Review: Four Flies on Grey Velvet 1971

A very interesting film by Dario Argento… What’s interesting is that despite a rather shaky story, poor effects and marginal acting skill, somehow this film still manages to be pretty great! And I’m not even close the being the only person to think that either. This is certainly one of Argento’s lesser known films, but it’s really quite extraordinary, with the way that everything ties together and the fun little details. I would say that, aside from a well done opening scene, “Four Flies On Grey Velvet” doesn’t get off to a great start, but as the film progresses it becomes much better. It has been said that as far as story goes, this film’s becomes unnecessarily convoluted to the point where, even when all is revealed, the viewer is unlikely to really care very much… and that’s very true, the ‘reveal’ is fairly unpredictable and certainly energetic enough, but it barely grabbed my interest at all, rather, it was everything else in the film that I enjoyed. At the start of the film, I was mostly confused and fairly unimpressed, but at some point something happened, (I think it may have been once the Private Investigator is introduced, what happens with him is awesome!) and I found myself much more interested and by the end I was able to say that, overall, the film really is a great one.
“Four Flies On Grey Velvet” focuses on a young musician, Roberto Tobias, who accidentally kills a man and is caught in the act by a lunatic who proceeds to blackmail him, seemingly wanting nothing in return but to make Roberto’s life a living Hell… As his friends and contacts start dying one by one, he scrambles to keep himself alive long enough to figure out just what the Hell is going on!
The strengths of this film lie in the foreshadowing and the quirky details and in the way that, even without fully understanding why, many viewers still seem to find themselves enthralled and beguiled by this funny little masterwork. If you do understand any of the references, the symbolism, and the “whys” of this film, then that just makes the film all the more enjoyable. It’s a peculiar little movie, but really quite remarkable. Recommended to fans of Dario Argento and/or Alfred Hitchcock.