The Fly ( 1958 film ) - wikipedia The Fly ( 1958 film ) This article is missing information about the film 's theatrical and home media release. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. ( December 2017 ) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( November 2014 ) The Fly Theatrical release poster Directed by Kurt Neumann Produced by Kurt Neumann Robert L. Lippert ( uncredited ) Screenplay by James Clavell Based on short story The Fly by George Langelaan Starring Al Hedison Patricia Owens Vincent Price Herbert Marshall Music by Paul Sawtell Cinematography Karl Struss Edited by Merrill G. White Production company 20th Century Fox Distributed by 20th Century Fox Release date August 29, 1958 ( 1958 - 08 - 29 ) ( US ) Running time 93 minutes Country United States Language English Budget between $325,000 and $495,000 Box office $3 million The Fly is a 1958 American science fiction - horror film in CinemaScope and Color by Deluxe from 20th Century Fox, produced and directed by Kurt Neumann, that stars David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price, and Herbert Marshall. The screenplay by James Clavell was based on the 1957 short story of the same name by George Langelaan. The Fly was theatrically released on a double bill with Space Master X-7. The film tells the story of a scientist who is transformed into a grotesque creature after a common house fly enters unseen into a molecular transporter he is experimenting with, resulting in his atoms being combined with those of the insect, producing a human - fly hybrid. The film was followed by two sequels, Return of the Fly ( 1959 ) and Curse of the Fly ( 1965 ). It was remade in 1986 as a film of the same name by director David Cronenberg. Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Reception 4.1 Box Office 5 Sequels and remake 6 See also 7 References 7.1 Bibliography 8 External links Plot In Montreal, Canada, scientist André Delambre ( David Hedison ) is found dead with his head and arm crushed in a hydraulic press. Although his wife Hélène ( Patricia Owens ) confesses to the crime, she refuses to provide a motive, and begins acting strangely. In particular, she is obsessed with flies, including a supposedly white - headed fly. André 's brother, François ( Vincent Price ), lies and says he caught the white - headed fly ; and, thinking he knows the truth, Hélène explains the circumstances surrounding André 's death. In flashback, André, Hélène, and their son Philippe ( Charles Herbert ) are a happy family. André has been working on a matter transporter device called the disintegrator - integrator. He initially tests it only on small inanimate objects, such as a newspaper, but he then proceeds to living creatures, including the family 's pet cat ( which fails to reintegrate, but can be heard meowing somewhere ) and a guinea pig. After he is satisfied that these tests are succeeding, he builds a man - sized pair of chambers. One day, Hélène, worried because André has not come up from the basement lab for a couple of days, goes down to find André with a black cloth over his head and a strange deformity on his left hand. Communicating with typed notes only, André tells Hélène that he tried to transport himself but that a fly was caught in the chamber with him, which resulted in the mixing of their atoms. Now, he has the head and left arm of a fly ; and the fly has his miniature head and left arm, though he keeps his mind. André needs Hélène to capture the fly so he can reverse the process. Although she expends great effort in her search, she can not find it and André 's will begins to fade as the fly 's instincts take over his brain. Time is running out, and while André can still think like a human, he smashes the equipment, burns his notes, and leads Hélène to the factory. When they arrive, he sets the hydraulic press and motions for Hélène to push the button. She activates the press twice - once to crush his head and once to crush his left arm. Upon hearing this confession, the chief detective on the case, Inspector Charas ( Herbert Marshall ), deems Hélène insane and guilty of murder. As they are about to haul her away, Philippe tells François he 's seen the fly trapped in a web in the back garden. François convinces the inspector to come and see for himself. The two men see the fly, trapped in the web, with both André 's head and arm. It screams `` Help me ! Help me ! '' as a large brown spider advances on it. Just as the spider is about to devour the creature, Charas crushes them both with a rock. Knowing that nobody would believe the truth, he and François decide to declare André 's death a suicide so that Hélène is not convicted of murder. In the end, Hélène, François, and Philippe resume their daily lives, Sometime later, Philippe and Hélène are playing croquet in the yard. François arrives to take his nephew to the zoo. In reply to his nephew 's query about his father 's death, François tells Philippe, `` He was searching for the truth. But for one instant, he was careless. The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world and the most dangerous ''. The film closes with Hélène escorting her son and François out of the yard. Cast David Hedison ( credited as Al Hedison ) as André Delambre Patricia Owens as Hélène Delambre Vincent Price as François Delambre Herbert Marshall as Inspector Charas Kathleen Freeman as Emma Betty Lou Gerson as Nurse Anderson Charles Herbert as Philippe Delambre Eugene Borden as Dr. Éjoute Torben Meyer as Gaston Production This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. ( December 2017 ) Though uncredited on - screen, the film was produced by Robert L. Lippert, head of Fox 's subsidiary B - movie studio Regal Pictures, which produced the film and was originally slated to distribute it before Fox decided to release it under their more prestigious `` 20th Century Fox '' label.. Lippert hired James Clavell to adapt George Langelaan 's short story on the strength of a previous sci - fi spec script which the studio had bought but never produced. It would become Clavell 's first filmed screenplay. The adaptation remained largely faithful to Langelaan 's story, apart from moving its setting from France to Canada, and crafting a happier ending by eliminating Hélène 's suicide. Lippert tried to cast Michael Rennie and Rick Jason in the role of André Delambre, before settling on then mostly - unknown David Hedison ( billed as `` Al Hedison '' on - screen. ) Hedison 's `` Fly '' costume featured a twenty - pound fly 's head, about which he said : `` Trying to act in it was like trying to play the piano with boxing gloves on ''. Hedison was never happy with the makeup, but Makeup Director Ben Nye Sr. remained very positive about his work, writing years later that despite doing many subsequent science fiction films, `` I never did anything as sophisticated or original as The Fly ''. Years later, Vincent Price recalled the cast finding some levity during the filming : `` We were playing this kind of philosophical scene, and every time that little voice ( of the fly ) would say ' Help me ! Help me ! ' we would just scream with laughter. It was terrible. It took us about 20 takes to finally get it ''. Sources vary as to the budget, with one source giving it as $350,000, another as $325,000 and others as high as $495,000. The shoot lasted 18 days in total. Lippert said the budget was $480,000. It was photographed in 20th Century Fox 's trademarked CinemaScope and Color by Deluxe. A $28,000 laboratory set was constructed from army surplus equipment. The Fly was released in July 1958 by 20th Century Fox as a double feature with Space Master X-7. Director Kurt Neumann died only a few weeks after its premier, never realizing he had made the biggest hit of his career. Reception The Fly received mixed - to - positive reviews upon its initial release, with critic Ivan Butler calling it `` the most ludicrous, and certainly one of the most revolting science - horror films ever perpetrated, '' and Carlos Clarens offering some praise for the effects but concluding that the film `` collapses under the weight of many... questions ''. New York Times critic Howard Thompson was more positive, writing `` It does indeed contain, briefly, two of the most sickening sights one casual swatter - wielder ever beheld on the screen... Otherwise, believe it or not, `` The Fly '' happens to be one of the better, more restrained entries of the `` shock '' school... Even with the laboratory absurdities, it holds an interesting philosophy about man 's tampering with the unknown. '' Modern criticism has been more uniformly positive. Cinefantastique 's Steve Biodrowski declared, `` the film, though hardly a masterpiece, stands in many ways above the level of B - movie science fiction common in the 1950s. '' Critic Steven H. Scheuer praised it as a `` superior science - fiction thriller with a literate script for a change, plus good production effects and capable performances. '' Culture Mag writer Christopher Stewardson gave the film 3.5 / 5. The Fly was nominated for the 1959 Hugo Award for Best SF or Fantasy Movie at the 17th World Science Fiction Convention. It holds a 95 % `` Fresh '' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, The film has also received four out of five stars on Allmovie. Box Office The film was a commercial success, grossing $3 million at the domestic box office against a budget of less than $500,000, and becoming one of the biggest hits of the year for Fox studios. It earned $1.7 million in theatrical rentals. Lippert claimed it earned $4 million. The film 's financial success had the side - effect of boosting co-star Vincent Price ( whose previous filmography featured only scattered forays into genre film ) into a major horror star. Price himself was positive about the film, saying, decades later, `` I thought THE FLY was a wonderful film -- entertaining and great fun. '' American Film Institute Lists AFI 's 100 Years... 100 Thrills - Nominated AFI 's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes : `` Help me ! Help me ! '' - Nominated Sequels and remake The film spawned two sequels, Return of the Fly in 1959 and Curse of the Fly in 1965. There was also a remake of the same name in 1986 directed by David Cronenberg, which itself had a sequel, 1989 's The Fly II. See also 1950s portal List of American films of 1958 References Jump up ^ `` THE FLY ( X ) ''. British Board of Film Classification. July 7, 1958. Retrieved October 20, 2014. ^ Jump up to : Smith, Richard Harland. `` The Fly ( 1958 ) ''. TCM ( Turner Classic Movies ). Retrieved 24 August 2017. ^ Jump up to : Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox : A Corporate and Financial History ( The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series ). Lanham, Maryland : Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8108 - 4244 - 1. p251 ^ Jump up to : Box Office Information for The Fly. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 4, 2013. Jump up ^ `` TMe : Box Office Tops from 1950 - 1959 ''. Teako170.com. Retrieved 2017 - 01 - 03. Jump up ^ Warren, Bill ( January 12, 2017 ). `` Keep Watching the Skies ! : American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, The 21st Century Edition ''. McFarland -- via Google Books. Jump up ^ McGee, Mark Thomas ( 28 February 2014 ). Talk 's Cheap, Action 's Expensive - The Films of Robert L. Lippert. BearManor Media. ISBN 978 - 1593935580. ^ Jump up to : `` The Fly ( 1958 ) - Articles - TCM.com ''. Turner Classic Movies. Jump up ^ Vieira, p. 172 ^ Jump up to : Biodrowski, Steve. `` The Fly ( 1958 ) -- A Retrospective ) ''. Cinefantastique. Retrieved 24 August 2017. ^ Jump up to : Vieira, Mark A. ( 2003 ). Hollywood Horror : From Gothic to Cosmic. New York : Harry N. Abrams, Inc. p. 173. ISBN 0 - 8109 - 4535 - 5. ^ Jump up to : Ryon, A. ( 1962, Sep 23 ). Third - run film king tells industry 's woes. Los Angeles Times ( 1923 - Current File ) Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.sl.nsw.gov.au/docview/168195832?accountid=13902 Jump up ^ Thompson, Howard ( 30 August 1958 ). `` The Screen : Hair - Raiser ; The Fly ' Is New Bill at Local Theatres ''. The New York Times. Retrieved 24 August 2017. Jump up ^ Stewardson, Christopher. `` Review : The Fly ( 1958 ) ''. ourculturemag.com. Our Culture Mag. Retrieved 19 May 2017. Jump up ^ `` The Fly ''. Jump up ^ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox : A Corporate and Financial History ( The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series ). Lanham, Maryland : Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8108 - 4244 - 1. p227 Bibliography Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies, American Science Fiction Movies of the 50s, Vol. II : 1958 - 1962. Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, 1986. ISBN 0 - 89950 - 032 - 3. External links Wikiquote has quotations related to : The Fly ( 1958 film ) The Fly at the American Film Institute Catalog The Fly on IMDb The Fly at the TCM Movie Database The Fly at AllMovie The Fly at Rotten Tomatoes The Fly Films The Fly ( 1958 ) Return of the Fly ( 1959 ) Curse of the Fly ( 1965 ) The Fly ( 1986 ) The Fly II ( 1989 ) Other Opera Short story Films directed by Kurt Neumann El Tenorio del harem ( 1931 ) Fast Companions ( 1932 ) My Pal, the King ( 1932 ) The Big Cage ( 1933 ) Secret of the Blue Room ( 1933 ) King for a Night ( 1933 ) Let 's Talk It Over ( 1934 ) Half a Sinner ( 1934 ) Wake Up and Dream ( 1934 ) Alias Mary Dow ( 1935 ) The Affair of Susan ( 1935 ) Let 's Sing Again ( 1936 ) Rainbow on the River ( 1936 ) Espionage ( 1937 ) Make a Wish ( 1937 ) That Navy Spirit ( 1937 ) Wide Open Faces ( 1938 ) Generals of Tomorrow ( 1938 ) Ambush ( 1939 ) Unmarried ( 1939 ) Island of Lost Men ( 1939 ) All Women Have Secrets ( 1939 ) Ellery Queen, Master Detective ( 1940 ) A Night at Earl Carroll 's ( 1940 ) Brooklyn Orchid ( 1942 ) Fall In ( 1942 ) The McGuerins from Brooklyn ( 1942 ) Taxi, Mister ( 1943 ) Yanks Ahoy ( 1943 ) The Unknown Guest ( 1943 ) Tarzan and the Amazons ( 1945 ) Tarzan and the Leopard Woman ( 1946 ) Tarzan and the Huntress ( 1947 ) The Dude Goes West ( 1948 ) Bad Men of Tombstone ( 1949 ) Bad Boy ( 1949 ) Two Knights from Brooklyn ( 1949 ) The Kid from Texas ( 1950 ) Rocketship X-M ( 1950 ) Cattle Drive ( 1951 ) Reunion in Reno ( 1951 ) Son of Ali Baba ( 1952 ) The Ring ( 1952 ) Hiawatha ( 1952 ) Tarzan and the She - Devil ( 1953 ) Regina Amstetten ( 1954 ) Carnival Story ( 1954 ) Circus of Love ( 1954 ) They Were So Young ( 1954 ) Drei vom Varieté ( 1954 ) The Star of Rio ( 1955 ) Mohawk ( 1956 ) The Desperados Are in Town ( 1956 ) She Devil ( 1957 ) Kronos ( 1957 ) The Deerslayer ( 1957 ) The Fly ( 1958 ) Machete ( 1958 ) Watusi ( 1959 ) Counterplot ( 1959 ) VIAF : 305888159 GND : 1043663398 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Fly_(1958_film)&oldid=827125974 '' Categories : 1958 films English - language films The Fly 1950s monster movies 1950s science fiction horror films American films American monster movies American science fiction horror films French - language films Films directed by Kurt Neumann Screenplays by James Clavell Films about insects Films based on short fiction Films based on science fiction short stories Films set in Montreal Films set in Quebec Films shot in Los Angeles Mad scientist films Monster movies Films about shapeshifting 20th Century Fox films Teleportation in films Experimental medical treatments in fiction Fictional flies Mariticide in fiction Hidden categories : Use mdy dates from October 2014 Articles to be expanded from December 2017 Articles needing additional references from November 2014 All articles needing additional references Pages using div col without cols and colwidth parameters All articles to be expanded Articles using small message boxes Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikiquote Deutsch Español فارسی Français Italiano Nederlands 日本 語 Polski Português Română Русский Simple English Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Edit links This page was last edited on 22 February 2018, at 22 : 39. 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Question: who played the fly in the original movie
Answer: David Hedison