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The Fly (1958)
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 1:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rick wrote:
. . . 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.

I agree that David Cronenberg's 1986 version is a superior film, but it takes the story in such a different direction that I'd call it a reworking or re-imagining rather than a remake. The 1958 original sticks much closer to George Langelaan's short story (first published in Playboy magazine in 1957).

Bud Brewster wrote:
. . . 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.

Rick wrote:
. . . 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.

I can understand your disappointment. Imagine my reaction when I first saw THE CONQUEROR WORM on TV. Not a single giant, man-eating worm in sight — just Vincent Price hunting witches in 17th-century England!
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Skullislander
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2016 3:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I want to see another remake, this time with the camera following the tiny fly-man around the DeLambre residence!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2016 7:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Interesting idea. Maybe Pixar will do it.

Wait . . . they already did one like that. Very Happy


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____________________ A Bug's Life - 1998


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


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Krel
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2016 11:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Last year, I watched "The Fly" on TMC for the first time in decades. At the end, the host said that David Hedison got upset with Fox when the movie came out. He did the voice for the Fly at the end, but they didn't tell him that they were going to alter it.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 1:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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I tried to find a YouTube clip of that scene, but only one I found was a version where somebody had deepened the voice (just a little). I don't see the point. Oh, well.

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Skullislander
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 2:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have no idea why that scene with the web instills so much terror even to this day: in many ways the scene looks 'comic' and you can recognize that the spider is really a dressed-up glove.

It is powerful stuff just thinking about it, though!
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Skullislander
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 2:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If they ever remake the FLY they should return to the fly-head concept of the '58 original------the '86 movie is good but the Brundlefly is just really an evolving mutant with not that many Fly-like characteristics.

Today with CGI they could do a cool scene with the Flyman capturing the tiny fly-man alive and examining him under a magnifying glass----imagine the terror as they both recognize each others' missing parts!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 11:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Skullislander wrote:
Today with CGI they could do a cool scene with the Flyman capturing the tiny fly-man alive and examining him under a magnifying glass----imagine the terror as they both recognize each others' missing parts!

What an awesome concept, sir! The fact that Hedison had a portion of his human intellect intact right up to the end makes it entirely possible that what you've suggested could happen.

I'd have to say there's no mystery about why the spiderweb scene is so powerful, both in 1958 and even today.

David Hedison was mistaken when he objected to his voice being altered, because anything other than that pitiful, disturbing squeak as the poor man/insect cringed in horror would have been far less effecting and less believable.

This close-up off the face — with that horrid white area where his hair used to be, and the apparent lack of teeth — all work to show us just how deformed and hideous this once handsome and (most tragically of all) benevolent man now is.

Yes, this scene is responsible for the creation of several trillion goosebumps over the last 50+ years, and it will go on producing a bumper crop every year for decades to come. Shocked




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


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Skullislander
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 11:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was so terrified by the nightmarish events in this movie that the first time around, I never actually saw the two main scenes: the Fly-man unmasking or the tiny victim in the web. I had to look away from the TV, it was that bad!

Neither of these creatures received much screen-time, and I reckon the power of this story is derived from what we can see in our imaginations, which is always far more powerful than anything Hollywood can provide us with.

The movie never turned up again on TV for about 15 years, and I rewatched it again relatively unflinchingly.

Its an absolute ice-cold tale of terror in my way of thinking, at least. One of the most effective sci-fi Horrors of the 50s genre for me anyway.
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 12:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
This close-up of the face — with that horrid white area where his hair used to be, and the apparent lack of teeth — all work to show us just how deformed and hideous this once handsome and (most tragically of all) benevolent man now is.



The idea is that the tiny human head has aged enormously in the couple of weeks or so since Andre's tragic accident. (Notice the parchment-like skin — and that wispy white stuff is his hair.) Houseflies normally live only 15 to 28 days.

Fortunately, David Hedison aged much better in real life. He still looks pretty good for a man who's pushing 90!



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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 24, 2017 4:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Wow, Scotspen, your comments are right on target! I never thought of that, and what you said adds to my respect for this great movie.

This unique sci-fi film is one of the few I got to see when it was first released, and here's a few nice trivia items from IMDB.
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Michael Rennie was offered the title role but declined it because his head would be covered thru most of the picture.

Note from me: I was strongly tempted to paste the fly head onto a photo of Mr. Carpenter, but I figured it would be just as funny if you guys imagined it yourselves. Very Happy

That is actually David Hedison, not a stuntman, inside the Fly makeup.

Note from me: My respect for Mr. Hedison knows no bounds because of this. A very dedicated actor.

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 co-feature for this film.

Note from me: I saw The Fly at a drive-in, but I don't remember what the second feature was. I doubt that it was Space Master X-7, because I'm sure I would remember it. I didn't see it until many years later.

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 spider web as a reference for actors Vincent Price and Herbert Marshall.

Price later remembered that filming the scene required multiple takes, because each time he and Marshall looked at the animatronic figure, with its human head and insect body, they would burst out laughing.


Note from me: This is rich. The scene in the movie is one of the most chilling moments in '50s sci-fi . . . and yet when it was filmed, the two actors were bustin' a gut every time they tried to look horrified and then smash the poor fly-man with a rock!

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.

Note from me: Whoa, that was cold! The fly head in the first movie is a macabre and brilliantly designed version of the actual insect's head. It's the perfect blend of a fly's head and bald human head, with fuzz all over it. The quick, jerky movements were absolutely perfect!

And when David Hedison leaned over the lovely unconscious Patricia Owen and yearned to French kiss her with that horrible, wiggling probosces, it was the most frightening moment in the movie! Shocked






But the lame sequel completely blew this by using that big, ridiculous fly head that made the wearer look like he was at the Mardi Gras! I mean, this looks as dumb as the way Donald Trumps wears his ties hanging down way below his belt! Shocked





James Clavell's first script was faithful to George Langelaan's original story, but Fox executives demanded a happier ending.

Note from me: Good God Almighty! This movie had a happier ending than the original story!

Holy cow! Shocked

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


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 11:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rick wrote:
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 may be mistaken, Rick, but I think this is the only truly great 1950s sci-fi movie I DID get to see as a kid (at a drive-in with my parents), but which you did NOT get to see until several years later! Shocked

As I've mentioned before, I didn't get to start watching movies at theaters (other than family trips to the drive-in) until I was twelve-years old in 1960, because the nearest theater was a bus ride to the next little town.

Oh well. Rolling Eyes

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 11:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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I found a very good article about The Fly in Starlog issue #8.

Click on each page here to see a large, easy-to-read version you can zoom in on. Click on the large version again, and then zoom in as close as you want!









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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2018 11:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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This article brought back memories of my first viewing. I saw this movie at a drive-in in 1958. I was pretty sure it was not about a giant fly, but I was damned if I knew what it WAS about. I’m certainly glad I didn’t see the movie at a downtown theater like the one pictured in the article! The giant billboard above the marquee certainly gives the impression that a giant fly is dinning on lovely ladies!

The fact that it is says “Certified X — adults only” at the bottom might have concerned my parents. Shocked

The author makes a few silly statements that detract from this otherwise reasonably well-written article. For example, when describing the way David Hedison commits suicide with the help of his poor wife, he says —

“Andre places his head and claw under a hydraulic press, which then crushes them, as if by so destroying the inhuman anatomy, Andre the man might miraculously reappear.”

Ummm . . . what? No, the author waxed a trifle too philosophical there.

The reason for using the hydraulic press was to completely destroy any recognizable trace of the enlarged fly parts, leaving no evidence of the disaster. It was the character’s wish that the world not find out what he had become.

I also noticed that the author referred to the spider in the climax as “the predatory insect”, an error in terminology. I’ve been corrected for entomological mistakes like that here on All Sci-Fi. Rolling Eyes

The author mentions that Fox took notice of the The Fly’s reviews — some praising the film and some calling it sadistic — and realized that either way, the critics and the public were actually taking this B movie seriously! He also points out the sad fact that The Fly’s success spawned a totally unworthy sequel that did NOT do well with the critics or the public.

All-in-all this article is worth reading, but I was hoping for interesting facts about the production, rather than philosophical interpretations of the story.

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johnnybear
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 18, 2018 1:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Fly, another of those fifties films that haunts you years after you've seen it! That damn spider at the end always left me chilled as it closed it's maw around Andre's head!

Nowadays we know spiders don't swallow insects or deluded scientists who accidentally get mixed up with flies, but suck them dry after biting them and injected an enzyme which turns all of their bodily organs into a soup.

Curse of the Fly was the very first horror I was ever allowed to stay up and watch and I was sort of disappointed because there was no fly in it!!!
JB
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