A series of successful experiments convinces the brilliant and obsessive scientist André Delambre (David Hedison) that he has finally perfected a machine capable of transmitting matter. But the results are horrifying when he decides to use the machine on himself.
Based on a Playboy short story and with a script by Shogun writer James Clavell, the plot here sees matter-transmitter experiments giving André the head and arm of a common house fly, while Vincent Price, as Hedison’s brother, François, has histrionics about family curses.
Hedison spends most of the film with a black cloth over his head to avoid alarming his wife, Helene (Patricia Owens).
It’s fully 70 minutes into this 90-minute film before we get to see André in his full glory.
The cast also seems to spend an inordinate amount of time searching for the fly with the white head. A very dull amount of time.
The fly with the white head is finally discovered in the shocking ending – trapped in a web with a spider advancing on it.
Both André’s brother, François (Vincent Price), and the investigating police detective (Herbert Marshall) watch as the spider draws closer and closer until it finally attacks the poor man-fly.
Neither thinks to stop the spider, and then the policeman crushes both with a big rock.
This is no match for the superior (and far less camp) David Cronenberg remake (1986), but it’s still a slick slice of absurdist 1950s sci-fi in its own right.
Enjoyable enough if you can ignore the inconsistencies of the premise, this plush flesh-crawler – filmed in only 18 days – includes many marvellous moments to savour, not least of which is the fly’s eye prism view and the tiny half-human/half-fly trapped in a cobweb shrieking “Help me!”.
Andre Delambre
David (Al) Hedison Helene Delambre
Patricia Owens François Delambre
Vincent Price Inspector Charas
Herbert Marshall Emma
Kathleen Freeman Nurse Andersone
Betty Lou Gerson Philippe Delambre
Charles Herbert Dr Ejoute
Eugene Borden Gaston
Torben Meyer
Director
Kurt Neumann
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Based on a Playboy short story and with a script by Shogun writer James Clavell, the plot here sees matter-transmitter experiments giving André the head and arm of a common house fly, while Vincent Price, as Hedison’s brother, François, has histrionics about family curses.
The fly with the white head is finally discovered in the shocking ending – trapped in a web with a spider advancing on it.
Enjoyable enough if you can ignore the inconsistencies of the premise, this plush flesh-crawler – filmed in only 18 days – includes many marvellous moments to savour, not least of which is the fly’s eye prism view and the tiny half-human/half-fly trapped in a cobweb shrieking “Help me!”.
