The Fly (1958 film)

""HEEEELP MEEEE! HEEEEEEEEELP MEEEEEEEEE!""

A 1958 horror movie starring Vincent Price, based on a short story by George Langelaan. Has since become a Cult Classic. Remade in 1986 by David Cronenberg.

A scientist invents a teleportation device. Unfortunately, when he tests it, a fly is in the chamber with him. The two switch heads and a hand, much to the chagrin of the scientist's wife. Now the family must find the fly that has his head and hand so he can properly switch them back before it's too late...


 * Billing Displacement: Price does not play the mad scientist, though most people think he does.
 * Biological Mashup
 * Downer Ending / Bittersweet Ending: Andre the scientist is forced to commit suicide because his fly components are degrading his human mind and they can't find the fly with human components. At the climax of the movie, the inspector gives a Mercy Kill to the fly-human just as it is about to be devoured by the spider. However, this convinces him that the scientist's wife is not a murderer and, with Francois the brother-in-law, he is able to concoct a plea-bargain that lets her avoid being hanged or condemned to the insane asylum. At the very end of the movie, the mother and son are moving on from the traumatic loss of the scientist, and it is implied that she is falling in love with Francois, who had always loved her from afar.
 * Evil Hand: The fly's appendage that replaces the scientist's hand becomes increasingly rebellious as his intellect frays.
 * Lego Genetics: The scientist comes out with a fly head and hand seamlessly attached on his body.
 * Science Is Bad
 * The Speechless: In the original, the scientist is silenced as soon as he teleports.
 * That Poor Cat: The first test is unsuccessful.
 * In the original short story (bet you didn't know there was an original short story!), when the scientist, at his wife's urging, goes through the machine a second time in a futile attempt to unscramble things, bits of the cat get mixed in too (though a fly head with a cat nose and ears would've probably seemed more ludicrous than horrific).