The Fly (1958): Review

                                                 Figure 1: The Fly Poster

A 50's scientific horror film. It does not contain any violent scenes or any extreme special effects but It's still a good film.

The main story of the film is about a scientist: Andre who has invented a secret teleportation machine. During an experiment he does on his self he gets trapped in a state of half human and half fly because a fly went into the teleportation chamber. 

The film starts with a flashback of the end scene where Andre asks from his wife Helen to kill him because there wasn't any way to be human again. The bulk of the film story plays in flashbacks

                                    Figure 2: Helen kills her husband with the press.

During the beginning of the film, in some scenes where inspector and Andre's brother speak with Helen and asking her why she killed her husband we can hear fly noise "zzzzz". It discriminates us what we going to see in the following scenes.

"Science and the scientist are the single most prominent source of threat in the fifties boom, they are often more sympathetically treated than hitherto, and in The Fly much of the film's undoubted power stems from our capacity to identify with Andre plight." (Monsters and mad scientists page 42, 1989)

Helen during the whole movie is next to his husband and does everything in order to help him and be human  again. We can observe that the main character of the film is Helen which shows her love to her husband all the time. She brings him food, she follows the instructions he gives to her.

Helen, Andre's wife respects him and loves him a lot. She even kills him as he told her where there was no hope of finding the fly in order to become human.

"One of the horror films most interesting aspects is that is largely a female-centered project, a comparative rarity among science fictions of the period" (Vincent Price, Women In Horror Films page 30 )

Although the film is a sci-fi horror film it contains many love story scenes. Most distinct scene is where Andre writes in the board "Love you" and the violin music plays.

Also we can see in the whole movie how happy is the family. The Family: Helen, Andre and Philippe their son is a very typical family of the 50s. Strong family bonds and respect between the family members exist.

"The Fly both nestles comfortably in 1950’s stereotypes but at the same time breaks them, with a realistic-seeming portrayal that’s complex and that’s probably the source of the stereotypes  in the first place." 

(Brandt Sponseller, 2001)

Special effects in the film are quite "funny" but for the time it came out were really good. 

                    Figure 3:Helen screaming when she saw her transformed husband. Camera effect.

The effects for the audience the year it came out were really appealing. Light effects during the experiments with the teleportation machine Andrew invented and transformation effects to fly are quite good if we have in mind that this film came out at 1958.

The film seemed boring to me until the part where Andrew transforms to the fly, this is the part where the "action" begins.

            Figure 4:Andrew transformed into a fly. Actually his head and his hand were transformed into a fly parts.

Furthermore they were some funny scenes. Especially the last scene where Andrew's head is in a fly's body and asks for help.

           Figure 5:  Andrew in the last scene screaming for help while a spider approaches him in order to eat him.

The film was quite good. It depicts the 50's stereotypes and it shows how people can act in worst case scenarios.  In addition the film want to show us how dangerous is the scientists mind and how dangerous can be their inventions.

Illustration List

Figure 1: The Fly http://classic-horror.com/files/images/fly_1958_poster.jpg        

(Accessed: 2nd October 2011)

Figure 2: The Fly https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqgmn8g6SWGXzqwrW-MXWyLaqmaPY6Q3mjRPoW90cHL9kOIwXXuUzxVbqckMYNWbQ8HTFA8SDOYBeS5cyxLd0WR1Fq8FUlKUUNkRXBNdRn07iPkBWj_la8EDIrtpl2AFm-hqgHkea5DVI/s400/fly+press.jpg   

(Accessed: 2nd October 2011)

Figure 3: The Fly http://s1.hubimg.com/u/4989384_f520.jpg  

(Accessed: 2nd October 2011)

Figure 4: The Fly http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/TheFly1958.jpg

(Accessed: 2nd October 2011)

Figure 5: The Fly http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/flycoll1b.jpg 

(Accessed: 2nd October 2011)

Bibliography

Monsters and mad scientists: A cultural history of the horror movie.

page 42. 

Vincent Price: Women in the horror films. page 30

Brandt Sponseller Film Review : http://classic-horror.com/reviews/fly_1958