4 mosche di velluto grigio
Tags: neo noir, murder, allegory, cult, horror, violence, haunting, flashback, insanity, tragedy, romantic

Plot synopsis:
Roberto Tobias (Michael Brandon) plays the drums for a local Rome rock and roll band when at various time, he sees a man in dark sunglasses wearing a suite and tie, watching him. After the session, Roberto sees the man and follows him through the dark streets to an apparently abandoned opera house where he confronts the man and asks him why he's been following him for the past several weeks. The man declines such actions and pulls a knife on Roberto when the drummer gets too close. In the struggle, the man is accidentally stabbed and he falls from the stage to the lower level. Suddenly a spotlight is turned onto Roberto and a masked person on the balcony snaps some photos of Roberto holding the bloody knife.That night, Roberto returns home and lies in bed awake as his wife Nina (Mimsy Farmer) lies beside him. The next day, Roberto reads the newspaper describing the dead man and he receives a letter containing the identification of a certain Carlo Marosi, the man who Roberto stabbed. That evening at a get-together of several band members and friends at his house, one of the guests talks about beheading executions in Saudi Arabia, and Roberto looks through some record albums and sees the photos of the incident. Amelia (Maria Fabbri), the maid, sees him and the photos, but does not tell him that she knows. That night, Roberto has a disturbing dream about him being beheaded in a coliseum in Saudi Arabia when he wakes up after hearing a noise. Roberto looks around and a cord is wrapped around his neck. The masked person tells Roberto, he could kill him now, but will not for he is not finished with him, and knocks him out before running away. Nina walks in and asks her husband what is wrong and he finally admits to the accidental stabbing and subsequent harassment, and says that they cannot go to the police.Roberto goes to see Godfrey (Bud Spencer) (whom Roberto's annoys by nicknaming him 'God'). Godfrey is a beatnick artist living in a shack outside Rome with his colleague, a con-artist known only as the Professor (Oreste Lionello). Roberto confides in them about his problem and Godfrey suggests having the Professor keep an eye on him. Later, Roberto jumps out at a person who approaches his house in the pouring rain and beats him with a stick. But it is only the slow-witted mailman with a special delivery.Meanwhile, Amelia calls someone and says that she knows what the person is doing to Roberto. She wants blackmail money or she'll go to the police. The unseen person has a flashback episode of being committed to a lunatic asylum and being tied down on a bed.Amelia goes to a local park and waits on a bench. As night falls, the park crowd dissipates, and she stands to leave when she hears a person say her name. When Amelia discovers that she is locked inside the park, the runs along the high wall and cries out for help. A couple on the other side hear her, but the man is unable to scale the stone wall. Before he can get to the gate entrance, Amelia screams and is killed by the unseen person who slashes her throat with a straight razor.A little later, Nina arrives at a train station where she picks up her cousin Dalia (Francine Racette) and she joins Roberto's group for another get-together in the house of playing music, smoking dope, and political discussions. Roberto is the only person who does not seem to want Dalia there. Mikro, Roberto's band mate, asks why Roberto did not show up for rehearsals that day. Then Nina gets a phone call and learns that Amelia has been murdered. Roberto later has the same dream of being decapitated again and he wakes up when a noise is heard. He investigates but only hears his pet cat hissing. The next morning, there is note from the killer, and Nina is now frightened.Meanwhile, it is revealed that Carlo Marosi is alive and well, and eating at a local restaurant. Carlo calls someone and asks them to meet at his place. referring to someone being killed. At Carlo's small apartment, he tells the unseen person that what they agreed to in harassing Roberto and mentions the "toy" (a knife with a trick blade). Carlo had been approached by the unseen killer to set this whole thing up, but now Carlo wants to back out. But the killer picks up a blunt object and hits Carlo on the head. The unseen killer gets a wire and twists around the man's neck, decapitating him. The killer then disposes of the dead Carlo to make sure he is not found.Elsewhere, the Professor tells Roberto that he saw someone last night in his back garden, with his cat wrapped in a blanket. He tried to stop the person, but got hit on the head. The Professor tells Roberto that he may seek outside help to learn who is harassing him.Roberto goes to meet with Arrosio (Jean-Pierre Marielle), a flamboyantly gay private investigator. After the drummer tells the PI his story, Arrosio admits to never having solved a case, but is optimistic that his bad record will be broken. During a drive with Roberto, Arrosio asks him questions about his life and about Nina, when they met and how long they were married. Roberto mentions Nina getting a big inheritance. After dropping off Arrosio at his apartment, Roberto returns to his house where Nina is leaving town with police officers about the Amelia murder. She tells Roberto that she does not want to stay in the house anymore with someone stalking them. But Roberto decides to stay and invites Dalia over to spend time with him.That evening Roberto takes a bath when Dalia walks in and admits that she has had romantic feelings for him and the two of them make love. Afterwards, Arrosio arrives and is a little surprised to see Roberto with Dalia and that Nina has left. Roberto gives Arrosio some photos of his past and his family as well as Nina's and Dalia's. Then, they find Roberto's pet cat's head and wrapped in plastic. That night, Roberto has his nightmare again about the decapitation execution, and wakes up in a cold sweat. Dalia comforts him.Meanwhile, Arrosio is in his office looking at photos of Roberto's family and friends, as well as some old papers and financial records. He is getting frustrated at not making any progress with the case until something catches his eye. He begins looking through more old papers of Roberto's past. A little later that same night, Arrosio phones Roberto and tells him that he's found a "strange resemblance" in one photo, but tells him that it may only be a red herring. Arrosio tells Roberto that he's found the name "Villa Rapidi" and asks if anyone ever mentioned it, but Roberto claims to have never heard it before. Arrosio thanks Roberto and hangs up without telling him what it means.The next day, Arrosio arrives at the Villa Rapidi Psychiatric Clinic where a doctor tells the private investigator about a patient that Arrosio is inquiring about (the name is not mentioned) who stayed there for three years as a teenager, whom was diagnosed as a homicidal mania. When the father who committed the teenager died from a sudden heart attack, the mental symptoms disappeared overnight and the patient was deemed cured. The doctor also suspects that the man who committed the teen and the teen's mother there was not the patient's real father.Arrosio talks to various people around Rome looking for the nameless ex-patient from Villa Rapidi. He later visits an estate-turned-boarding-house where he talks to the landlord about the patient he is looking for. The boarding house is the residence of the killer. Arrosio follows the unseen person from the estate and onto a subway train. He gets off at the person's stop and follows the unseen person to the men's room where the unseen killer attacks him in a stall, and stabs him in the chest with a syringe of a glowing blue poison. The killer leaves, as Arrosio lies dying on the restroom floor. But with a smile on his face and with his last breath, Arrosio mumbles, "I was right...".Roberto learns of Arrosio's murder and meets with Godfrey and the Professor at a convention hall where coffins are being sold. Roberto tells them about his nightmares and Godfrey thinks that it might be a premonition of something to come. Godfrey suggests that someone with a grudge against Roberto is trying to drive him crazy and wants him to leave Rome at once. But Roberto refuses, determined to find the killer on his own.A few days later, Dalia calls the studio asking for Roberto, but he is busy recording music with his band. As Dalia packs her suitcase, she notices a strange similarly between a recent photo of Roberto and Nina with some unseen person in another photo. Just then, Dalia hears a noise and is frightened. Dalia slips off her shoes and sneaks up to the attic where she arms herself with a knife and waits as she hears the intruder looking for her. Dalia hides behind a door with the knife when the killer comes inside, then leaves. When Dalia thinks the killer is gone, she steps out of the doorway when a knife hits her on her forehead. Dalia stumbles down the attic stairs and is stabbed to death by the unseen killer.After finding the body, Roberto calls the police and they tell him about a test they will do on Dalia. By removing one of her eyes and shooting a laser through it, they will be able to see the last image that Dalia had seen for the image is retained on the retina for several hours after death. On a computer screen, they see only four dark smudges against a gray background which looks like, as the technician puts it, "four flies on gray velvet." The test is declared inconclusive.That night, Roberto loads a gun and sits in his dark home, waiting for the killer to make his move. He nods off and begins dreaming again, and his dream goes all the way with the gory beheading of a criminal in Saudi Arabia. Roberto is woken up when the phone rings and it is Godfrey asking if the drummer is okay. Roberto says that he is, and then the line goes dead. A few minutes later, Nina arrives home from her long getaway and Roberto almost shoots her as she walks through the front door. Roberto puts down the gun and tells her to leave and tries to push her out the front door, when Nina's necklace (a fly enclosed in glass) swings.... giving the appearance of more than one fly, and Roberto pulls her back inside and hits her. Roberto confronts Nina and accuses her of killing Amelia, Arrosio, and Dalia, and the one who terrorized him. Nina grabs Roberto's gun and shoots him the in shoulder.As Roberto lies wounded on the floor, Nina suddenly adopts a sneering, wild-eyed appearance. Nina mechanically laughs and she tells Roberto about her abusive stepfather who placed her in a lunatic asylum when she was little and when he died, her mental condition was cured. But when Nina apparently met Roberto many years later, he reminded her of her late father. So, Nina married Roberto and cooked up this whole event as part of her twisted way of getting back at her father, since Roberto is apparently the dead-splitting image of Nina's late father. Nina shoots Roberto a few more times in his arm and both legs, when Godfrey runs in and Roberto knocks the gun out of Nina's hands. Nina runs to Roberto's car and speeds away. But in a twist of fate, she doesn't look where she is going and rams into the back of a truck, and she is decapitated by the truck's rear bumper as it smashes, in slow-motion, through her car windshield. The car then explodes in a mass of flames.

Review: Other visual motifs (crimson curtains, extreme close-ups, inanimate objects suddenly wielded by a seemingly maniacal camera) would be repeated or re-jigged in Deep Red, Phenomena and Opera.Argento's original intention was to have a gay protagonist and though the character of Roberto is still open to such a reading - his victimisation being as a result of a fear of being outed (as a murderer) has obvious correlations (note also Brandon's shaggy mane v Farmer's gamine crop or the rather tame bathtub scene with Francine Racette which sees Roberto playfully seducing his mirror image) - the more overt references are passed to Jean-Pierre Marielle, who brings immense likability to a small role and whose swish factor is tempered by a steely determination to finally cracking a case.
Argento's fascination with weird science (here ludicrous by design but ingenious in execution) gives the film its animal-themed title, and the finale boasts one of his greatest sequences - a stunning, slow-motion shot of a car impacting with the back of a lorry, which marries chillingly beautiful aesthetics to Hollywood folklore, scored with Morricone's haunting "Come un Madrigale".Four Flies is a solid giallo and an important entry in the Director's canon which bears repeated viewing, blurring gender roles and sexual identity, adding subtext and hit and miss humour, asylum flashbacks, well-executed deaths and a recurring nightmare in the form of a sun-bleached, public beheading - the significance of which turns out to be twofold.
"Four Flies on Grey Velvet" is the last film in Dario Argento's animal trilogy, which also includes the brilliant "Bird With The Crystal Plumage" (1970) and the very stylish "Cat o' Nine Tails" (1971).
While certainly not one of Argento's masterpieces, this strange, and highly interesting flick is nonetheless more than worth tracking down, for a variety of reasons.When rock drummer Roberto (Michael Brandon) wants to take a guy to task who has been following him for days, the guy threatens him with a knife, and in the subsequent scuffle, Roberto accidentally stabs the guy to death.
Sounds like the beginning of a typical Giallo, but, apart from the typical formula of a mystery killer, murders from the killer's perspective, etc., this film differs from Argento's other Gialli in a variety of aspects.
Dario Argento is one of my all-time favorite directors, and while "For Flies On Grey Velvet" is certainly not one of his highlights, it is definitely a weird and highly recommendable film that my fellow Italian Horror fans should not miss!.
And, as such, is an important entry of giallo cinema.The story involves a rock drummer who accidentally kills a man and is drawn into a web of murder by a masked assassin who appears to have a vendetta against him.The opening credit sequence is a memorable affair, incorporating pounding drums and close ups of a beating heart.
Argento more than makes up for this with stylistic flourishes like the nice camera pan of the phone wires leading to the location of the killer, the shots of Michael Brandon driving his car quickly edited together with his subsequent POV approach to the private investigator's office and the deranged asylum flashback scenes.
The opening confrontation in the opera house is stunning, and several of the murder scenes are particularly memorable and understated; the film does seem to have some stilted elements to it, including characters and moments that really serve no purpose, but the upshot is that they lend Argento more time to wallow in stylistics.
Solid performances from Michael Brandon and Mimsy Farmer really help bolster the proceedings, and Jean-Pierre Marielle is memorable as the flamboyant gay detective.I've read some criticism of the film's conclusion, and while I do find it to be fairly easy in terms of expectancy, it is a clever twist, and the slow-motion finale is mildly remarkable.Overall, "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" is an intriguing giallo with some great, understated murder scenes and a puzzle of a plot that engages the audience in ways which Argento would come to refine even more with "Deep Red." In charting Argento's career, the film is highly important, but even outside the context of his directorial trajectory, it stands as a solid, weirdly memorable effort with some rock'n'roll spirit and an extremely sinister doll mask.
Excellent early thriller from Italian horror master Dario Argento was a strong finish for his "Animal Trilogy" giallo films.
A unique film on all levels, Four Flies on Grey Velvet remains one of Argento's best pre-Deep Red (1975) films and it serves as a great omen to the stylish masterpieces that the director would follow with in the coming years.*** 1/2 out of ****.
Later, the masked assailant starts to send Michael Brandon photos of him in the act, and that's where the fun starts.Four Flies on Grey Velvet never quite reaches the level of adrenaline that Argento's earlier work, Bird with the Crystal Plumage, did; but a number of Argento's well known trademarks are here, including gruesome murders, a masked killer and numerous possible culprits.
There also a streak of black humour in this movie that isn't usually present in Argento films, shown by the detective who will solve this case because of his "Amazing record" of never having solved a case yet (great irony on his conclusion by the way), the disgruntled delivery man and the casket "party", which was both surreal and strangely funny.However, the film doesn't suffer much from the lack of bloodshed as there is still much to like about it.
This works well because it grabs your interest and keeps it, and that's what makes Argento movies great and a cut above the majority of other mystery thrillers.As with all Argento films, The movie starts to build more pace towards the end, and builds into a clever and satisfying solution as to who the murderer is and the means of finding out who it is, which is linked with an animal like in the other two films of the 'Animals Trilogy'.
Saying that, the end certainly doesn't ruin the film, it just isn't as good as it could be.This movie is recommended to anyone that considers themselves a fan of Dario Argento and horror buffs in general..
Recently an above average bootleg was released in terms of visual quality and a lot of scenes come to life and one is finally in a position to judge the film as a whole.Story wise, Four Flies on Grey Velvet doesn't win any awards but it's a good set up for a thriller.
But unknown to Roberto, someone wearing a strange mask watches the drama from the balcony.And so begins another Dario Argento Italian whodunit, the plot of which includes a blackmailer, a cat, a gay private detective, and a slow-motion car crash.
Creepy sound effects in the dark, low light levels in interior scenes, close-up camera shots, and a haunting score combine in many sequences to create a stylistically frightening atmosphere.As with other Argento giallos, the story trends a little weak, but that is offset by terrific visuals, sound effects, and music.
And "Four Flies On Grey Velvet" (one piece in the director's 'Animal Trilogy' jigsaw) is a slick giallo that is, first and foremost, a showcase of technique (a murder in an abandoned theatre; a chase through an empty park; a boy-masked killer), wherein Argento shows his mastery of composition, light and shadow, and perspective.
Blackmail and murder ensue...A step up from the convoluted machinations of THE CAT O'NINE TAILS (1970), FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET is little more than a dress rehearsal for the visual flourishes that would distinguish director Dario Argento's later work.
a running gag with Brandon's postman, culminating in what amounts to a criminal assault - played for laughs!), and while the horror set-pieces are often vividly realized - most notably, the scene in which Brandon's blackmailing maid (Marisa Fabbri) finds herself trapped in a lonely park with the killer, a sequence which refers backward to a similar scenario in Jacques Tourneur's THE LEOPARD MAN (1943) and forward to John Saxon's final sequence in Argento's TENEBRAE (1982) - the pace is labored and dull, especially during expository dialogue scenes.Mimsy Farmer makes a fair impression as Brandon's nervous wife, while popular Italian character actor Bud Spencer (Carlo Pedersoli) plays Brandon's closest friend, a bad-tempered fisherman who helps him solve the unfolding mystery.
All in all, a minor entry in the director's filmography, elevated to mythic status by legal problems which have prevented its appearance on home video, and while the film exercises a gamut of stylistic concerns (Argento followed it with an unlikely detour into historical comedy, FIVE DAYS OF MILAN, before cutting loose with his giallo masterpiece DEEP RED), it amounts to little more than a footnote in horror history.(English version).
Argento isn't exactly known for his sense of humor, but this film features a lot of it, like a sub plot about a homosexual private detective, a simple-minded mailman who keeps on delivering wrong parcels and the hilarious "Queer Frankenstein" story narrated by one of the insignificant supportive characters.
The story is engaging and interesting right from the get-go as a man, Roberto, is tormented by a man who he ends up 'accidentally murdering.' The plot twists and turns in typical Argento fashion until we finally learn who the real killer is.
Fluid camera moves; inventive POV shots; women in peril; hypnotic dreamlike sequences; stylish death scenes; a whispering masked killer: this early giallo from Italian horror master Dario Argento sees the director experimenting with many of what would later become his trademarks.
But with a rather dreary and poorly paced storyline, unwisely littered with some pretty crap attempts at comedy, Four Flies On Grey Velvet (one of Argento's harder-to-find movies) is definitely one of his weaker efforts.Michael Brandon (yes, the star of 80s ITV series Dempsey and Makepeace) plays a musician who believes that he has killed a man, after accidentally stabbing him.
Although there are a couple of genuinely tense moments, nothing in this film really qualifies as 'classic' Argento.Perhaps it is the lack of a decent soundtrack that hampers the movies's success (Ennio Morricone's score is not very memorable); maybe it is Brandon's bland protagonist that lets the film down (he isn't all that likable, seeing as he shags his wife's cousin as soon as she is out of sight); possibly the inclusion of several seriously annoying characters is why the film fails (the overly camp private-eye, the silly postman used for light relief, and Bud Spencer's scruffy lowlife 'God').
Working with his rock group, a musician who accidentally killed the stalker after him realizes a masked man photographed the incident and begins a rampage around the city murdering his friends and enlists the help of a private eye to figure out the culprit before it's too late.This here was a really interesting and enjoyable Giallo.
Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Final film in Argento's animal trilogy has a musician (Michael Brandon) accidentally killing a stalker but then the real trouble starts when another stalker shows up trying to kill him.
Unlike the other stars, Tony Mustane from Bird With the Crystal Plumage, and James Franciscus from Cat O'Nine Tales, Michael Brandon's character of Roberto Tobias is not well liked for his casual ability to do bad things such as seducing his wife's cousin and playing jokes on people.The movie opens with like a rock music video of Roberto Tobias playing his drums with a rock band at a recording studio when he notices a strange man dressed in all black and wearing dark sunglasses.
It stars Michael Brandon as Roberto Tobias and Mimsy Farmer as his wife, Nina Tobias, and is the third and final film in the unofficial 'Animal Trilogy', the others being The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and The Cat O'Nine Tails.
I have been waiting a long time to view this film, after the first 2 parts in Argento's brilliant animal trilogy "Bird with the Crystal Plumage" and "Cat O' Nine Tails" which were both excellent in their own ways, and "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" has always been hard to find and perhaps least remembered.
A mysterious masked stranger took photographs of the entire incident and later begins to taunt him and starts to murder people in his life.Okay "Four Flies" may lack the elegance and style of the first part of the animal trilogy, but it still packs a punch, especially the masked stranger, with that freaky mask which is truly terrifying and you definitely feel a sense of dread whenever this person is around and the opening of this movie was a very interesting concept and then the growing paranoia of the lead character begins to grow and grow as he wonders what's gonna happen next is truly tense.
The acting is excellent too and I was hooked till the end.Some complain that it moves slowly but most of Argento's flicks "Suspiria", "Inferno" all start slow with twists and murders thrown in to keep the viewer entertained.This movie is well directed and shot and musical score is good as well.Michael Brandon is Roberto Tobias a guy whose paranoid that someone's following him, and he daydreams about a gory beheading throughout the movie.
After having been gripped by Dario Argentos stunning first film: The bird with the crystal plumage,I instantly went searching for his next film,which I found out was call The Cat 'O Nine Tails.Almost as soon as the DVD had landed in my post box,I rushed to watch it right away.Sadly,from about the 30 minute mark,I had to stop playing the film,due to the appalling sound,and the picture looking like someone had chucked a yellow (giallo!) can of paint over the film.Not giving up to easily on Argentos films,I went looking to find the film he had made after Cat,and happily this led me to finding a very good DVD,of this stunning, sadly forgotten film.The plot: After having finished a recording session with his band,drummer Roberto Tobias leaves the studio feeling pretty happy with how the sessions are going.Almost as soon as he has left the studio last few day.Aproching him,the stalker makes a run for it,which leads to him entering an empty theatre.When Roberto tries to confront the man about why he has been stalking him,the man suddenly pulls out a knife.During the struggle to free the knife from the stalker,Tobias ends up accidentally stabbing the man.As the blood pours out of the now deceased stalker,Roberto hears the click of a camera, hidden up at the podium of the stage.Tobias spots that there is a masked person,who is taking photos of him with the knife.Fearing that something very bad is happening,Roberto makes a run for it.Later on that night,whilst he is trying to peacefully sleep in his bed,with his girlfriend by his side Tobias experiences an extremely strange dream,which involves him being beheaded in a public execution.The next day Roberto decides to discuss the dream with some of his friends,who have come over to spend some time with the couple.Near the end of the night,Roberto gets in the mood of putting some music on for him and his friends.Just as he is about to finish getting the record out of the sleeve,the passport of the man he killed suddenly appears!.Later on in the night,Tobias suddenly gets a tight rope wrapped round his neck.Whilst he tries to free himself,the masked aslant steps out of the shadow to announce that,although they could kill him right now,it would really ruin all the "fun" that they went to put Roberto through.Fearing for his life,Roberto goes to meet an "adviser" who lives on the outskirts of the town called God (although God keeps pointing out that he would much prefer if people called him by his full name:Godfreey.)With Godfreeys help,Roberto gets in contact with a privet detective who feels that luck is now on his side,due to having failed to solve any of his last 80 cases!.As the detective starts digging round for the person that is trying to blackmail and terrorise Roberto,he begins to gather evidence that the killer might be closer to Roberto then any of them could have imagine.Although the detective himself does not realise that along with Roberto,the masked psycho is also spying on him..
Four Flies on Grey Velvet like most of Dario Argento's films is striking in its use of music, editing, and cinematography, but otherwise it is confusing, talky, aimless and slow moving.
4 Flies On Grey Velvet was the last entry in his 'Animal Trilogy', and if Argento hadn't made another giallo again he'd have a consistent body of work to be proud of.The movie introduces us to bass player Roberto Tobias (Michael Brandon), member of a funky band, married to Nina (Mimsy Farmer) a beautiful and rich woman.
The last theme in the movie is one of the most beautiful Morricone has ever composed, an orchestral piece with vocals that transmits sadness and tragedy, much like the end of the movie itself.All in all, 4 Flies On Grey Velvet would have been a great finale for Dario Argento's work in the giallo.
Roberto can't go to the police as he will implicate himself in a murder so he is at the mysterious persons mercy, but if not money what do they want?This Italian French co-production was co-written & directed by Dario Argento, the third part of his fan coined 'animal' trilogy of Giallo made back to back with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) & The Cat 'o Nine Tails (1971).
Dario Argento, master of slasher-surrealism, made the interesting Four Flies on Grey Velvet in 1971  and it combines the low-key elements of his early Giallo period with the more colorful visual experimentation of his later films.Roberto, a drummer in a psychedelic rock band, is being stalked by a man in fedora and sunglasses.