Industrialist François Delambre is called late at night by his sister-in-law, Helene, who tells him that she has just killed her husband. Reluctant at first, she eventually explains to the police that he invented a matter transportation apparatus and, while experimenting on himself, a fly entered the chamber.
Practical Effects
The fly-head reveal still works despite budget constraints
Acting
Patricia Owens sells absolute terror with minimal dialogue
Direction
Neumann builds dread through what he refuses to show
Director
Kurt Neumann
David Hedison
Andre Delambre
Patricia Owens
Helene Delambre
Vincent Price
François Delambre
Herbert Marshall
Insp. Charas
Kathleen Freeman
Emma
Betty Lou Gerson
Nurse Andersone
Charles Herbert
Philippe Delambre
Eugene Borden
Dr. Ejoute (uncredited)
George Calliga
Club Member (uncredited)
Harry Carter
Orderly (uncredited)
Bess Flowers
Audience Member (uncredited)
Torben Meyer
Gaston (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The famous fly-head prop was supposedly lost for decades, then rediscovered in a Los Angeles garage sale in the 1980s. Horror history, priced to move!
This launched the 'atomic age body horror' subgenre years before Cronenberg's remake, proving 1950s audiences were secretly hungry for flesh-gone-wrong terror beneath their suburban complacency.
US
