Four Flies On Grey Velvet

''Four Flies on Grey Velvet'' () is a 1971 ''giallo'' film written and directed by Dario Argento. The film concerns Roberto Tobias ( Michael Brandon), who accidentally kills a man and is then tormented by someone who witnessed the event. The film was an Italian and French production between the Rome-based company Seda Spettacoli and the Paris-based Universal Productions France.

Plot

Roberto Tobias, a drummer in a rock band, has been stalked for days by a suspicious man wearing sunglasses. One night, he chases and confronts the stalker in an empty opera house, whereupon the stalker pulls a knife. In the ensuing struggle, Roberto accidentally stabs and seemingly kills the man with his own knife. A masked figure on a balcony snaps several photographs of the incident. In the following days, Roberto receives threatening letters, photographs of the incident and the dead man's identity card, which reveals his name to be Carlo Marosi. He is also plagued by a recurring nightmare in which he is publicly beheaded in a square in Saudi Arabia, believing it is a premonition.

At home one night, Roberto is ambushed by the masked individual, who tells him they are not finished with him before knocking him out. When Roberto's wife Nina wakes up, he confesses everything to her but refuses to go to the police for fear of being arrested for Marosi's murder; the couple's live-in maid, Amelia, overhears their conversation. Knowing the masked figure's identity, Amelia tries to blackmail them and arranges a meeting with them in a park, where she is killed by the unseen assailant. Despite Roberto's reluctance, Nina's cousin Dalia arrives to stay with Nina and Roberto.

It is revealed that Marosi is still alive and conspired with Roberto's tormentor to fake his own death using a prop knife. Unnerved by Amelia's murder, Marosi tries to back out of their agreement, but the unseen tormentor kills him.

Roberto hires Gianni Arrosio, a flamboyant private investigator recommended by his beatnik artist friend Godfrey, to identify his tormentor. When Roberto returns home, he finds Nina leaving; she tells him she refuses to stay in the house while the stalker is at large. Roberto resolves to remain. That evening, Dalia offers to take care of Roberto, and the two begin an affair.

Arrosio visits Villa Rapidi, a psychiatric facility, and speaks with a doctor about an unnamed patient diagnosed as a homicidal maniac. When this patient's father suddenly died, the psychotic symptoms inexplicably disappeared, and the patient was discharged. Later, while trailing the unidentified patient in a subway station, Arrosio is ambushed and murdered with a poison-filled syringe in a bathroom stall.

Just as Dalia begins to suspect the killer's identity, the killer appears and stabs her to death while she is alone in Roberto's house. The police use optography to generate the last image Dalia saw before death but only obtain a blurry picture of four dark smudges against a grey background. The technician says the resulting image resembles four flies.

One night, Godfrey advises Roberto to wait in his house with a gun, deducing that the killer will come for him next. As Roberto waits in the dark, Godfrey calls to check on him, but the call is cut off. Shortly afterwards, Nina arrives home. Roberto urges her to leave for her safety, but he notices Nina's pendant necklace. It is a fly enclosed in glass, and as it swings, it gives the appearance of several flies.

As Roberto realizes Nina is the killer, she grabs his gun and shoots him in the shoulder. Holding Roberto at gunpoint, Nina explains that because her abusive stepfather wanted a son at all costs, he forced her to wear boys' clothing and ultimately committed her to the Villa Rapidi asylum. His death cured her condition but robbed her of the chance to enact revenge, leaving her frustrated. After Nina met Roberto, who bore a striking resemblance to her stepfather, she plotted to torment and murder Roberto as a proxy for her stepfather.

Nina repeatedly shoots Roberto until Godfrey arrives, distracting Nina before Roberto knocks the gun out of her hands. As Nina flees, Roberto tells Godfrey that he has realized that the protagonist of his nightmares was actually Nina. Nina speeds away in Roberto's car but crashes into the back of a truck. The truck's rear bumper decapitates her, and the car explodes into flames.

Cast

Production

Some of the earlier cast considerations for the main role Roberto Tobias were Terence Stamp, Michael York and even some members of the Beatles. Argento did not want to use the "image caught in the retina" plot device since it was too fantastic.

Release

''Four Flies on Grey Velvet'' was released in Italy on 17 December 1971 and in France on 21 June 1973. From 23 December 1971 to 30 January 1972, the film grossed $1.2 million from 46 theatres in Italy.

Critical reception

From contemporary reviews, Howard Thompson, in his review for ''The New York Times'', praised the film for its "striking, imaginative color photography and deep-freeze pacing and atmosphere" and highlighted the sequence where Amelia is trapped in the park as "spine-tingling", "superb" and "Argento at his chilling best". However, he criticized the plot as "not only old but farfetched" and the dialogue as "banal", and went on to say that " l that circuitous teasing and those red herrings don't produce a shred of real evidence to nibble on. You're on your own, in pure hit-or-miss speculation." Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed review of two-and-a-half stars out of four, deeming it a "badly dubbed and incoherent murder thriller" with "a conclusion that's so arbitrary we feel tricked." He did, however, give praise to Mimsy Farmer and said of her that she "deserves to get some of those Mia Farrow roles."

Gene Siskel of the ''Chicago Tribune'' gave the film one star out of four and wrote, "Argento's script contains more red herrings than the Cape Cod Room. Each time evidence overwhelmingly points to a possible threat to our bushy-haired hero that person is bumped off and the guessing game begins anew. I didn't find that rhythm the least bit entertaining." '' Variety'' faulted "a script bogged down with farce comedy, unneeded sex, coarse language and trite dialogue." Kevin Thomas of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote that the film generally "works when nobody's talking and the camera's moving." He thought that several "badly dubbed, broadly burlesqued characters are totally ludicrous and destroy utterly the film's credibility." David Pirie of the ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' noted it being "full of slick visual conceits and glossy set-pieces, this is clearly Argento's most expensive and ambitious thriller yet" while stating its still as "flat and predictable as that of the most meager Italian 'B' feature."

''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'' gave the film two stars out of four and opined it was an " absorbing psychological murder-mystery with performers who walk through their roles in a very disinterested fashion."

In 1978, writer Fran Lebowitz, who had a column in ''Interview'' magazine where she reviewed bad films, told Glenn O'Brien in an issue of ''High Times'': "The worst movie I ever saw was called ''Four Flies on Gray Velvet'', with Mimsy Farmer, one of your great loves. But to this day I have never seen a worse movie."

AllMovie gave the film a positive review, calling it "an unfortunately overlooked and hard-to-find choice nugget in his rgento'soeuvre".

Home media

It was not until early 2009 that the film was made available to home video audiences in a legitimate version, both domestically or internationally, with the exception of the long out-of-print obscure French VHS. The rights to this film (at least in America) are owned by Paramount Pictures, which had chosen not to release it.

MYA Communication released a region 1 DVD of ''Four Flies on Grey Velvet'' on 24 February 2009. The disc contains an uncut, completely remastered print of this "lost" film, featuring theatrical trailers, the English language opening and ending credits and an extensive photo gallery. However, this release omits 30–40 seconds of footage due to print damage.

To celebrate the film's 40th anniversary and to mark 20 years since it was thought to be lost, Shameless Screen Entertainment released it on Blu-ray and DVD in the United Kingdom on 30 January 2012.

See also

* List of Italian films of 1971
* List of French films of 1971

References

Bibliography

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External links

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{{Dario Argento

1971 horror films
1971 thriller films
1970s French films
1970s horror thriller films
1970s Italian films
1970s Italian-language films
1970s mystery horror films
1970s mystery thriller films
1970s serial killer films
1970s slasher films
Films directed by Dario Argento
Films scored by Ennio Morricone
Films with screenplays by Dario Argento
French films about revenge
French horror thriller films
French mystery horror films
French mystery thriller films
French serial killer films
French slasher films
Giallo films
Italian films about revenge
Italian horror thriller films
Italian mystery horror films
Italian mystery thriller films
Italian serial killer films
Italian slasher films
Italian-language French films
Italian-language horror films
Italian-language mystery films
Italian-language thriller films
Murder mystery films