Charming and brutal

An Exercise In Nonsense

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

"As God is my witness I saw the thing!"I had forgotten how good this film is. The last time I saw this flick was so long ago it was on a black and white television.What you have here is a solid science fiction film with elements of thriller and horror thrown in to keep you entertained. Right from the start, the story of an experiment in teleportation gone horrifically wrong hooks you and pulls you in with a scene where our scientist has been squashed to less than a pulp by an industrial metal press, and it looks like his wife may be the killer.The beauty of this movie is that it starts out as one thing, a thriller, and transforms gracefully into another, science fiction. This transformation in done beautifully thanks to a great writer, George Langelaan who wrote the story and James Clavell who scripted the screenplay; combined by great direction from Kurt Neumann and the excellent acting of Vincent Price, Patricia Owens, and Herbert Marshall.Patricia Owns as the wife of the scientist, Helene Delambre does a good portrayal of a woman on the verge of madness... Did she kill her husband? What was her reasoning? Why is she so obsessed with flies?Vincent Price is always so good and is no different in his role as the brother to the scientist, Francois Delambre, who has never married due to his love for his brother's wife; though he loves his brother more so keeps his distance. Though all the evidence point to her being the murderer of his brother, Andre, he fights for her innocence as he cannot believe she is guilty of such a heinous crime.Then there's Herbert Marshall who plays Inspector Charas, who sees things in black and white and doesn't deter from the line of the law. Even after Helene tells her story, he cannot believe it and thinks that she is mad.So now you have to watch the movie to see the outcome of this dilemma.If you've already seen the David Cronenberg remake then I would still recommend this as even though the "main" premise is the same the rest of the story is completely different and I believe the original story is stronger. There isn't a lot of horror in the original version, though the scene with the meowing cat, Dandilow, is truly haunting and sent a shiver or two up my spine.You should watch this movie at least once in your lifetime.

There is a reason this is still a hyped Sci-Fi Horror of the 1950s. It's first and foremost a Drama but the aspect of the Sci-Fi Horror will take center stage.It is a very good movie concerning the scientist Andre Delambre and his wife Helene. Helene calls François Delambre, Andre's brother, with some very bad news as the story begins. Later we learn that Andre is working on a teleportation machine, he shows his wife and she is delighted. But one day disaster strikes - it's Andre that it happens to and it concerns a fly.I find the most haunting scene of all was with the cat. The echo of it's meow when the experiment failed... chilling.The main differences between The Fly 1958 and 1986 are: 1) 1958 two separate entities (man and fly), 1986 man and fly are fused as one.2) 1958 is much less graphic but has a more satisfying story. 1986 is more graphic. It is relying more on the special effects than the story but the story is still pretty good but less satisfying. Both films are very tragic and worth watching.I love both the 1958 and 1986 films but the 1958 has the edge for me personally. I love the way the 1958 story is told and Vincent Price adds an extra special touch.8.5/10

It was Not Only Youngsters who were Terrified by this Slick Fifties Sci-Fi-Horror Film, The New York Times (no less) Called this the Scariest Movie Since The Thing (1951). Legendary in Status and One of those that Stands Apart from Most of the Era's Cheapies, it is a Technicolor, Cinemascope Production with Some Attention to Detail.The Cast is Lead by Second Tier Actors Al (David) Hedison and the Beautiful Kathy Owens and Backed Up by Vincent Price and Herbert Marshall. But the Real Star of the Movie is an Insect or to be More Accurate the Two Cross-Gens, The Fly (two legged) and The Fly (six legged).It is a Great Looking Movie with a Good Mad-Lab and the Makeup for Both Flys is so Horrifying (for the time) that the Film Remained in the Consciousness of Baby Boomers who saw it at the Theatre or Drive-In, for Years and it is One of those that, as Adults, is Touted as "Scared me to death.", "Had nightmares for years.", and Other such Hyperbole.Viewed Today it is So Familiar and has been such an Icon of the Cinema Fantastique, that Most Modern Fans have Seen it or have Seen Parts of it, or have been Aware of the Shock Ending and Often Referenced Final Scenes that it is Probably Not going to have the Impact that it Obviously had in 1958.Overall, a Must See for Fans of Sci-Fi and Horror, Classic Cinema, the 1950's, Cult Movies, Bug Movies, Vincent Price, and Anyone who Loves the Joy of Fantastic Cinema.Note...David Cronenberg remade this in 1986 and is a modern wonder in its own right and is one of the Director's best, and best known Movies.

Although it now looks inevitably outdated, this film is one of the best examples of the fantastic and sci-fi genre made in Hollywood in the second half of the 1950s - Them!, The Body Snatchers, The Incredible Shrinking Man, etc. Unlike the others, this one was shot in colour and also in Cinemascope, and it has two well- known names in the cast. Vincent Price, the most European of all American actors, had not established yet his status as an icon of the horror and fantastic genre –the Roger Corman films would help him to achieve that-, and Herbert Marshall, although never a leading star, he certainly was one of the most recognisable and solid supporting actors of the studio era. The Fly is about a scientific experiment going wrong. And when atomic energy is involved, one can be sure that the result is not only going to be disastrous but also gruesome. We have seen the tele-transportation process hundreds of times in Star Trek, and because of that we take it almost for granted even if we know it is sheer fantasy. But, who knows if it won't be a possibility in two or three hundred years from now? As André says to his wife Helene "If fifty years ago someone had explained to my father the concept of television, he would have laughed his head off" It is an interesting idea and by no means ridiculous. André succeeds tele-transporting a saucer and a newspaper, and all seems to be under control. Full of confidence, he then tries with the family cat, and it is there when things go awry. The poor animal disintegrates all right, but then it doesn't materialise again as expected. His atoms go lost forever in the limbo of infinity. Andre should take this as a warning and stop playing Dr Frankenstein, but he is too obsessed with his dream by now and won't give it up. The successful experiment with a guinea pig, a few days later, restores his confidence. We never see him trying the experiment on himself, which I think was a wise decision by the director because then it puts us in Helene's place when she first enters the laboratory after the mutation. We learn that André suffered an accident, he keeps his head covered with a cloth, he can't speak and he is desperate to find a particular fly. We can guess he has been disfigured, but then, what does a fly have to do with it? The film keeps us in suspense as the wife, the little boy and the foolish maid go around the house trying to catch the fly in question in what is an almost comical sequence: the wife is almost paranoid, the kid thinks it is just a game, and the maid thinks that her lady has lost one or two screws all of a sudden. The scene in which Helene snatches the cloth off André's head to see his face, revealing so his nightmarish mutation, is still quite shocking for today's standards, and the make-up is remarkably good with those balloon-like eyes and the fly's snout twitching all the time. Apparently, the actress didn't see the make-up until the very moment the scene was shot, and so her hysterical reaction was totally spontaneous and genuine. That was another clever idea of the director. And another interesting detail he offers us is the POV shot of the fly in multi- images, because that is believed to be how insects see the world. Their eyes are formed by hexagonal tubes that are supposed to give them a cell-like vision. The Fly is definitely a piece that couldn't be missed in my film collection.