The Fly (1958)

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Movie
German title The fly
Original title The Fly
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1958
length 94 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Kurt Neumann
script James Clavell
production Kurt Neumann
music Paul Sawtell
camera Karl Struss
cut Merrill G. White
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
The Return of the Fly

The Fly (Original title: The Fly ) is an American science fiction - horror movie , the 1958 of Kurt Neumann was filmed. It is based on the short story Die Fliege by the author George Langelaan , which appeared in Playboy magazine in 1957 . Due to the commercial success, two sequels were produced. In 1986 David Cronenberg made a remake, see Die Fliege (1986) .

action

Inspector Charas is investigating the death of the scientist André Delambre. The story is told in a flashback: Delambre was researching a teleportation device . In a self-experiment , he overlooked a fly in the device, and the device crossed the two: Delambre now has a gigantic fly head and a fly arm, while the fly flies away with a human head. To reverse this, the scientist needs the fly, but he cannot get hold of it.

Knowing that he cannot undo what has happened, the scientist decides to destroy himself and his research results. To do this, he asks his wife to destroy all evidence of what happened and his research results and to kill him by crushing his head and arm in a press, which she finally does with his help.

Inspector Charas does not believe the wife and wants to have her arrested when he is called into the garden by Andrés brother François. The victim's playing son, Philippe, has discovered a fly with an unnatural human head that is trapped in a spider web and calls for help. Charas and François watch the scene in horror, and shortly before the spider reaches its victim, the inspector kills both the fly and the spider with a stone.

particularities

  • The film sticks very closely to Langelaan's literary model. It was commercially successful and had two sequels: The Return of the Fly (1959) and The Curse of the Fly (1965).
  • Like many other horror films, this one was parodied in a Halloween episode of the TV series The Simpsons .
  • After a conversation with the astronaut Alan Shepard , Gene Roddenberry , the inventor of the Star Trek universe, is said to have been inspired by this film to "invent" the technology of the beacon , the optical effects of which he borrowed from the film Alarm im Weltall (1957).
  • The tragic main character is the deformed scientist, but the focus is increasingly on his wife, as she carries out his wishes and commands the house staff. The fly-man hides in his laboratory, avoids contact with the others, hides his head with a sheet and cannot speak. The complete revelation of its appearance means both the subsequent death and the destruction of the evidence. In addition, the brother-in-law plays a major role as a figure of identification for the audience.
  • André dies in a terrible way. Aged prematurely in the body of the fly, it ends up in the web of a spider. When it approaches and begins to eat him, Inspector Charas picks up a stone and crushes both - the fly with the human head and the spider.
  • Despite its monstrosity, the human housefly is not portrayed as an evil animal, even if the scientist can hardly control himself intellectually at the end and therefore also decides to put an end to his life.

World premieres

  • USA: July 16, 1958
  • Germany: October 3, 1958

German version

There are two different German dubbing adaptations for this film . The first was made in 1958 in the elite film studios in Berlin under the direction of Wolfgang Schick . The second version was produced by Arena Synchron GmbH, Berlin in 1976 on behalf of ARD . This new version has been shown since then.

role actor Voice actor (1958 version) Voice actor (1976 version)
André Delambre David Hedison Wolfgang Kieling Norbert Langer
Hélène Delambre Patricia Owens Sigrid Lagemann Almut Eggert
François Delambre Vincent Price Siegfried Schürenberg Friedrich Schoenfelder
Inspector Charas Herbert Marshall Walther Süssenguth Heinz-Theo branding
Emma (housemaid) Kathleen Freeman Eva Bubat Elisabeth Ried
Sister Anderson Betty Lou Gerson Elisabeth Ried Bettina Schön
Philippe Charles Herbert Helo Gutschwager Andrej Brandt
Gaston Torben Meyer Otto Stoeckel Herbert Weissbach
Dr. Ejoules Eugene Borden Friedrich W. Building School

Reviews

The film has received very controversial reviews since its release and continues to receive very different judgments in the relevant literature.

  • "[...] one of the few impeccable SF horror films" (Jeff Rovin, author of A Pictorial History of Science Fiction Films , quoted here from: Hahn / Jansen, p. 157)
  • "A restrained, clear and not necessarily demanding film that creates an almost unbearable tension with simple means." (Film review by the New York Times , quoted here from Hahn / Jansen, p. 157)
  • "Naive science fiction horror film that still entertains today with the idiosyncratic charm of the unfinished." ( Lexicon of international films )
  • “Kintopp nonsense, which thinks itself to be frightening, but from the age of 16 it is only enough to shake your head over so much barbaric bad taste. Not to be recommended to anyone! ”( 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958. Handbook V of Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 344)
  • "'The Fly' is perhaps the most disgusting of all insect SF films." (Dennis Saleh, Science Fiction Gold. Film Classics of the 50s , New York 1979, quoted here from: Hahn / Jansen, p. 157)
  • "[...] at the latest from the middle of the plot on, this utopian sensational piece from Hollywood's lower fantasy cellar kills itself because of its ridiculousness." (Film review in film-dienst , here quoted from: Hahn / Jansen, p. 157)

DVD release

  • The fly . Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment 2004 (first edition)

Comic

In October 2015 the comic book The Fly: Outbreak by author Brandon Seifert and illustrator “menton3” was published.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ World premieres according to IMDb
  2. ↑ Die Fliege , Illustrierte Film-Bühne No. 4503, Munich undated
  3. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Die Fliege '58 (new) , entry in Arne Kaul's synchronous database @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.synchrondatenbank.de
  4. ↑ The fly. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used