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"The Fly"
Short story
Written by George Langelann
1957
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A scientist develops a matter teleporter.
What could possibly go wrong?
Read the
entire story at The Unravelling Of Al Cook
Didja Know?
"The Fly" is a short story by
George Langelann (1908-1972) first published in the June 1957
issue of
Playboy. It served as the inspiration for both the 1958 and
1986 films called The Fly.
Langelann was a French-British writer and former spy during
WWII.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this story
François Delambre
Hélène
Delambre
André
Delambre (dies in this story)
Commissaire Charas
Henri
Delambre
Professor Augier (mentioned only)
Dandelo
(the Delambre cat, mentioned only, deceased)
the Drillons
(mentioned only)
Miquette
(the Delambre dog)
Didja Notice?
Chapter I
The story is set in France. For the 1958 and 1986 film
adaptations, the setting was moved to Canada, presumably to
appease North American audiences. Possibly the large
French-speaking population of Canada played a role in the
decision as well, as a way of having the story remain French,
but still be in English!
The narrator of the story is
François Delambre. The same character appears in the 1958 film,
played by Vincent Price.
François
answers the phone, "
Ici
Monsieur Delambre. Je vous ecoute." This
is French for "Monsieur Delambre here.
I'm listening."
After
François calls the police,
Commissaire Charas investigates
the death of André Delambre. Commissaire is French for
"Commissioner".
Commissaire Charas drives a
Citroën.
The company has been known to provide vehicles for French law
enforcement virtually since its formation in 1919.
François informs Commissaire Charas that his brother was a
scientist working for the Ministere de l’Air. This is
French for Ministry of Air.
Chapter II
François is able to identify his brother's body, even though his
head was crushed, by the long scar running from his knee to
thigh incurred from an exploding shell during the retreat of
1940. The retreat he refers to is the fall of French military
forces against the Axis invasion and occupation of France in
1940 during WWII.
The Lyons police laboratory performs forensics
on
André's remains.
Lyons
is the third-largest city in France; presumably the
Delambres live in or near that city.
The young son of
Hélène and André is named Henri; in the
1958 film, the boy is called Philippe. Here, Hélène is put into
a mental asylum for the murder of her husband and François gains
legal custody of the boy; Hélène remained free in the film, even
while under suspicion.
The story uses the term "morphia" for the drug morphine.
"Morphia" was simply an earlier term for the drug, still in use
in 1957 when the story was written.
Chapter III
François pours some wine for his nephew Henri to dip a biscuit
in. In France, the legal age to drink wine and beer is 16 (18
for harder liquor). Although the story implies that Henri is
younger than that, it is tolerated in the country for younger
children to drink wine when with a parent (or, in this case,
guardian).
Henri tells his uncle that he has seen the fly
Maman has been looking for.
Maman is French for "mum".
François remarks that his brother used to like to watch the Tour
de France cyclists go by. The
Tour de
France is an annual men's bicycle race in France that lasts
23 days, established in 1903.
Chapter IV
Hélène's "confession" letter describes some of her husband's
matter-transmitting experiments, including
transmitting a souvenir ash tray they'd picked up on a trip to
London.
Hélène writes that, in explaining his recent experiments, André
told her about "...mysterious
flying stones that seem to come from nowhere in particular, and
which are said to occasionally fall in certain houses in India?
They come flying in as though thrown from outside and that, in
spite of closed doors and windows." He had discussed the
cases with his friend Professor Augier of the
Collège de France. The so-called "shower of stones", both
inside and outside a house, is an alleged actual Fortean
phenomenon. Professor Augier is also mentioned in the 1958 film.
André occasionally uses the affectionate term chérie
with his wife; this is French for "darling".
André admits to his wife that he disintegrated their cat
Dandelo and he never rematerialized in the
receiving chamber. The same thing happens in the 1958 film
version, down to the cat's name (though in the film, the cat is
a female rather than male).
When
André tells Hélène that he's finally perfected his teleporter,
Hélène exclaims, "Magnifique,
Andre!" Magnifique is French for "magnificent".
André has purchased a pair of telephone booths and converted one
into a disintegrator and the other into a reintegrator. In the
1986 film version, the telepods don't
really look like phone booths, but when Brundle first shows them
to Ronnie, she remarks, "Designer phone booths."
After successfully demonstrating the
disintegrator-reintegrator to his wife, André says, "Et
voila!" This is French for "There you go!"
After
André successfully teleports a guinea pig in front of Hélène,
she sort of adopts the little critter and names it
Hop-la. Hop-la is a French term meaning "there
we go". I guess she was inspired by her husband's use of et
voila ("there you go") after he'd teleported the creature.
After
Hélène learns of her husband's horrible "deformity" of his arm,
he types out a note to her which includes ma pauvre chérie,
"my poor darling."
André tries re-teleporting himself seven times (without the
white-headed fly) to fix himself, but it doesn't work. In fact,
when he tries an eighth time at his wife's urging, he
rematerializes with parts of a cat's head as well from the lost
Dandelo! This part of the transformation does
not occur in the 1958 film version.
Chapter V
Commissaire Charas says, "Merci," as
François' maid takes his raincoat. Merci is French for
"Thank you."
François gives Charas a glass of
Pernod.
François' maid announces, "Monsieur
est servi." This is French for "Sir is served", meaning
"dinner is served".
