FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET
Director: Dario Argento
Original / Alternate Titles: 4 mosche di velluto grigio, The Four Velvet Flies
Rating: UR
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Description: Why isn’t this movie commercially available? It makes no sense to me, when you can get much lesser Argento fare like “Phantom of the Opera” or “The Card Player,” why the final film of Argento’s famed animal trilogy (along with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and The Cat o’ Nine Tails) would be unavailable. More so than the fact that this completes one of Argento’s trilogies, 4FoGV is also a great Argento film from early in his career, and it has a component rarely seen in his canon – comedy!
4FoGV opens with a band in their recording space, rocking out. After the session is over, Roberto (Michael Brandon) leaves the space, and notices that he is being followed… again. He confronts his stalker, who claims to not know what Roberto is talking about. The stalker pulls a switchblade, which ends up in his own gut after a scuffle. Roberto is horrified by what has happened, but is quickly more horrified by the fact that there is a man in a creepy mask photographing the whole event. The next day, the murdered man’s ID shows up at Roberto’s house, and the cat and mouse play begins.
I know that there is the occasional quip or funny situation in Argento’s films, and I do not mean to imply that the man has no funny bone, but 4FoGV is a weird hybrid of Giallo and comedy, unlike any I have seen. There is Roberto’s attack on the mailman (he thinks it’s another stalker), and the mailman’s subsequent preparedness for battle. Also, there is a very funny, very gay private detective, Gianni (Jean-Pierre Marielle), who likes to point out his sexuality, and would be considered “flaming” today. Not to mention Roberto’s friend, God (short for Godfrey), who’s name being called incites a quick “Hallelujah” from the score! 4FoGV is the closest to a Giallo-comedy hybrid I have ever seen.
Unfortunately, as mentioned before, 4FoGV is not commercially available. Therefore, the version I saw was cropped incorrectly (there’s obviously a bit missing on the side of the screen), very dark and murky, and the sound was bad. Even with these shortcomings, I highly enjoyed 4FoGV, and would highly recommend it to fans of the Giallo genre, and especially to fans of Argento himself. The film has many elements that come up later in Argento’s films – the surrealistic feel (especially when an entire park full of people just disappear!), the stylish camera work, the suspense – but may be more striking for what is not present – the gore is minimal, there is nearly no sex / nudity, and the comedy that is rampant in this film I have never seen in any subsequent Argento flicks.
Paramount, why won’t you either give up the rights to this flick, or give it a good release? Maybe you can help, here’s a petition to have the film properly released: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?4flies&1
3.5 out of 5 Friends Named “God” (if this were a better quality copy, I do not doubt I would have rated it at least 4 out of 5)
Not Commercially Available
DVD Available for Trade
