The Fly Movie Review

The original sci-fi tale about a hapless scientist Hedison, experimenting with teleportation, who accidentally gets anatomically mixed with a housefly. Now, how to tell the wife? No matter how repellently fascinating the premise, an earnest, wordy script (by novelist James Clavell) and direction better suited to domestic-crisis drama lend this a campy air even the actors couldn't ignore – rumor has it Vincent Price and Herbert Marshall had to stifle giggles while shooting the notorious “… help me … help meeeeeee!” climax. Required viewing nonetheless. Mediocre sequel Return of the Fly is also on video; the British-made Curse of the Fly (1965) is not. While this stays close to source material of George Langelaan's short story, David Cronenberg's 1986 remake took a boldly different approach.

1958 94m/C Vincent Price, David Hedison, Herbert Marshall, Patricia Owens; D: Kurt Neumann; W: James Clavell. VHS, Beta, LV FOX