Movie Review - The Fly

The Fly (1958)

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

9 / 10

"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.