Neumann died under mysterious circumstances shortly before the film’s release, missing its commercial success as one of Fox’s biggest hits of the year. The Fly is directed by Kurt Neumann (Rocketship X-M) and written by James Clavell (The Great Escape), marking his only foray into genre pictures. Short story of the same name by George Langelaan - holds up quite well. The special effects may be schlocky by modern standards, but the overall concept - based on the 1957 The theatrical trailer smartly features Vincent Price addressing the audience directly, teasing the “unearthly horror” without revealing anything.

The creature is ingrained in pop culture, but it’s easy to imagine audiences in 1958 being shocked by the dramatic reveal. The result is a disquieting hybrid with a human body topped by a fly’s head, revealed in an iconic shot that harkens back to the climax of The Phantom of the Opera. Andre invented a light-speed teleportation device, the disintegrator-integrator, that he eventually went through himself, only to have a pesky fly unknowingly join him. The slow build pays off with a dramatic reveal toward the end of an extended flashback sequence that makes up the film’s second act. Helene Delambre (Patricia Owens, Sayonara) immediately confesses to killing her husband, scientist Andre Delambre (David Hedison, Live and Let Die), via hydraulic press - first to her husband’s brother, Francois (Vincent Price, House on Haunted Hill), and then to the detective on the case, Inspector Charas (Herbert Marshall, Foreign Correspondent), - but she refuses to say why. The Fly begins with an atypical murder-mystery, in which the mystery is not a whodunit but rather a whydunit. The movies are accompanied by a variety of newly-produced special features along with archival extras to make viewers buzz with excitement. 20th Century Fox’s existing high definition transfers have been utilized, and each presentation is crisp and clear. Scream Factory has collected them all on Blu-ray in a box set dubbed The Fly Collection.Įach of the five films is housed in an individual Blu-ray case with original poster art, all of which are packaged inside a rigid In fact, the Fly franchise - the 1958 original, its two sequels, the remake, and its sequel - is quite good as a whole. David Cronenberg’s The Fly is commonly cited as a remake that is superior to the original an assertion that’s difficult to argue, but both films are effective mashups of science fiction and horror for their time.

The Fly by George Langelaan