The Fly (1958) Review

The Fly (1958), Directed by Kurt Neumann is a story of one scientist’s attempt at changing the world through a new form of transportation, Teleportation. However once the machine is completed the last test to conduct is that of human teleportation, the scientist Andre Delambre (David Hedison) teleports himself with disastrous consequences as a common house fly enters the teleportation pod along with him.

The Fly is a very atmospheric film as the final reveal of Andre’s misfortune is saved until the end to create a sense of fear, but also curiosity from the audience as the suspense makes us want to see what Andre has been hiding, just as much as we are afraid of what it may be. However, Andre’s wife Helene (Patricia Owens) is possibly the key character in this film as it is her love for her husband which drives her to save Andre, even after she discovers what has happened and sees the result of Andre’s experiment.

Patricia Owens provides a brilliant performance as a devoted wife as her final act of love comes when she spares Andre from losing all his human aspects and relieves him from his pain. Not only does she save her husband, but also pretends to be insane so that she can protect her son Philippe from knowing the truth and the horror of what happened to his father.

The bi-product of Andre’s experiment is the fly which obtains human aspects, the one with a “white head” which Philippe caught early on in the film. Before we realise just how important it is Helene orders him to release it, only to end up searching for it herself. At the end of the film there is, what seems now, a very comical moment in which we see the fly caught in a spiders web screaming “help me” in a very high pitched voice, and in a fluster of confusion and what I would imagine fear or disbelief, Inspector Charas grabs a rock and crushes the fly.

The end to the film is somewhat confusing and disappointing as Helene and Andre’s brother Francois appear to have completely forgotten the whole ordeal and seem to have started a happy little family, and with everything forgotten a fade to black ends the sequence.