Francois Delambre (Price), brother of deceased scientist Andre Delambre, is summoned by Inspector Charas (Marshall) to speak with his newly widowed sister-in-law Helene (Owens). She claims to be the murderer of her husband. The odd circumstance of his death is that his head and arm have been crushed under a pneumatic press twice. As Francois probes into the grisly details, he is told an unbelievable story by Helene. Andre has been trying to perfect a device for transporting matter. His brother sends the cat but it vanishes into thin air leaving only a haunting meow to echo around the lab. He transports himself but an accident has occurred and he locks himself in the lab. Now Andre must communicate with his wife by typing out messages to her. He directs her efforts and those of their son to catching a fly with a white spot on it. Eventually, typing becomes physically impossible for him and he can only scribble in chalk on a board to her. She comes into the lab with food and he is draped in a black towel over the top half of his body.
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As she grows more curious each day she finally pulls off the towel to view a hideous fly faced creature that was once her husband. After she screams alot, he lets her know that his mind is changing to that of an insect, so he has very little time left. After nearly attacking Helene, he resigns to do away with the monstrosity he has become and sets the press to crush the mutated part of him beyond identification. It is Helene who must push the control button, twice, to get the arm that has fallen out from under the machine after the first squishing. Back to the beginning of the movie, as Francois and Inspector Charas leave the house thinking she is insane. They walk to the gardens and spot a small fly caught in a spider web. It is crying, “Help me! Help me!” as a nasty looking spider is set to pounce on the helpless insect/human. They crush the fly and spider with a large stone.
The review of this Movie prepared by David Fletcher
