Four flies on grey velvet (V.O. 4 mosche di velluto grigio)
Italy, 1971
Director: Dario Argento
Script: Dario Argento, Luigi Cozzi, Mario Foglietti, Giorgio Piferi
Cast: Michael Brandon (Roberto Tobias), Mimsy Farmer (Nina), Jean-Pierre Marielle (Gianni Arrosio), Marisa Fabbri (Amelia), Oreste Lionello (Profesor), Francine Racette (Dalia), Bud Spencer (Diomede)
Music: Ennio Morricone
Story
Roberto Tobias plays drums in a band. He is married to Nina, who is from a wealthy family and has recently received a large inheritance. Roberto begins to notice that a mysterious individual in a hat and sunglasses follows him everywhere. One night, tired of that situation, he starts chasing the subject. They both arrive at an abandoned theater. Roberto confronts the guy, who denies having been following him. The one with the sunglasses pulls out a knife. There is a struggle between the two and by accident Roberto stabs the other. In one of the boxes there was someone, hidden by a smiling mask and taking pictures of the event. Roberto fears that he has fallen into the trap of a blackmailer. The next day it appears in the newspapers that the stabbed body of a stranger has been found…
Soon a series of disturbing events are taking place. During a party at the Tobias’ villa, Roberto finds among his records one of the photos showing him killing the man. The musician receives anonymous phone calls and letters. In one of those, he is also sent the dead man’s passport. However, he is surprised that they don’t ask him for an amount of money. This is supposed to be the blackmailer’s target.
One night, someone enters the village and assaults Roberto, threatening to strangle him. When Nina gets up to see what is going on, the young man tells his wife everything. He finds himself in an awkward situation, as he cannot go to the police, as they would arrest him for murder. Amelia, the maid, listens to the couple’s conversation, finding out everything. For some reason she knows who is behind the threats, and she is ready to blackmail the blackmailer?
For his part, Roberto goes to see his friend Diomede nicknamed “Dio” (Godfrey a.k.a. “God” in the English speaking version), a rough fisherman who lives in a cabin on the outskirts. Dio recommends that the musician hire a private investigator. And also, that a quirky compadre of his who they call “the Professor” keep a close eye on the Tobias house.
To visit the young couple, Dalia, Nina’s cousin, arrives at the house. Roberto finds this visit quite inconvenient at the time.
Shortly after, Amelia goes to a park to take some incriminating evidence to the blackmailer in exchange for money. But, as expected, the mysterious guy with the smiling face slits her throat.
Roberto thinks the time has come to hire a detective. So he goes to the office of the mannered Gianni Arrosio, who gets to work on the case…
Commentary
Dario Argento’s third film as a director, after “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) and “The Cat o´Nine Tails” (1971). This “Four flies on Grey Velvet” that today we review is part, like the two previously mentioned of the so called “trilogy of the animals”, for having in their respective titles the symbolic names of certain animals. And in my opinion it is the best of the three.
Here we have an extremely memorable giallo, full of intense moments and intrigue in crescendo, until reaching a shocking and explosive ending. To relax the claustrophobic tension of certain sequences we also include somewhat humorous moments, such as those in which the eccentric “Professor” appears, the unfortunate letter carrier (whom Roberto confuses with the marauder) and above all Bud Spencer, who plays “Dio”. By the way, “Dio” in Italian means “God”, and in the English version that character is called “Godfrey” (which is abbreviated to “God”). The homosexual detective is also funny; he afirms that in the years he has been dedicated to the profession he has not solved a single case (out of more than 80), so it’s about time that he manages to solve one, because “it’s only a matter of statistics”. Or the scene of the funeral exhibition where Dio and Roberto go, with a lot of black humor.
As it is usual in Argento, the story (and the killer’s motivation) goes back to some traumatic episode of childhood (including the madhouse). This can be seen in some moments of flashback in which the voice of a very severe father is heard. During the footage, there are turns of script that surprise the viewer, because not everything is as it seems from the first moment.
After one of the murders, the specialists at the morgue decide to carry out an experiment with the victim’s eyes, since according to certain scientific advances, sometimes the last thing someone sees before dying is captured on the retina. After photographing the eyes with special machines, hoping to see in them the face of the murderer, the investigators see something very strange: Four flies on a grey background (hence the title of the film). What will this mean?
The killer also corresponds to the classic giallo in several elements; not in the black leather gloves (which this time do not appear), but in his distorted voice and in the fact that his identity and motives are not revealed until the end. Roberto is convinced that it must be someone who “knows him very well”, since he was able to place one of the compromising photos in his house during one of the parties; it must therefore be someone in his inner circle.
Worthy of mention are the dreamlike scenes, with the recurring nightmare of a scimitar beheading in Saudi Arabia (during one of the parties a friend of Roberto’s told that he was there and witnessed one of those executions).
Roberto and Nina are played by the US-Americans Michael Brandon and Mimsy Farmer. Cousin Dalia is the Canadian Francine Racette, wife of the better known Donald Sutherland.
In addition to Argento himself, the script was written by Luigi Cozzi, who would later direct his own films, including the 1975 giallo “The killer must kill again”. As a curiosity: Luigi Cozzi is, by the way, the one who is under the mask of the mysterious theater killer.
The music is by the great Ennio Morricone.
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