From: mleeper@optonline.net   
      
   THE FLY (1958) is a film that surprised even its producers.  They   
   knew the story was a little silly and expected only a modest return   
   on the film from a mostly young audience.  Even the film's name   
   stars, Vincent Price and Herbert Marshall, could not take THE FLY   
   seriously.  The audience, on the other hand, found that there was   
   much to respond to in the film.  THE FLY cost $350,000 to make and   
   grossed $3,000,000 on its release, considerably outstripping any   
   expectation.  Based on results of this film 20th Century Fox went   
   on to make several other science fiction films.  I would contend   
   that the reason this film had the impact that it did is that it   
   really is very much an archetypal story, an "Oedipus Rex" for the   
   scientific age.  It is the story of a man who has just about   
   anything a man could want and loses it all in a moment of hubris.   
   Helene and Andre Delambre, the major characters, have a warm and   
   loving relationship and they love life.  Andre himself just follows   
   his curiosity as his profession, and that provides enough so they   
   live very well.  And in one moment of pride and carelessness it was   
   all turned into horror.  It is interesting to note that this is a   
   film with no human--or even non-human--villains.  Essentially,   
   everybody wants the best for everybody else.  It is basically   
   people after a disastrous mistake struggling to put things right   
   again.  It is most unusual to have a horror film in which there is   
   no ill-will.  People even are doing what they see as acting in   
   young Philippe's best interest when they so brazenly lie to him.   
   Today candor seems a little more in vogue.   
      
   The film was directed by Kurt Neumann, who counted among his films   
   several low-budget Tarzan movies, ROCKETSHIP X-M, and more recently   
   (for Fox) SHE DEVIL and KRONOS.  With the possible exception of   
   KRONOS, there is not much there to suggest that he could have been   
   responsible for how well THE FLY resonated with audiences.  More   
   likely it is the mythic elements from the story.  THE FLY is based   
   on a short story by George Langelaan that appeared in Playboy   
   magazine.   
      
   The original story took place in France, but here it was moved to   
   Montreal to explain the French names while placing it in an   
   environment that the audience could identify with.  The plot starts   
   almost immediately with a strange mystery.  Andre and Helene   
   Delambre (Al Hedison and Patricia Owens) seemed to be in love as   
   much as any married couple could be.  Andre and his brother   
   Francois owned an extremely successful electronics research and   
   development company.  Things seemed perfect for them and it.  But   
   in the first moments of the plot the idyllic life of the Delambres   
   is over.  The night watchman at Delambre Freres has found Helene   
   over the dead body of Andre.  It seems he was killed in a factory   
   press.  What makes this all seem even stranger is that Andre should   
   have known the press was coming down if it was.  He would have had   
   to have been a most cooperative victim in his own murder.  What is   
   more, Helene did not know how to operate the press.  That just   
   does not make any kind of sense.   
      
   Francois is called almost immediately by Helene and he in turn   
   calls in Inspector Charas of the Surete to do the police work.   
   Helene admits to the killing, but refuses to give answer certain   
   questions so that the action still just does not add up.  Helene is   
   free with some information, but other questions she insists that   
   she cannot answer.  The one hole in this behavior is that she   
   seems to have developed a fixation on seeing flies--any fly that   
   can be caught.  Francois finds out that Helene is looking for a   
   particular fly with a white head.  In an attempt to find out what   
   really happened, he bluffs to Helene that he has the fly and   
   convinces her that he will destroy the fly as she wants if she will   
   explain why and how she killed Andre.  She begins to tell her   
   story.   
      
   In the flashback story Andre unveils to her the device that has   
   occupied much of his time recently.  He has developed a matter   
   transmission machine.  It disintegrates solid objects placed in a   
   transmission booth, transmits the matter to a receiving booth and   
   reintegrates the object.  In demonstrating the machine it generally   
   works, but has occasional malfunctions--not surprisingly for a new   
   piece of technology.  At first the machine creates a mirror image   
   of the object being transmitted.  Then for an unknown reason it   
   fails to reintegrate just when the family cat Dandello is sent.   
   But eventually it seems to be reliable, transmitting a guinea pig   
   and allowing her to reintegrate.  The machine seems to work and   
   Andre invites Francois to see the machine in action.  But instead   
   of meeting his brother he leaves a note that he cannot see   
   Francois.  At about the same time Philippe finds a white-headed   
   fly, but Helene makes him let it go.  Andre refuses to leave the   
   lab or be seen.  That night he passes another note out of the lab   
   saying he has had a problem.  It seems he wants Helene to look for   
   a particular fly with a white head.  She is allowed into the lab,   
   but Andre has a cloth over his head and his hand in his pocket.   
   When Helene tells Andre that she made Philippe release a fly with   
   the white head Andre is shocked enough to take what should be his   
   left hand out of his pocket, but instead of a hand there is a sort   
   of black claw.  Andre can eat only liquids which he seems to   
   noisily slurp.  It seems that Andre transmitted himself with a fly   
   in the box with him and the two had their atoms mixed.  Now he   
   needs the fly to untangle the two.  The next day Helene and   
   Philippe search for the white-headed fly.  They succeed only in   
   unknowingly letting the very fly they want get out the window.   
      
   Andre loses heart when the fly is not found and finds he is losing   
   control of his head and hand.  He knows he needs the fly to   
   unscramble the atoms but he allows himself to cooperate with   
   Helene.  He transmits himself one more time in the absurd belief   
   that it will do some good.  Helene, ever the optimist, pulls the   
   cloth from his head and finds herself looking at a human-sized fly   
   head.  (Note: in the story it is a cat head with fly eyes, a side   
   effect of the loss of Dandello.)  Andre sees Helene's screaming   
   face through compound eyes in one of the most horrific scenes of   
   any film ever.  Helene faints and Andre trying to control his body   
   lays her out on a couch in safety.  The horror gives way to tragedy   
   as Andre tries to kiss Helene and realizes that he is no longer   
   physically capable of kissing or caressing her.  In angry   
   frustration he destroys his laboratory and burns his notes.   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)