Fused Film Friday Classic: The Fly (1958)
The Fly (1958)
Director: Kurt Neumann
Starring: Vincent Price, Al Hedison, Patricia Owens, Herbert Marshall and Kathleen Freeman
Rating: Not Rated
Runtime: 94 mins
Release Date: July 1958
Not to be confused with the 1986 remake version with Jeff Goldblum, this horror classic went beyond conventional wisdom.
Starring the legendary Vincent Price, The Fly, is based on a series of short stories by George Langelaan. The film is available on DVD and the commentary says that the film took only 18 days to make and unexpectedly made $3,000,000. This was 1 of 3 films actor, Al Hedison, made before moving studios and being made to change his name from Al to David. The film was made in CinemaScope and Terror-Color by De Luxe.
In the film a mad scientist (Al Hedison) has invented a matter-transmitting device and decides to test it on himself, but when a housefly accidentally enters the machine, he finds himself doomed as his body slowly starts to transform itself into that of an insect - “The Fly.” The film has a twist ending that at the time was fantastic. The film also features one of the most classic lines in history, “Help me, Help meeee!”
The film spawned 2 sequels: Return of the Fly and Curse of the Fly.
Continue reading about the trivia and references of the film after the Jump!
The film has had many references throughout cinematic and television history including:
- Beetlejuice
- The Exorcist III
- The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror # 2.3- When a bug flies into a bug-zapper, you hear a tiny, high-pitched “ow” in a nod to this film.
- Antz
- The Producers- Nathan Lane’s character shouts “Heeeeeelp meeee!” in a high-pitched voice, as in the Fly.
- X-files: Episode titled “Toom” - The Fly is on the TV while Mulder naps in the background
and videogames like:
- Half-Life 2 - Game character, Barney says “I still have nightmares about that cat”, a reference to the mishap with Dandelo the cat “disintegrated” in the movie
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - “Snake’s mask was designed after the image of The Fly.”
There is also some fun things you can learn form DVD version in the commentary as well as trivia about the movie such as:
- Micheal Rennie was offered the title role but declined it because his head would be covered thru most of the picture.
- “The Fly” was originally a story by George Langelaan that appeared in the June 1957 issue of Playboy magazine.
- The lab set cost only $28,000 and included some surplus Army equipment.
- This was such a success at the box office that it became one of Fox’s biggest hits of 1958.
- James Clavell’s first script was faithful to George Langelaan’s original story, but Fox executives demanded a happier ending.
- Patricia Owens has a real fear of insects. Director Kurt Neumann used this by not allowing her to see the makeup until the “unmasking’ scene.
- That is actually Al Hedison not a stuntman, inside the Fly makeup.
- This became the biggest box office hit for director Kurt Neumann, but he never knew it. He died a month after the premiere, and only a week before it went into general release.
- Uncredited producer Robert L. Lippert was able to make additional money from the success of this film. His own company, Regal Films, produced Space Master X-7 (1958) which 20th Century Fox used as the cofeature for this film.
- In the scene where the fly with Andre Delambre’s head and arm is caught in the spider’s web, a small animatronic figure with a moving head and arm was used in the spiderweb as a reference for actors Vincent Price and Herbert Marshall. Vincent Price later remembered that filming the scene required multiple takes, because each time he and Herbert Marshall looked at the animatronic figure, with its human head and insect body, they would burst out laughing.
Source: IMDB
