''Four Flies on Grey Velvet'' ( it, 4 mosche di velluto grigio) is a 1971 ''
giallo
In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...
'' film written and directed by
Dario Argento
Dario Argento (; born 7 September 1940) is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and film critic, critic. His influential work in the horror film, horror genre during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the subgenre known as ...
. The film concerns Roberto Tobias (
Michael Brandon
Michael Brandon (born Michael Feldman; April 20, 1945) is an American actor. He is known for his role as James Dempsey in the British drama series ''Dempsey and Makepeace'' (1985–1986). His theatre credits include the original Broadway (theat ...
), 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 band drummer, is being followed by a suspicious figure. He chases and confronts the stalker, who pulls a knife; in the following struggle, Roberto accidentally stabs and apparently kills the man. A masked figure snaps several photographs as this happens. In the ensuing days, Roberto receives threatening letters about his killing the stalker, Carlo Marosi.
At home that night, Roberto is ambushed by the masked individual, who tells him they are not finished with him before knocking him out. The maid, Amelia, witnesses this from the shadows. When Roberto's wife Nina returns home, he confesses everything to her but refuses to go to the police since he will be arrested for Marosi's murder. Amelia, who now knows the masked figure's identity, tries to blackmail them but is killed by them in a park. Despite Roberto's reluctance, Nina's cousin Dalia arrives to stay with Nina and Roberto.
Elsewhere, Carlo Marosi is still alive: his confrontation with Roberto was staged with a retractable knife. Marosi is working for Roberto's tormentor. Unnerved by Amelia's murder, Marosi tries to back out of their arrangement, but instead, the mystery figure kills him.
Roberto hires Arrosio, a flamboyant detective, to identify his tormentor. When Roberto returns home, he finds Nina leaving. She tells him she will no longer stay in the house with someone stalking them. Roberto resolves to remain. That evening, Dalia offers to take care of Roberto in the meantime, and the two start having sexual trysts after Roberto makes passes at her while in the tub.
After researching Roberto and Nina's history, Arrosio visits Villa Rapidi, a psychiatric facility. He 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, Arrosio is ambushed and murdered with a poison-filled syringe.
Meanwhile, looking at family photos, Dalia notices a strange similarity between a photograph of Roberto and another one whose subject the audience can't see. The killer suddenly appears and stabs her to death. The police use
optography to generate an image of the last thing Dalia saw before death but only get a blurry picture of four dark smudges against a gray background. The technician says the image looks like "four flies on gray velvet."
Knowing the killer will likely come for him next, Roberto waits with a gun in his darkened home. Roberto's friend Godfrey calls, but the line suddenly goes dead. Just then, 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 on a grey background.
As Roberto realizes Nina is the killer, Nina grabs Roberto's gun and shoots him in the shoulder. Holding Roberto at gunpoint, Nina explains that her physically and mentally abusive stepfather committed her to the Villa Rapidi asylum. His death cured her condition but left her frustrated because she had wanted to kill him. Because Roberto bears a striking resemblance to her stepfather, Nina decided to torment and murder Roberto as a surrogate for him. She married him and planned the elaborate, cruel game she had played with him. Nina repeatedly shoots Roberto, but Godfrey arrives, distracting Nina so that Roberto can knock the gun from her hands. Nina speeds away in a car, but she crashes into the back of a truck. The truck's rear bumper decapitates her, and the car explodes in a mass of flames.
Cast
*
Michael Brandon
Michael Brandon (born Michael Feldman; April 20, 1945) is an American actor. He is known for his role as James Dempsey in the British drama series ''Dempsey and Makepeace'' (1985–1986). His theatre credits include the original Broadway (theat ...
- Roberto Tobias
*
Mimsy Farmer
Merle "Mimsy" Farmer (born February 28, 1945) is an American actress, artist and sculptor. She began her career appearing in several Hollywood studio films, such as ''Spencer's Mountain'' (1963) and ''Bus Riley's Back in Town'' (1965), followed b ...
- Nina Tobias
*
Jean-Pierre Marielle
Jean-Pierre Marielle (12 April 1932 – 24 April 2019) was a French actor. He appeared in more than a hundred films in which he played very diverse roles, from a banal citizen ('' Les Galettes de Pont-Aven''), to a World War II hero (''Les Milles ...
- Gianni Arrosio
*
Bud Spencer
Carlo Pedersoli (31 October 1929 – 27 June 2016), known professionally as Bud Spencer, was an Italian actor, professional swimmer and water polo player. He was known for action-comedy and Spaghetti Western roles with his long-time film partn ...
- Diomede/Godfrey
*
Aldo Bufi Landi
Aldo Bufi Landi (7 April 1923 – 2 February 2016) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1947 and 2013.
Selected filmography
* '' Malaspina'' (1947)
* '' Madunnella'' (1948)
* '' Assunta Spina'' (1948)
* ''L ...
- Pathologist
*
Calisto Calisti Calisto may refer to:
* ''Calisto'' (butterfly), a genus of butterflies in the family Nymphalidae
*Calisto MT, an old style serif typeface
*''La Calisto'', an opera by Francesco Cavalli about the mythological character Callisto
People
*Calisto Tan ...
- Carlo Marosi
* Marisa Fabbri - Amelia, the Maid
*
Oreste Lionello
Oreste Lionello (18 April 1927 – 19 February 2009) was an Italian actor and voice actor.
Biography
Lionello was born in Rhodes (which was then a possession of Italy), to Calabrian parents, and grew up in Reggio Calabria. He began his career a ...
- The Professor
* Fabrizio Moroni - Mirko
*
Corrado Olmi
Corrado Olmi (24 October 1926 – 29 December 2020)
w ...
- Porter
*
Stefano Satta Flores
Stefano Satta Flores (14 January 1937 – 22 October 1985) was an Italian actor and voice actor.
Biography
Born in Naples, Italy, Satta Flores graduated from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in the Italian capital city of Rome. He bega ...
- Andrea
*
Laura Troschel
Laura Troschel (3 November 1944 – 29 September 2016) was an Italian actress, singer and model.
Life and career
Born in Varese, Troschel made her debut in cinema in a role of weight in ''The Sex of Angels'' (1968), by Ugo Liberatore. Later, sh ...
- Maria
*
Francine Racette
Francine Racette (born September 23, 1947) is a retired Canadian actress. She is best known for her performances in '' Au revoir les enfants'', '' Lumière'' and '' The Disappearance''. She is the current and third wife of actor Donald Sutherla ...
- Dalia
Production
Some of the earlier cast considerations for the main role Roberto Tobias were
Terence Stamp
Terence Henry Stamp (born 22 July 1938) is an English actor. Stamp is known for his sophisticated villain roles. He was named by ''Empire Magazine'' as one of the 100 Sexiest Film Stars of All Time in 1995. He has received various accolades inc ...
,
Michael York
Michael York OBE (born Michael Hugh Johnson; 27 March 1942) is an English film, television and stage actor. After performing on-stage with the Royal National Theatre, he had a breakthrough in films by playing Tybalt in Franco Zeffirelli's ''Ro ...
and even some members of
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
. Argento did not want to use the "image caught in the retina" plot device since it was too fantastic.
[Alan Jones: Dario Argento The Man, The Myths & The Magic, ]
Release
''Four Flies on Grey Velvet'' premiered in Italy on 17 December 1971. 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
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 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
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
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
Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera '' Peyton Place'' and gained further recognition for her subsequent ...
roles."
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...
of the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' 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
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' faulted "a script bogged down with farce comedy, unneeded sex, coarse language and trite dialogue."
Kevin Thomas of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' 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
''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...
'' 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
''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'' was a book-format collection of movie capsule reviews that began in 1969, was updated biannually after 1978, and then annually after 1986. The final edition was published in September 2014. It was originally calle ...
'' 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."
Writer
Fran Lebowitz
Frances Ann Lebowitz (; born October 27, 1950) is an American author, public speaker, and occasional actor. She is known for her sardonic social commentary on American life as filtered through her New York City sensibilities and her association ...
, who had a column reviewing bad-movies, told
Glenn O'Brien
Glenn O'Brien (March 2, 1947 – April 7, 2017) was an American writer who focused largely on the subjects of art, music, and fashion. He was featured for many years as "The Style Guy" in ''GQ'' magazine and published a book with that title. He ...
in a 1978 issue of ''
High Times
''High Times'' is an American monthly magazine (and cannabis brand) that advocates the Legalization of non-medical cannabis in the United States, legalization of cannabis as well as other counterculture ideas. The magazine was founded in 1974 by ...
'', that, "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
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
gave the film a positive review, calling it "an unfortunately overlooked and hard-to-find choice nugget in his
rgento'soeuvre".
Home video
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
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
, which had chosen not to release it.
MYA Communication released a
region 1 DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
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 UK on 30 January 2012.
See also
*
List of Italian films of 1971
A list of films produced in Italy in 1971 (see 1971 in film):
References Footnotes
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
External linksItalian films of 1971at the Internet Movie Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Italian Films Of 1971
1971
Films
...
*
References
Sources
External links
*
{{Dario Argento
1970s crime films
1970s mystery films
1970s psychological thriller films
Italian thriller films
French thriller films
1970s Italian-language films
Giallo films
Films directed by Dario Argento
Italian serial killer films
Films scored by Ennio Morricone
Films with screenplays by Dario Argento
1970s Italian films
1970s French films