The Fly
Starring: David (Al) Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price
Writers: George Langelaan, James Clavell
Director: Kurt Neumann
****Spoilers****
Helen Delambre has just confessed to the gruesome murder of her husband Andre (a scientist), as if it were no big freakin' deal. But now comes the reason – Helen calls for Andre's brother Francois and a police inspector to tell them a cockamamy story about a teleporting device her husband invented called the disintegrator-intigrator; a machine that can take an object from one chamber, break it down into atoms, send it through space and rebuild it at another chamber. After working some kinks out of his experiments, Andre decides to start teleporting living organisms, and ultimately himself. Unknowingly, a fly is in the chamber at the same time of his transference, and that's when the fit hits the shan!
The Fly originated from a short story that was published in a 1957 issue of Playboy magazine. Having never read it, I can't really make any comparisons, though, I do know 20th Century Fox demanded a happy ending be tagged onto the film... and, it's kind of lame, but leaves it open for the sequel(s) that came a few years later. Most people whom haven't seen this version probably think that Vincent Price IS the fly, and the confusion is understandable. He's always one of the first listed stars on websites and his face is on the cover of many variations, be it DVD or VHS. Well, he is in fact not the fly; he's not even really a main character. Price probably has a total of about ten to fifteen minutes of screen time in the film. Don't let that sway you from watching it, though.
The film was shot in 18 days, and I've heard the budget was anywhere from $400,000 to $700,000, but anything in-between was probably a bonkers amount of money for 1958. The lab set alone was a $28,000 concoction. The 50's were filled to the brim with Sci-Fi/Horror films, and a lot of them were sadly summed up as B-movies. Well, I guess a lot of them were. The Fly kind of stood above that, and was a financial success for 20th Century Fox, being one of their biggest films for that era. It was director Kurt Neumann's biggest film ever. Sadly, he never knew it; Neumann died a week before its general release. Rumored to be a suicide from the grief of his wife's death, but many people believe he accidentally poisoned himself by drinking something from under the sink thought to merely be liquor.
The Fly was shot in CinemaScope, a wide-screen presentation with anamorphic lenses that was actually created by 20th Century Fox back in 1953. The movie looks fantastic itself, but while it's said to have been shot with extra lighting for mostly Drive-In showings in mind, I couldn't really tell. Maybe since the DVD release it has been manipulated or something.
David Hedison (Al Hedison at the time) had a lot of extra ideas for his role of Andre/The Fly that could have worked great, but nobody on the set wanted to listen. He also used no stunt doubles; he was the man behind the mask, so to speak. There's a lot of emotion put into it, especially after the transition from human to mansect, making Andre more of a Jekyll & Hyde type character. You can damn near feel his pain when he's writing instructions to his wife on the chalk board for what they have to do. Before becoming the fly, Hedison equally does great with the persona of a loving family man who just can't seem to ever put work on the back burner. He's completely obsessed with science. Two other actors turned down the role for lack of screen time, because the character spends a great deal of the film not being shown (after the transition). I'm glad, because Hedison gave it his all.
Patricia Owens played Helen, Andre's wife, who also has to play two different personalities. One, being the loving and very lenient (kudos to a lady that will put up with a husband that spends two straight weeks in the basement disintegrating plates and cats and whatever) wife, and then a woman on the brink of losing her marbles, which is actually the woman we are introduced to first. Admitting to murdering her husband while offering coffee to the police inspector (as if killing is an everyday normal event), Owens pulls off a genuinely bizarre performance. Also, the scene of Patricia, her son and the housekeeper parading the living room in pursuit of the mysterious white-headed fly is a quality key moment depicting her psychological state.
As I previously mentioned, Vincent Price has more of a secondary role in The Fly as Andre's brother, Francois. As much as I like Price, it's kind of disappointing that Owens and Hedison aren't given the credit here, because they are where all the magic comes from. Either way, Price throws around his entrancing voice and gives a great performance as always, it's just limited. There's also a hint oh Francois being in love with his brother's wife, which I think should have been more heavily explored... but no such luck. They mention it once, and that subplot disappears like a specter. Also dishing out fine supporting parts are Charles Herbert as Phillipe (Andre and Helen's son) and Herbert Marshall as Inspector Charas (the actor actually had a prosthetic leg, but I never even noticed until hearing about it, as he is pretty damn limber in the film).
We're talking about 1950's special effects here, and I think the best way to appreciate them now is to try and think of how much impact a dude with a fucking fly-head had back in 1958, other than just passing it all off as hokey and dated. The reveal of Andre's mansect appearance is still amazing and will always hold up for fans that cherish classic horror/sci-fi, but I can imagine audiences losing their shit back in the day. Same goes for the infamous “Help me! Help me!” finale (which was done with visual blue screen effects); it's a moment that defines the film's historical value. Also, pretty taboo for the times was a rather bloody hydraulic press scene that takes place early on. While someone like me can watch it now and say “Wow, that's bad ass! What year was this again!?”, I can just see my Grandmother passing out at the cinema during a moment like that, circa 1958.
While the short story and Kurt Neumann's film set the stage for Cronenberg's version, don't expect shot for shot similarities. Sure, it's the same basic premise and some of the events that unfold are alike in the two movies. Hell, they both even pushed the envelope for their times... but all in all they are pretty different entities. It's kind of a shame that something like this gets overlooked or just straight up ignored by a more general audience of the now- the type of audience that looks for nothing more than insane action around every corner with less story and zero suspense. Not trying to sound like a negative Nancy, and I know many of us still appreciate films like this, I just felt like telling the more casual film goers to slow down and absorb a story sometimes.
I eat this kind of stuff up.
