Director: Kurt Neumann
Writers: James Clavell, George Langelaan
Stars: David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price
Run Time: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes
Link: https://amzn.to/3iuTSMx
Synopsis
A workman goes into the factory late at night and hears a machine running. He goes to investigate and finds a woman there who runs away. There’s a crushed body in the machine.
Helene calls Francois and says that she’s just killed Andre. She’s the woman we saw running out of the factory. She needs his help. The workman, Gaston, calls Francois and tells him about the body. Francois calls inspector Charas to help with the problem. They go to investigate the scene, and machine was set very specifically— Helene wouldn’t have known how to do it.
Francois and Charas go to interview Helene. She insists that “Everything is all right now. I killed Andre.” She insists that Andre put himself in the press; she only pressed the button. She’s distracted by a fly buzzing around, and she kills it.
Next, they go downstairs and look at Andre’s lab. Time passes, and Helene is starting to look more and more insane, as she even forgets Philippe is her son. She freaks out when her nurse kills a common housefly. Charas can’t imagine any way she won’t be found guilty of murder.
Philippe tells Francois that he’s seen that fly his mother was looking for. It has a white head and a funny leg, he says. Francois goes to see Helene, and he tells her he’s seen the white-headed fly, but he needs her to explain. She finally gives in and tells the story to him and Charas… In an extended flashback.
Andre finally drags Helene down to the lab to show her what he’s been working on. He swears her to secrecy. He places a plate in a glass box and works some controls. Colorful neon strobes, and the plate is now gone! Except it’s reappeared in a similar box in the next room. He’s invented a teleporter! Except the “Made in Japan” label on the bottom is now printed backwards. Andre hadn’t noticed that before. Back to the drawing board!
He fixes the machine just as his cat comes into the room. He decides to try putting the cat in the machine. He turns on the machine and… The cat doesn’t reappear. He does hear the cat howling— somewhere. He keeps on working.
Finally, he gets it right. He transports a guinea pig perfectly. He wants to observe it for a month to see if there are any bad effects, and in the meantime, he builds a bigger machine.
Philippe comes in and says he caught a fly with a white head. Helene tells him to get rid of it, so he does. Meanwhile Andre is locked in the lab working. He starts slipping notes under the door. “Helene, I’ve had some trouble,” he writes on a note. He doesn’t speak. He instructs her to find a fly with a white head.
She sees that his hand is a black claw, and she screams. He’s wearing a hood, so she can’t see his face, but it must be pretty horrible. He explains that when he tried to transport himself, a fly got into the chamber with him, and various parts got mixed up. If they can’t find the fly, he’ll have to destroy himself.
She sets everyone in the house to hunting flies on the property. They finally find the fly, but they can’t catch it. Andre wants to kill himself and destroy the evidence, but Helene argues with him. He’s starting to lose his mind. She wants him to try going through the machine again anyway, even without the fly.
He does try it again. Helene opens the door and she pulls off the mask. Nope— He’s a fly under there! She faints, and he smashes everything in the lab. Even if they found the fly, he’s ruined all the machines and burned his notes. He’s having a harder and harder time controlling himself, so she finally gives in and helps him to end it.
They walk across the street to the factory, and Andre puts his head in the metal-stamping machine. He sets it all up and makes her press the big red button, which flattens his head. His hand falls out of the machine, so she has to put it back in and run the machine a second time…
Back in the present, Francois and Charas find it hard to believe. They don’t believe her; clearly she’s mad. The inspector plans to return in an hour with an arrest warrant. Francois goes around looking for a white-headed fly to prove she was being truthful, with no luck.
Charas returns with men in white coats. Philippe comes in, and he says he found the special fly. The two men rush to the garden where they find it, stuck in a spider’s web and about to be eaten until Charas squashes it with a rock. They decide to cover the whole thing up and let Helene go.
Commentary
Poor old Andre; he’s not least bit mad-scientisty; he deserved better. How cool would real teleportation be?
The main story is fairly short and a little too straightforward, so the wraparound story with the inspector adds a little extra drama and mystery to the film. They don’t actually look for the fly that long; just a single afternoon.
Vincent Price was somewhat wasted here, playing the “straight man” of the story. He’s perfectly normal and not at all evil; he’s about the only truly innocent person in the story.