Classic 1950s Film The Fly to Screen at Olivenhain Meeting Hall

The Olivenhain Town Council has announced it will screen The Fly at the Olivenhain Meeting Hall. The 1958 film starred David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price, and Herbert Marshall.

Hedison played a scientist who was experimenting with molecular transportation. He built two man-sized chambers so he could transport himself from one to the other. In one instance, he inadvertently included a fly in the chamber with him. 

When he and the fly disintegrated during the transportation, his molecules mixed with the fly’s. When the bodies reintegrated, Hedison had the fly’s head, and the fly had his. Hedison’s left arm was also exchanged for one of the fly’s forelegs.

Of course, Hedison’s appearance horrified his wife, played by Patricia Owens. Owens tried to find the fly that had her husband’s head so he could again transport the two in the hope the mistaken switch would be reversed.

Owens found the fly but it escaped. Facing a hopeless situation, Hedison persuaded Owens to crush him in an hydraulic press. She was charged with murder.

The film closed with the police inspector, played by Herbert Marshall, finding the Hedison-headed fly in the family’s garden about to be devoured by a spider in its web.

The hybrid man-fly plaintively screamed “Help me! Help me!” as the spider approached. The inspector crushed both with a rock. Hedison’s death was judged a suicide, and Owens was declared blameless.

The squeaky, haunting cry “Help me! Help me!” became an hilarious meme that cracked up schoolrooms full of kids everywhere.

The Olivenhain Town Council is to be commended for reviving a classic science fiction horror film. Showtimes will be announced when Covid variants are null and void.