Starring: David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price, Herbert Marshall, Kathleen Freeman, Betty Lou Gerson, Charles Herbert
Review: It's that old story...a scientist (David Hedison) attempts to transfer matter through space and gets turned into a human-fly hybrid for his troubles.
The Fly is a remarkably entertaining film. It's creepy, mysterious, and scary! It definitely sets a high-bar for late 1950s sci-fi fare. Of all of the classic "science made me a monster" movies, The Fly is a favorite of mine. And the "science" and especially the numerous trials of the experiment are genuinely unnerving.
The screenplay by James Clavell (Shogun), the exceptional direction by Kurt Neumann, and the performances from David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price and Herbert Marshall, elevate this scary sci-fi story. It starts out as a murder mystery when the distraught Helene Delambre (Patricia Owens) appears to have killed her husband Andre (David Hedison). When Andre's brother François (Vincent Price) is alerted to the horror he gets Insp. Charas (Herbert Marshall) on the case. Is Helene dangerous? Is she a cold blooded killer? Is she crazy? Or is there something unbelievable bugging her?
Through a flashback, Helene tells François and Insp. Charas about her husband's experiment and what went horribly wrong. The most remarkable part of the flashback is the incredible performance of Patricia Owens and David Hedison. Hedison as the scientist and then as the tragic subject of his own experiment. And it is indeed Hedison as the titular "Fly", mask and all really giving a strong performance as a man slowly becoming the insect he was accidentally fused with. He's tragic, scary and very memorable. Owens is equally watchable as wife that is the only one that knows his secret and must find the mutated house fly to hopefully return Andre back to his normal human form. She's frightened, confused and traumatized by her husband's unfortunate transformation.
The whole film is masterfully told scary, suspense-filled tale that has one of the most shocking endings in all of movies. Don't let this one go unseen - catch The Fly whenever you can! It's a perfect sc-fi classic!