The Fly – WTF Happened to This Adaptation?

The WTF Happened to This Adaptation series looks at both the 1958 and 1986 adaptations of George Langelaan’s The Fly

Short stories have always been prime real estate in the world of adaptations. Largely those are relegated to horror anthology TV shows like Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Tales From the Darkside, or the new Creepshow revival but that doesn’t mean exclusively. You can have things like Lawnmower Man, Eight O’Clock in the Morning, or Children of the Corn that are anywhere from 8 to 18 pages and make a whole movie, or in case of Children of the Corn an entire franchise, out of those pages. Today is all about a short story that probably had more legs than you realized. The Fly, written by George Langelaan and published in 1957 would go on to be part of 5 movies. While 3 of those are cash in sequels, one of them is a somewhat slept on late 50s classic while the other is listed at or near the top of any list discussing remakes. It’s a fairly simple and inventive concept that begged to be translated on screen but how did it look once the words were disintegrated in one teleporter and formed into cinema in the other? Make sure there are no unwanted insects roaming the room as we find out what happened to The Fly.

The Movie(s)

Studio director for hire Kurt Neumann came across a short story called The Fly in the pages of Playboy in one of its 1957 releases, as I’m sure he read the publication exclusively for the articles, and ran it by producer Robert Lippert who was in charge of 20th Century Fox’s B movie specific studio Regal Pictures. While Kurt was selected to direct, producers assigned screenwriting duties to James Clavell after an unproduced spec script really wowed them. While he wouldn’t have many other impact pictures to his name, Clavell did write the screenplay for The Great Escape and his novel Shogun has been made into different TV series spanning over 40 years. Kurt Neumann found the most success of his career with The Fly but unfortunately didn’t live long enough to enjoy or really capitalize on that success as he passed away just a week before it had a wide release. Looking at the rest of his career, its filled with westerns, gangster movies, Tarzan pictures, and sci-fi fare that mirrors the decades they were made in. I haven’t seen any others but I’m sure he was a fine director whose movies have just been lost to time. The Fly will almost certainly never go away.

For the cast, they wanted Michael Rennie for the lead role after he was there the day the earth stood still but he declined as the character was going to be under a velvet drape for most of the screen time. They went with David Hedison in the lead role of scientist Andre Delambre, Vincent Price as his brother Francios, Patricia Owens as Helene, Herbert Marshall as the Inspector, and Charles Herbert as the Delambre’s son Phillipe. Price is a legend and we’ve been lucky to cover him on multiple videos but one of my favorites of his that we HAVEN’T discussed is House of the Long Shadows where he teams up with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Hedison was unknown at the time but would have a lengthy career that would include playing Felix Leiter for two different Bond actors. Patricia Owens had been around for over a decade but the only other thing that really jumps out is The Law and Jake Wade. The rest of the cast was full of fun character actors including Kathleen Freeman who I didn’t recognize until I looked up, she is the lead penguin nun from Blues Brothers. Have to mention that when I can.

The movie had a budget of 350k to almost 500k depending on what source you ask, and it was shot over 18 days. It was released on July 16th, 1958, and was a big financial success making again, depending on where you look, 1.7 million to 3 million while it also received middling reviews even though it would eventually go on to be a sci-fi classic and be one of the cornerstone movies that made Vincent Price a bonafide horror star.

Over 2 decades later, producers would look in the vault for properties to remake and The Fly was agreed upon as a perfect fit. The first script almost scuttled the project however and it wasn’t until Mel Brooks came on as a producer and David Cronenberg as a writer and director that the movie was greenlit. Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum would lead a similarly small cast in a newer interpretation of the source material. I’ve been over the making of this movie extensively in our 80s horror episode so check out that for a deeper dive into the background of that project. That movie is considered, rightfully so, to be one of the greatest remakes of all time and both that and the original would receive sequels with two, oddly black and white, sequels to the 58 original and an underrated gross out flick following the 86 version.

The Story

George Langelaan was born in Paris, France in January of 1908. While he is mostly listed as a journalist and writer, he was also a spy. During WWII he was a lieutenant in the SOE or Special Operations Executive for the Allies and before being deployed in France, the dude got plastic surgery because his features were seen as too distinctive. He met with French resistance in September of 1941 and was captured by German forces in October of the same year. The Nazi forces sentenced him to death, and he was able to escape to then rejoin the allies to parachute into Normandy in 1942. We have discussed what an absolute legend Christopher Lee was, but this is pretty cool. His post war career was writing memoirs, novels, and short stories including The Fly which appeared in Playboy in 1957 and was given their award for best fiction of the year. The Fly has been parodied in everything from Looney Tunes and The Simpsons as well as getting Legos and action figures.

Other stories from Langelaan to get the adaptation treatment include Strange Miracle for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and a Night Gallery episode based on his short story The Other Hand. He passed away at the age of 63 in 1972. Of note, he also claimed to be friends with noted occultist Aleister Crowley who said he used his influence to gain the trust of high-ranking German officials.

What is the same?

For the 1958 version and the short story, we are introduced to François Delambre who gets a call from his sister-in-law Helene who informs him that she has killed her husband, his brother, and that she wants him to show up with the police to their house. François is taken to the metal press where he sees the body of his brother, except his head and arm are crushed beyond recognition. Helene admits it to both her brother-in-law and lead investigator but will not say why. She even admits that she was wrong about how many times the press went down to crush Andre. We then learn through a flashback that Andre had been working on a teleportation device and while multiple things had been successful, when he himself went through, a fly was trapped inside, and they swapped heads and an arm leaving Andre with a giant fly head and one fly arm while there was a fly out there with a human head and human arm.

Helene and Andre try multiple ways to reverse the process, but they realize that nothing matters unless they can secure the human fly hybrid which they and their son have both seen but have been unable to catch. Andre starts to lose his humanity and sanity and breaks all the equipment while also telling Helene that she needs to help him destroy himself. She reluctantly agrees and goes through with helping him be crushed in the press so that the discovery will remain hidden. The police inspector doesn’t believe the story and is convinced that Helene is either insane or just murdered her husband for unknown reasons but both François and the lead inspector decide to let things go and not discuss the more fantastical aspects of the case.

For the 1986 version, there is a teleporter and a fly mishap as well as other animals going through the teleporter as a test. A love interest tries to help the main scientist fix his problem. Both versions end with the lead scientist performing the experiments dead. That’s about it.

What is different?

Ok let’s start with the 1986 version. It’s pretty much everything else not mentioned in the final sentence of the previous section. There are no flashbacks or police involvement. No family dynamics or missing half of an experiment to try and reverse it. It’s just a damn great reinterpretation of a short story and one of the best remakes of all time.

Now, the short story vs the 1958 version has some really fun changes. Minor things first like moving the action from France to a very French focused Canada doesn’t change much at all. Neither does changing the Delambre child from Henri to Phillipe. The first big change is how the story begins to unfold with its explanations. Helene in the story is immediately moved to an asylum while the movie version is allowed to stay at home under supervision. In the movie, Helene explains her side of things to François and the lead inspector in person while we get a sweet flashback to watch unfold. While Andre dies the same way in both page and screen, Helene is rescued at the last minute when François and the inspector find the Andre fly and kill it before it is eaten by a spider. They agree that it could have been self-inflicted and there is no reason to take the mother away from her son. Conversely, in the short story, Helene writes a long confession letter that she lets François read, and he eventually gives it to the officer. They burn the confession and agree that it may or may not have happened, but it doesn’t matter as Helene took cyanide after giving the letter over.

While the movie has the famous Help ME scene that Vincent Price says took too many takes as they were all laughing at the audio, the book ends on a chilling note where François says he buried a matchbox at his brother’s grave with a small fly that had a white head. We don’t get any kind of real confirmation, but it seems that the story was true and will die with the survivors. The final thing left out of the movie is how many different animals were sent through the machine. This includes a dog, a cat, and a guinea pig with the cat never fully coming back except when Andre tries to go in one more time and comes out with fly and cat parts on his head. This was probably left out for budgetary reasons or out of simplicity.

Verdict

The original Fly movie is a B movie classic and has one of my favorite transition takes of all time when the night watchmen opens his mouth to scream upon seeing the press but we get a telephone ring instead that leads us to Vincent Price’s character. It’s an easy watch and follows the story fairly well while changing the ending to a much happier version for its audience. The 86 version has barely anything in common with either the story or the movie but is also amazing and stands alone. While the movie series somehow consists of 5 entries, I think the story is short enough and unique enough to get the win, at least over the 58 movie. Brundlefly is still undefeated.

A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Adaptation? can be seen below. To see the other shows we have to offer, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!