Okay, up front you ought to know that I absolutely hated the remake of this film starring Jeff Goldbloom. I felt the remake had zero subtlety or charm and was just a special effects-laden and grotesque movie. If you care, look for my review of this film to see just how much I hated it (and my hatred of this film is INTENSE). Probably so much of why I hated the disgusting remake was because the original film was everything the remake was not--it was charming, low budget, effective and campy fun.

The film is about a scientist who has a basement lab. He's working on a device to teleport things from one place to another (kind of like a Star Trek transporter). It works great, but when he makes the trip himself, a fly buzzes into the chamber and the DNA of him and the fly become fused--producing a human-sized creature with a giant fly head and arm (it's so coooool when you finally see him without a sheet draped over his head, as he was during so much of the movie to avoid scaring his wife). Attempts to find the fly-sized creature with a human head and arm are totally unsuccessful, so eventual the fated scientist shoves himself into a press and squishes himself.

The police suspect that this was just a murder, and they want to charge the scientist's wife. All looks bleak until the very final scene (one of the most memorable ones in screen history) when the detective hears a screaming fly calling for help--just before it is devoured by a spider. You see a little human head and hear him screeching in a high pitched voice "HELP ME!". What a cool scene.

The film also stars Vincent Price, who actually plays a normal person, not the bug-man. However, he does return for a sequel and you can guess what happens to Vincent in that one! This is great campy fun--a not to be missed film for horror movie fans.

I haven't yet seen the David Croenberg remake, though I have heard it is superior, but this was still very good and certainly worth seeing. Even with some inconsistencies in the story and one or two cheesy moments, The Fly is a slick 1950s sci-fi. Unlike some people I actually found the "help me help me" bit quite creepy, maybe predictable for those who have seen it umpteen times, but the image of a half-human/fly being trapped in a cobweb and screaming those words quite unsettled me, and after seeing the film it is that scene that I remember most.

The production values are very good and look very nice still, and the music is suitably chilling. The script has some nice touches too, and the acting is fine. David Hedison does a very good job as eccentric scientist Andre Delambre, and Vincent Price, one of the main reasons why I wanted to see this film as I am a big fan of his, is great as Francois, the brother who has histrionics about family curses. Overall, definitely worth seeing, not absolutely outstanding mind, but I do recommend it. 8/10 Bethany Cox

While all the other horror and science fiction films of the late '50s made do with their black and white status, THE FLY was made in full colour, a factor which immediately distinguished it from the other films of the time. This film richly deserves the classic status it has attained, being a piece of original science fiction which has a tragic love story at its heart. The scenes in which Andre, with his half-fly body, scrawls "love you" to his wife are truly moving, and even caused me to shed a tear or two at their poignancy. Along with this are the standard sci-fi trappings of electronic lights flashing, buzzing machinery, and an impossible concept which remains scarily believable when it is explained during the film's course.

The cast is all good, from Al Hedison as the nice guy scientist who becomes doomed, to Patricia Owens as his lovelorn wife who is forced to accept the unbelievable; hers is a dramatic portrayal of helplessness. Vincent Price is on hand for horror buffs in a supporting role, and he is on the side of good this time around. Although he doesn't have much to do except look horrified at the events which unfold, his presence distinguishes the film and raises it a notch. Like Peter Cushing, Price had the uncanny power to uplift the quality of every film he was in, no matter how bad or good it was.

THE FLY proves that you don't need any gruesome gore scenes or murders to make a good horror film. In this respect it comes across as a very old-fashioned sort of film, which is no bad thing in my mind. The special effects are all excellent, and the half-fly half-man creature is brilliant, looking if not exactly convincing, then at least very fantastical. The film was such a success that it spawned two direct sequels, RETURN OF THE FLY in 1959 and CURSE OF THE FLY in 1965, as well as numerous other imitations such as THE PROJECTED MAN. David Cronenberg directed a remake of the film in 1986, again called THE FLY, but he bypassed the tragic moments for excess gore and graphic special effects (which I'm not complaining about, just commenting on). A sequel to that film, called simply THE FLY II, was also made, again emphasising the gory disintegration of the film's hero, but lacking any depth of characterisation.