Four Flies on Grey Velvet
Encyclopedia
Four Flies on Grey Velvet is a 1971 Italian mystery thriller film, directed by Dario Argento
. The screenplay is also by Argento, from a story by him, Luigi Cozzi
, Mario Foglietti and Bryan Edgar Wallace (uncredited).
was considered for the score but this film was scored by the world famous composer Ennio Morricone
noted for his scores in Sergio Leone
films (in which Argento co-wrote Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West
) and had previously worked on Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
, but due to disagreements would not later work with Dario Argento again until the scoring of The Stendhal Syndrome
(1996). They collaborated later on the The Phantom of the Opera
(1997).
, 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 for the giallo genre. But once Carlo Rimbaldi showed him how the effect would look like in the finished film, he soon changed his mind. This was originally intended to be Argento's swan song to the giallo genre. This would later change once The Five Days
did poorly at the box-office. It was Jean-Pierre Marielle
's own idea to make his character gay.
scored the film but had a major argument with Argento over some tracks Argento did not want in the film. As a result, the director and Morricone would not work together again until 1996, and the rock group Goblin would eventually become Argento's regular composers.
genre, but was later convinced when he was shown by Carlo Rambaldi
how it would look in the film.
Predating Argento's own Stendhal Syndrome, The Matrix, and numerous Hong Kong films, a slow motion bullet effect is used in the film.
To film a car crash, a camera that could produce a triple digit amount of frames per second and twelve cars were used to get the effect shown in the film.
. 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. Digital bootlegs show up on P2P
sites with poor quality in image and sound. The rights to this film (at least in America) are owned by Paramount
, which had chosen not to release it. Copies of varying quality are available from numerous online conversion sources. In late December 2007, a German PAL DVD surfaced and was released from an outfit called Retro Films. This unofficial release offers a widescreen anamorphic transfer, as well as Italian
, English
, and German
audio options and optional German subtitles. An array of trailers and alternate credits/ending are included. The print is from a slightly cut English theatrical copy and inserted footage from a VHS copy provides the cut footage to bring the running time up to 97 minutes.
It was finally released on German DVD in 2008 with more footage than the bootleg and in anamorphic 2:35:1 widescreen.
MYA Communication released a Region 1 DVD of Four Flies on Grey Velvet on February 24th, 2009. The disc contains an uncut, completely remastered print of Dario Argento's "lost" film, featuring theatrical trailers/teasers, English language opening and ending credits, and an extensive photo gallery. However, the MYA release misses 30–40 seconds of footage (this was due to print damage).
German publisher Koch Media announced an official DVD and Blu-ray-release of the movie for 2011.
Dario Argento
Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....
. The screenplay is also by Argento, from a story by him, Luigi Cozzi
Luigi Cozzi
Luigi Cozzi is an Italian movie director and screenwriter who directed mainly science fiction and horror films in the mid-1970s and throughout the 1980s...
, Mario Foglietti and Bryan Edgar Wallace (uncredited).
Plot
Roberto Tobias (Brandon) is a drummer in a rock band who has noticed a man following him for the last several days. Angered by this, he confronts the stranger in an abandoned theater to find out what he wants. The man claims he does not know what Roberto is talking about, and pulls a switchblade. The two struggle, and Roberto accidentally stabs the man, who falls into an orchestra pit, lifeless. To make matters worse, someone in a bizarre puppet mask has been hiding in the upper wings of the theater and takes incriminating photographs of Roberto holding the bloody knife. Roberto flees, but the next day he receives the dead man's ID in the mail. It becomes apparent that the masked figure has no interest in going to the police, and instead wants to drive Roberto mad with fear and paranoia. But why?Cast
| Michael Brandon Michael Brandon Michael Brandon is an American actor who resides in the United Kingdom and United States.-Life and career:Brandon was born Michael Feldman in Brooklyn, New York to Miriam and Sol Feldman... |
Roberto Tobias |
| Mimsy Farmer Mimsy Farmer Mimsy Farmer is an American actress. Her nickname came from a line in Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky; "All mimsy were the borogoves".-Career:... |
Nina Tobias |
| Jean-Pierre Marielle Jean-Pierre Marielle Jean-Pierre Marielle is a French actor. He has played in more than a hundred movies in which he brought life to a very large diversity of roles, from the banal citizen , to the serial killer , to the World War II hero , to the compromised spy , to the has-been actor Jean-Pierre Marielle (born... |
Gianni Arrosio |
| Bud Spencer Bud Spencer Bud Spencer is an Italian actor, filmmaker and former swimmer . He is known for past roles in spaghetti westerns together with his long time filmpartner Terence Hill... |
Godfrey |
| Francine Racette Francine Racette Francine Racette is a French-Canadian actress. She is the current and third wife of actor Donald Sutherland, and mother of three of his sons: actor Rossif Sutherland, actor Angus Sutherland, and Roeg Sutherland.... |
Dalia |
| Calisto Calisti | Carlo Marosi |
| Marisa Fabbri | Amelia |
| Fabrizio Moroni | Mirko |
| Oreste Lionello Oreste Lionello Oreste Lionello was an Italian actor and voice dubbing artist. He was well known as Italy's film 'voice' for Woody Allen.-Biography:... |
The Professor |
| Aldo Bufo Landi | Pathologist |
Music
Deep PurpleDeep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...
was considered for the score but this film was scored by the world famous composer Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
noted for his scores in Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots...
films (in which Argento co-wrote Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the West is a 1968 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone for Paramount Pictures. It stars Henry Fonda cast against type as the villain, Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Jason Robards as a bandit, and Claudia Cardinale as a newly widowed homesteader with a...
) and had previously worked on Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a 1970 giallo suspense thriller directed by Dario Argento . The film is considered a landmark in the Italian giallo genre...
, but due to disagreements would not later work with Dario Argento again until the scoring of The Stendhal Syndrome
The Stendhal Syndrome
The Stendhal Syndrome is 1996 Italian Horror film, written and directed by Dario Argento and starring his daughter Asia Argento. It was the first Italian film to use computer-generated imagery .. Stendhal Syndrome is a real syndrome, first diagnosed in Florence, Italy in 1982...
(1996). They collaborated later on the The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera (adaptations)
There have been many literary and dramatic works based on Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera, ranging from light operas to films to children's books...
(1997).
Production
Some of the earlier cast considerations for the main role Roberto Tobias were Terence StampTerence Stamp
Terence Henry Stamp is an English actor. Since starting his career in 1962 he has appeared in over 60 films. His title role as Billy Budd in his film debut earned Stamp an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer.His other major roles include...
, Michael York
Michael York (actor)
Michael York, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:York was born in Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the son of Florence Edith May , a musician; and Joseph Gwynne Johnson, a Llandovery born Welsh ex-Royal Artillery British Army officer and executive with Marks and Spencer department stores...
and even some members of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
. Argento did not want to use the "image caught in the retina" plot device since it was too fantastic for the giallo genre. But once Carlo Rimbaldi showed him how the effect would look like in the finished film, he soon changed his mind. This was originally intended to be Argento's swan song to the giallo genre. This would later change once The Five Days
The Five Days
The Five Days is a 1973 film directed by Dario Argento. The Italian film was shot in Rome and Milan.-Reception:The Five Days was Dario Argento's first box office failure in Italy. Audiences were displeased with his change of genre, and the stylistic differences from his Animal Trilogy...
did poorly at the box-office. It was Jean-Pierre Marielle
Jean-Pierre Marielle
Jean-Pierre Marielle is a French actor. He has played in more than a hundred movies in which he brought life to a very large diversity of roles, from the banal citizen , to the serial killer , to the World War II hero , to the compromised spy , to the has-been actor Jean-Pierre Marielle (born...
's own idea to make his character gay.
Soundtrack
Argento's usual collaborator Ennio MorriconeEnnio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
scored the film but had a major argument with Argento over some tracks Argento did not want in the film. As a result, the director and Morricone would not work together again until 1996, and the rock group Goblin would eventually become Argento's regular composers.
Technology
Within a major point, as a plot device, a technique was used within the movie to give a clue to the killer, where up to a few hours after death the image of the last image seen is burned into the retina. Argento was originally reluctant feeling it too out-there for the gialloGiallo
Giallo is an Italian 20th century genre of literature and film, which in Italian indicates crime fiction and mystery. In the English language it refers to a genre similar to the French fantastique genre and includes elements of horror fiction and eroticism...
genre, but was later convinced when he was shown by Carlo Rambaldi
Carlo Rambaldi
Carlo Rambaldi is an Italian special effects artist who is most famous for designing the title character of the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the mechanical head-effects for the creature in Alien...
how it would look in the film.
Predating Argento's own Stendhal Syndrome, The Matrix, and numerous Hong Kong films, a slow motion bullet effect is used in the film.
To film a car crash, a camera that could produce a triple digit amount of frames per second and twelve cars were used to get the effect shown in the film.
Availability
This film is the third in Dario Argento's Animal Trilogy in the early 1970s that started with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and The Cat o' Nine TailsThe Cat o' Nine Tails
The Cat o' Nine Tails is a 1971 Italian giallo thriller film written and directed by Dario Argento; it was his second film as director....
. 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. Digital bootlegs show up on P2P
Peer-to-peer file sharing
P2P or Peer-to-peer file sharing allows users to download files such as music, movies, and games using a P2P software client that searches for other connected computers. The "peers" are computer systems connected to each other through internet. Thus, the only requirements for a computer to join...
sites with poor quality in image and sound. The rights to this film (at least in America) are owned by Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, which had chosen not to release it. Copies of varying quality are available from numerous online conversion sources. In late December 2007, a German PAL DVD surfaced and was released from an outfit called Retro Films. This unofficial release offers a widescreen anamorphic transfer, as well as Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
audio options and optional German subtitles. An array of trailers and alternate credits/ending are included. The print is from a slightly cut English theatrical copy and inserted footage from a VHS copy provides the cut footage to bring the running time up to 97 minutes.
It was finally released on German DVD in 2008 with more footage than the bootleg and in anamorphic 2:35:1 widescreen.
MYA Communication released a Region 1 DVD of Four Flies on Grey Velvet on February 24th, 2009. The disc contains an uncut, completely remastered print of Dario Argento's "lost" film, featuring theatrical trailers/teasers, English language opening and ending credits, and an extensive photo gallery. However, the MYA release misses 30–40 seconds of footage (this was due to print damage).
German publisher Koch Media announced an official DVD and Blu-ray-release of the movie for 2011.