The Fly (1958)

In director Kurt Neumann's original and chilling horror film melodrama - followed by two sequels: Return of the Fly (1959) and The Curse of the Fly (1965), and David Cronenberg's excellent remake The Fly (1986):

• the opening shocking scene, set at Montreal's Delambre Freres Electronics factory, when the night watchman Gaston (Torben Meyer) found that Helene Delambre (Patricia Owens) had just crushed her scientist husband Andre's (David Hedison) head and arm in a giant metal hydraulic press; she phoned Andre's brother François Delambre (Vincent Price) with the horrific news: "Francois, I've killed Andre. I need your help...Call the police and come quickly" - and shortly later calmly admitted to the crime
• the baffling motive for the murder was summarized by Police Inspector Charas (Herbert Marshall): "There appears to be no motive, no reason except insanity," but then afterwards concluded: "In spite of what the doctors think. I believe Mrs. Delambre's mind is quite clear. Even when catching flies" - Helene had become quite agitated about buzzing flies in her presence, especially an unusual one that Francois' nephew Philippe (Charles Herbert) claimed he found with a white head and leg
• the rest of the story - in flashback - began a few months earlier, when Helene told about how her husband showed her his matter-teleporting or transfer device and his latest experiments - some successful and some not so successful; during one transference, an unnoticed fly had joined Andre in the transporter; she found Andre with a black cloth covering his head and his left arm hidden in his lab coat pocket - he requested that she catch a fly with a white head; when he got up, Helene screamed upon her first view of Andre's left arm - it had been replaced by a fly's claw --- she thought she was having a nightmare
• via a note written by Andre, he revealed that he had been atomically (and anatomically) combined with a fly that was in the disintegrator with him; and it was urgent that the escaped mutated fly with the white head be found, to go through the machine transference process one more time to restore Andre and have their "atoms untangle"
• the scene of Andre's note about how it was a matter of life and death: "If you had caught the fly, you would not be reading this. I know you will never catch it now. It's hopeless. There are things man should never experiment with. Now I must destroy everything, all evidence, even myself. No one must ever know what I discovered. It's too dangerous. I've thought of a way. It's not easy, but I need your help"; Helene convinced Andre to not kill himself, and try one more transference experiment - without the fly
• the shocking scene of the additional transference, when Andre emerged from the teleporting machine; Helene removed the draped black cloth from Andre's head, revealing a monstrous, twitching fly head (the kaleidoscopic point of view of her screaming was shot through the Fly's POV eye); Helene fainted onto the floor

Helene's First View of Andre's Fly Head

• the scene of Helene awakening and reading her husband's chalkboard directions: "No use. Now Help me - but don't come near me. Kill fly - plez. Love You"; shortly later, she mercy-killed her husband in the hydraulic press
• the climactic ending - Francois sat on a garden bench, but could not hear the escaped mutated fly (with a human head and fly body, and one human leg) crying out piteously that it was caught in a spider's web: "Help me! Please Help meeeeeee! Go! Go away! No! Please Help Me! Please ! Go away! Go away! No! No! No! No!"
• in the conclusion, the fly's body was smashed with a rock by Inspector Charas; Francois noted about the merciful killing: "You've committed murder just as much as Helene did. You killed a fly with a human head. She killed a human with a fly head. If she murdered, so did you"
• in the happy ending, to clear Helene, Andre's death was reconsidered as a suicide, due to his derangement; Francois explained to Philippe the reason for Andre's death: "He died because of his work. He was like, like an explorer in a wild country where no one had ever been before. He was searching for the truth. He almost found a great truth, but for one instant, he was careless...The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world - and the most dangerous"