ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Simply say two words in a high squeaky voice — "Help me!" — and sci-fi fans will instantly recognize the quote from The Fly.







This macabre horror classic deals harshly with its main character, a humanitarian scientist (David Hedison) who develops a matter transporter which he hopes will end world hunger by making it possible to instantly teleport food across great distances. His incredible invention works to near-perfection . . . but near-perfection isn't quite good enough.





He ends up with the oversized head and arm of a fly that accidentally shared the teleportation booth with him during a test. The fly has miniature versions of the man's missing body parts — which doesn't make sense when you first think about it.









But if you consider the fact that the teleportation machine converts both the man and the insect into energy and beams them from one closed teleportation booth to another . . . and then literally recreates them out of thin air . . . well, it would hardly be reasonable to insist that the parts wouldn't fit together, right?

I mean . . . what parts? They were both built from scratch!

Patricia Owens plays Hedison's beautiful wife who remains courageous in the face of this horrible tragedy.





Vincent Price is the loyal brother of the unlucky scientist who wanted to feed the world but ended up just feeding a spider. Price repeated the role in the sequel, Return of the Fly.





Superior production values plus the use of Technicolor and CinemaScope greatly enhance the look of The Fly, which was released by 20th Century Fox. The script is by James Clavell. Director Kurt Neumann is noted for his ability to give a film its own strange and unique qualities, even when the script may contain some flaws. His other works include Kronos and Rocketship X-M.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

Hey, isn't that the computer light board from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea?

No, it couldn't be. Voyage wasn't released until three years later. (Six years later for the TV series, if you're counting only David Hedison appearances.)
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Robert (Butch) Day]

That computer flash board was created for the M-G-M movie Desk Set, as part of the computer EMERAC, which was released in 1957.



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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[scotpens]

[Bud Brewster]

I wonder what happened to this popular prop. Is it still around? Is is in storage? Was it trashed?

And what was its last (or most recent) appearance?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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"Help me! Help me! I've fallen and I'm being eaten up!"

Gee, that old lady who fell down and couldn't get up thought SHE had problems!

This is one terrific trailer. Watch it . . . if you dare! :shock;
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____________________The Fly (1958) Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Robert (Butch) Day]

[Krel]

The computer light panel also was used in both the movie, and TV version of "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea". Bill Malone had a copy of the panel made for his movie "Creature".

David.

[Bud Brewster]

[Robert (Butch) Day]

I certainly hope it gets up-graded! When the movie was in the ealy stages of planning (mid 1955) the prevaling computer programming was in log-lan!
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[orzel-w]

Frankly, I miss the days of punch cards. Life was so simple.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Robert (Butch) Day]

And so much easier to find errors — tediously long, but easier.
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Rick]

Oh, I heard about THE FLY for years. It seemed that all of my childhood friends had seen it. So I heard about it. And heard about it. And etc.

But I had no chance to see it. I remember a friend gleefully regaling me with the story of the big press crushing THE FLY's head. But I couldn't see it.

I actually saw RETURN OF THE FLY (at the good old LeRose Theater) several years before seeing the original. RETURN is surely not much of a movie, but, at eleven years of age, I thought it was pretty creepy and pretty gross.

When I finally saw THE FLY, on a 6 pm TV broadcast (in black and white), I was disappointed. Severely. Probably it was mostly the years of anticipation which had just built up too much steam. When I finally saw the movie, rather than a giant explosion, the steam just sort of sssssssssssss'ed away.

Plus, I preferred, and still prefer, the big fly head from RETURN to the li'l mask from the first movie.

I am probably wrong about all this. Someday maybe I'll see THE FLY again and be bowled over. I hope so.

And, for a final coup de grace, this is the rare instance where the remake outstrips the original. Cronenberg's THE FLY is just worlds better than this thing.
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Man need not kneel before the angels,
Nor lie in death forever,
But for the weakness of his feeble will.

[Bud Brewster]

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This is a rare incidence where I actually saw the movie at the tender age of eleven at my own version of the LeRose Theater, the long lost Roosevelt Drive-In.

I don't remember the details of watching it that night, but strangely enough I remember playing outside with friends on a summer evening and thinking about the movie a few days before seeing it yet.

Weird, eh?

And what I remembered thinking was that it was going to be a movie about a giant fly, descending from the sky to threaten mankind.

Ironic, ain't it? In my case, nobody had told me what it was about, so I had no clue as to what to expect. So I was hoping for something like this.



As for which fly-head is more effective, to me the smaller one in the first film is disturbing because it's easier to believe that poor Al Hedison's handsome countenance has been distorted into that twitching monstrosity, while the big clumsy version in the sequel looks like something you'd wear in a Madi Gras parade.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Rick]

I can understand your opinion, but frankly, if you're going to change a guy's head into a fly's head -- and it's not going to be minuscule like a real fly -- then I can equally believe it's Hedison-sized or Mardi Gras-sized. Not a lot of believability involved.

Your memory of what you expected from a movie titled THE FLY reminded me of my first viewing of another classic from the '50s.

When I saw INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS in the TV listings back when I was 10 or 11, I don't think I'd ever heard of the title before. Or, if I had, all I knew was the title, nothing of the story.

So, when I stayed up late that night for the TV showing, I was expecting creatures from space who stole people's bodies, and left the heads behind. So, while I appreciated it was a good movie, I was still pretty disappointed. I mean, the quiet, paranoid, political, intelligent story of the movie is great, but it ain't ugly Martians snipping off noggins and snatching torsos off to their flying saucers.

That's what I wanted to see. That's what I still want to see.
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Man need not kneel before the angels,
Nor lie in death forever,
But for the weakness of his feeble will.