being menaced by whatever alien or monster was currently running amok. Thats when she was wasn't gazing dreamily into the eyes of whatever square jawed hunk was sweeping her off her feet that is. Owens, thankfully, doesn't fall victim to this trope. Helene is a fully three dimensional character, she's strong, intelligent and brave. The poor woman even has to find the inner strength to commit a mercy killing on her own husband when it becomes apparent that he isn't going to be able to reverse his horrific transformation. It's refreshing to see a strong female character in a film of this vintage and Owens plays the role brilliantly. 

Also good is David Hedison as the tragic doomed Andre Delambre. Andre is shown to be a passionate scientist. He firmly believes that what he's doing will benefit the human race. Andre is a far cry from the usual deranged madmen that usually appear in these types of movies, and it is this which makes his eventual fate all the more tragic.

Hedison's performance gets even better once he is transformed into the half man/half fly mutant. No longer able to talk, his hideous face obscured by a hood for Helene's benefit, Andre can only communicate by table raps and gestures. Somehow Hedison is able to portray the sheer levels of despair, anger, fear and frustration that Andre has hit purely by his body language alone. Its an amazing piece of acting. It rivals Karloff's portrayal of The Frankenstein Monster in the "tragic monster" stakes, it really is that good.

Finally, we get Herbert Marshall as Inspector Charas. As with Price, Marshall only appears in the framing story but he's still good. Charas is seen to be a compassionate lawman. You could argue he's almost too compassionate. He gets landed a case with a mangled mutilated corpse and it's wife eagerly confessing to the murder, and rather than just clamp her in handcuffs and cart her off to jail, he places her under voluntary house arrest - with NO VISABLE POLICE PRESENCE WHATSOEVER - and gives her round the clock nursing. It's a good job she wasn't a marauding husband killing psychopath. Inspector Charas must be the most laid back, chilled out cop in the history of cinema.

SFX  - The main visual effect is that of the fly creature itself. It's obviously just David Hedison wearing a mask and a fake claw but it's a nice creature design all the same and has become iconic in its own right...

We also get a brilliant POV shot of Helene's face as she screams in horror upon first viewing the monster that her husband has become. It represents the multi-faceted vision that a fly would have and is very effective...

This image has also become somewhat iconic.

The other main piece of effects work comes when we finally get to see the "white headed" fly. This unfortunate insect is the other byproduct of the botched teleportation experiment. Whereas Andre is a man with a fly's head and foreleg, the "white headed" fly is a fly with a man's head and arm. Its a great piece of makeup and costume work, and is arguably, more impressive than the main fly creature itself...

This nightmarish image also gives us the movie's other great iconic moment - the little man-fly screaming "Help me" in a squeaky voice as a spider scuttles along to consume it. The effect for the spider is a little ropey but its still a great image.

SEX & VIOLENCE  - Theres no violence in this movie at all apart from the final head crushing scene which we dont really see as such, we mainly see Helene's tearful reaction. We do get to see the aftermath of Andre's unfortunate date with a printing press but theres only a little dribble of blood...

Its more on the level of something you'd see on a child's ghost train ride really.

RATING  - The Fly is a great movie. It's way ahead of it's time in terms of it's female character and its a refreshing change from the usual "mad scientist" cliché as well. Its got a great story and a classic monster. What's not to love about this film ?

I'm giving it 5 mutated insect men out of 5.

VHS/DVD/POSTER ART - I've decided that I really like posting pictures of the artwork attached to these movies, so I may as well make it a new section of the reviews going forward. Here's an assortment of poster, VHS and DVD art from this classic gem. Enjoy...

No, Vincent, you're not the main character, you'll have to wait a year for the sequal.

And finally theres this old drive-in ad...