François Delambre (Vincent Price) receives a call from his sister-in-law, Helene (Patricia Owens), in which she hysterically confesses to killing her husband, Andre (David Hedison—as Al Hedison). The couple loved each other and had no problems, yet she compressed his head and hand in a press, and now refuses to say why. François discovers that before his brother’s death, Helene and her son searched wildly for a white-headed fly, and that fly holds the secret to the killing.
Due to the success of the film and advertising, almost no one can go into The Fly without knowing what is going to happen. That’s unfortunate as it’s a nice little mystery. We’re given a very peculiar killing. Helene has confessed but has no motive. It can’t be a suicide because the giant press came down twice (and it would be a little hard for Andre to activate the machine after being squished the first time). François lusts after his sister-in-law, but appears to have taken her preference for his brother gracefully and was close to both of them. So what happened?
Well, the 99.9% of you who already know don’t need me to say, and the .1% who are unaware shouldn’t have the experience spoiled. It isn’t that the mystery is all that…mysterious, but it is revealed in an engaging way, that brings you in to the story and the lives of the characters. This is first rate filmmaking.
The script, based on a short story by George Langelaan, was written by James Clavell, better know for his novel Shogun. His deft hand is apparent, particularly in the dialog. The basic premise is hard to accept (and I don’t mean the matter transmitter that Andre was working on), but if you can accept that Andre could have survived the experience, the rest is relatively easy to buy. There’s some real tension built, although things start to drag in the last third.
Price puts in another superb performance as the brother who has little to do with advancing the main story. He is the viewers’ voice in the world. He asks the questions the audience would ask if given a chance, and reacts as we would. The rest of the cast is strong, although Patricia Owens’ emotions swing a touch too far. The only weak link is the child who never feels like he’s in the film. Every time he’s on screen you can almost see his mother just out of the picture, whispering, “Charlie, run across the set now Charlie. Go ahead. Good boy.”
The mask for the “monster” is adequate, mainly because it isn’t shown for long. Darker lighting and a few seconds less would have been even better. As is, it doesn’t distract from the film, though no one is going to watch this film for its creature design.
The Fly is significant in horror history, with several scenes that have been recreated in a dozen other films and a few sitcoms. If it had been made a few years earlier, I’d have placed in on my Classic Horror list along with Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, and Creature From The Black Lagoon.