The film tells the story of a scientist who is transformed into a grotesque human–fly hybrid after a common house fly enters unseen into a molecular transporter with which he is experimenting, resulting in his atoms being combined with those of the insect. The film was released in CinemaScope with color by Deluxe by 20th Century Fox. It was followed by two black-and-white sequels, Return of the Fly (1959) and Curse of the Fly (1965). A remake directed by David Cronenberg was released in 1986.
In Montreal, Quebec, scientist André Delambre is found dead with his head and arm crushed in a hydraulic press. His wife Hélène confesses to the crime, but 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, lies and says he caught the white-headed fly. Thinking he knows the truth, Hélène asks François to bring the policeman in charge of the case, Inspector Charas, so that she can explain the circumstances of André's death to them both.
In flashback, André, Hélène, and their son Philippe 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 draped over his head and a strange deformity on his left hand. Communicating only with typed notes and knocking, 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, though he retains his human mind. Conversely, the fly has his miniature head and left arm.
André needs Hélène to capture the fly, so he can reverse the process. After she, her son, and their housemaid exhaustively search for it, she finds it, but it slips out of a crack in the window. 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, Inspector Charas deems Hélène insane and guilty of murder. As they are about to haul her away, Philippe tells François he has 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 on the web as Philippe 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, François and Charas 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. Some time 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.
Cast
David Hedison (credited as Al Hedison) as André Delambre
Producer-director Kurt Neumann discovered the short story by George Langelaan in Playboy magazine.[7] He showed it to Robert L. Lippert, head of 20th Century Fox's subsidiary B-movie studio, Regal Pictures. The film was to be made by Lippert's outfit, but was released as an "official" Fox film, not under the less-prestigious Regal banner.[3][8]
Lippert hired James Clavell to adapt Langelaan's story on the strength of a previous sci-fi spec script at RKO, which had never been produced.[3] It became Clavell's first filmed screenplay. As Harry Spalding recalled, the script was "the best first draft I ever saw, it needed very little work".[9]
The adaptation remained largely faithful to Langelaan's short story, apart from moving its setting from France to Canada, and crafting a happier ending by eliminating a suicide.[10]
Casting
Lippert tried to cast Michael Rennie and Rick Jason in the role of André Delambre, before settling on then mostly unknown David Hedison (billed as "Al Hedison" on-screen).[3] Hedison's "Fly" costume featured a 20-pound (9.1kg) fly's head, about which he said: "Trying to act in it was like trying to play the piano with boxing gloves on".[11] Hedison was never happy with the makeup, but makeup artist Ben Nye remained very positive about his work, writing years later that despite doing many subsequent science-fiction films, "I never did anything as sophisticated or original as The Fly".[12]
Years later, Vincent Price recalled the cast finding some levity during the filming: "We were playing this kind of philosophical scene, and every time that little voice [of the fly] would say 'Help me! Help me!' we would just scream with laughter. It was terrible. It took us about 20 takes to finally get it".[12]
Filming
Sources vary as to the budget, with one giving it as $350,000,[13] another as $325,000,[3] and others as high as $495,000.[4] The shoot lasted 18 days in total.[12] Lippert said the budget was $480,000.[14] Photographic effects were handled by L. B. Abbott, with makeup by Ben Nye.[3]
It was photographed in 20th Century Fox's trademarked CinemaScope with color by Deluxe. A $28,000 laboratory set was constructed from army surplus equipment.[13]
Release
Theatrical
The Fly was released in July 1958 by 20th Century Fox. Producer-director Kurt Neumann died only a few weeks after its premiere, never realizing he had made the biggest hit of his career.[3] One source claims it was on a double bill with Space Master X-7.[15]
Reception
Box office
The film was a commercial success, grossing $3 million at the domestic box office against a budget less than $500,000,[4] and becoming one of the biggest hits of the year for Fox studios.[3][12] It earned $1.7 million in theatrical rentals.[16] Lippert claimed it earned $4 million.[14]
The film's financial success had the side effect of boosting co-star Vincent Price (whose previous filmography featured only scattered forays into genre film) into a major horror star. Price himself was positive about the film, saying, decades later, "I thought THE FLY was a wonderful film – entertaining and great fun".[12]
Critical response
Upon its initial release, The Fly received mixed reviews. Critic Ivan Butler called the film "the most ludicrous, and certainly one of the most revolting science-horror films ever perpetrated", and Carlos Clarens offered some praise for the effects, but concluded that the film "collapses under the weight of many... questions".[3]The New York Times critic Howard Thompson was more positive, writing: "It does indeed contain, briefly, two of the most sickening sights one casual swatter-wielder ever beheld on the screen... Otherwise, believe it or not, The Fly happens to be one of the better, more restrained entries of the "shock" school... Even with the laboratory absurdities, it holds an interesting philosophy about man's tampering with the unknown".[17]Variety was also fairly positive: "One strong factor of the picture is its unusual believability. It is told, by Clavell and Neumann, as a mystery suspense story, so that it has a compelling interest aside from its macabre effects".[18] "A first rate science-fiction-horror melodrama", declared Harrison's Reports, adding, "the action grips one's attention from the opening to the closing scenes, and is filled with suspenseful, spine-chilling situations that will keep movie-goers on the edge of their seats".[19] Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times called the film "frightening, which is naturally its primary purpose. It is also more skillful in concept and execution than the average science-fiction effort".[20] A mixed review in The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The early sequences of this film have great mystery and tension, and the situation is ingeniously built up. But the film soon becomes as nauseating as its bare outline suggests; even the moments which in healthier pictures might provoke a laugh through sheer absurdity offer little relief".[21]
Modern reviews have been more uniformly positive. The film holds a 95% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 42 reviews, with the consensus: "Deliciously funny to some and eerily presicient to others, The Fly walks a fine line between shlocky fun and unnerving nature parable".[22]Cinefantastique's Steve Biodrowski declared that "the film, though hardly a masterpiece, stands in many ways above the level of B-movie science fiction common in the 1950s".[12] Critic Steven H. Scheuer praised it as a "superior science-fiction thriller with a literate script for a change, plus good production effects and capable performances".[12]The Fly was nominated for the 1959 Hugo Award for Best SF or Fantasy Movie at the 17th World Science Fiction Convention.
A remake, also titled The Fly, was directed by David Cronenberg and released in 1986. A sequel, The Fly II, was released in 1989 without Cronenberg's involvement.[10]
David Paul Cronenberg is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and the intertwining of the psychological, physical, and technological. Cronenberg is best known for exploring these themes through sci-fi horror films such as Shivers (1975), Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983) and The Fly (1986), though he has also directed dramas, psychological thrillers and gangster films.
James Clavell was an Australian-born British writer, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known as the author of his Asian Saga novels, a number of which have had television adaptations. Clavell also wrote such screenplays as those for The Fly (1958), based on the short story by George Langelaan, and The Great Escape (1963), based on the personal account of Paul Brickhill. He directed the popular 1967 film To Sir, with Love, for which he also wrote the script.
The Fly is a 1986 American science fiction horror film directed and co-written by David Cronenberg. Produced by Brooksfilms and distributed by 20th Century Fox, the film stars Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis and John Getz. Loosely based on George Langelaan's 1957 short story of the same name and the 1958 film of the same name, The Fly tells of an eccentric scientist who, after one of his experiments goes wrong, slowly turns into a fly-hybrid creature. The score was composed by Howard Shore and the make-up effects were created by Chris Walas, along with makeup artist Stephan Dupuis.
The Fly may refer to:
Albert David Hedison Jr. was an American film, television, and stage actor. He was known for his roles as the titular character in The Fly (1958), Captain Lee Crane in the television science fiction drama Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964–1968), and CIA agent Felix Leiter in two James Bond films, Live and Let Die (1973) and Licence to Kill (1989).
The Alligator People is a 1959 American CinemaScope science-fiction horror film directed by Roy Del Ruth. It stars Beverly Garland, Bruce Bennett, and Lon Chaney Jr. This film was the penultimate feature directed by Del Ruth, and quite different from those of his days at Warner Bros.
"The Fly" is a science fiction horror short story by French-British writer George Langelaan. It was published in the June 1957 issue of Playboy magazine. It appeared in SF The Year's Greatest Science-Fiction and Fantasy, Dell First Edition B119, 1958. It was first filmed in 1958, and then again in 1986. An opera of the same name by Howard Shore premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, in 2008. The short story "The Fly" is included in Langelaan's short story collection Out of Time (1964).
George Langelaan was a French-British writer and journalist born in Paris, France.
Curse of the Fly is a 1965 American horror science-fiction film and a sequel to Return of the Fly (1959), as the third installment in The Fly film series. It was released in 1965, and unlike the other films in the series was produced in the United Kingdom. The film was directed by Don Sharp and the screenplay was written by Harry Spalding.
Return of the Fly is a 1959 American horror science-fiction film and sequel to The Fly (1958). It is the second installment in The Fly film series. It was released in 1959 as a double feature with The Alligator People. It was directed by Edward Bernds. Unlike the previous film, Return of the Fly was shot in black and white.
Watusi is a 1959 American adventure film, It is the sequel to the 1950 film King Solomon's Mines. The film was directed by Kurt Neumann and starring George Montgomery, Taina Elg, David Farrar and Rex Ingram. It was produced by Al Zimbalist and Donald Zimbalist. The screenplay was by James Clavell loosely based on the 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard.
Kurt Neumann was a German-born film director who specialized in science fiction movies in his later career.
The Cabinet of Caligari is a 1962 American horror film by Roger Kay, starring Glynis Johns, Dan O'Herlihy, and Richard Davalos, and released by 20th Century Fox.
Robert Lenard Lippert was an American film producer and cinema chain owner. He was president and chief operating officer of Lippert Theatres, Affiliated Theatres and Transcontinental Theatres, all based in San Francisco, and at his height, he owned a chain of 139 movie theaters.
Patricia Molly Owens was a Canadian-born American actress, working in Hollywood. She appeared in about 40 films and 10 television episodes in a career lasting from 1943 to 1968.
Space Master X-7 is a 1958 American horror science fiction film in Regalscope from Regal Films, produced by Bernard Glasser, directed by Edward Bernds, that stars Bill Williams, Lyn Thomas, and Robert Ellis. Paul Frees, Judd Holdren, and Moe Howard have supporting roles. The screenplay was written by George Worthing Yates and Daniel Mainwaring.
Five Gates to Hell is a 1959 American adventure film written and directed by James Clavell in CinemaScope. The film stars Dolores Michaels, Patricia Owens, Neville Brand, Ken Scott, Nobu McCarthy and Benson Fong. It was Clavell's directorial debut.
The film series of The Fly is a sequence of science fiction-horror films, consisting of an original series started in 1958 and a remake series made in the 1980s. The first film of the series, The Fly, was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox in 1958 as a colour film. The two following black and white sequels, Return of the Fly and Curse of the Fly, both produced by Associated Producers, were released in 1959 and 1965 respectively. The original film was remade in 1986, The Fly directed by David Cronenberg. The remake film received the Academy Award for Best Makeup in 1987. Its sequel, The Fly II, was released in 1989. All five films within the series were distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Dr. Seth Brundle, also known as Brundlefly, is a fictional character and the tragic hero in David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of The Fly. He is played by Jeff Goldblum. Brundle was the third of Goldblum's "nerdy scientist" roles and is one of his most famous roles to date.
1 2 3 Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN978-0-8108-4244-1. p251
↑ "Top Grossers of 1958". Variety. January 7, 1959. p.48. Please note figures are for US and Canada only and are domestic rentals accruing to distributors as opposed to theatre gross
1 2 Ryon, A. (September 23, 1962). "Third-run film king tells industry's woes". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest168195832.
↑ Warren, Bill (1986). "Keep Watching The Skies Volume 2". McFarland & Co., Inc. ISBN0-89950-170-2. Page 741
↑ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN978-0-8108-4244-1. p227
Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies, American Science Fiction Movies of the 50s, Vol. II: 1958–1962. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1986. ISBN0-89950-032-3.
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