FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET (1971)
aka 4 mosche di velluto grigio
Article 2977 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-2-2009
Posting Date: 10-8-2009
Directed by Dario Argento
Featuring Michael Brandon, Mimsy Farmer, Jena-Pierre Marielle
Country: Italy / France

A musician corners a stalker in an attempt to find what he wants, but ends up killing him when the man pulls a switchblade. The killing is captured on camera by a masked figure, who proceeds to terrorize the musician with the pictures. The musician seeks to find the identity of the masked figure.

Dario Argento’s movies can be a great deal of fun. This movie is filled with offbeat moments and amusing characters, such as the gay detective who is hoping to break his string of 84 failures by solving the case, the beleaguered mailman, and the encounter at the convention of coffin salesmen. Of course, any movie which features Bud Spencer as a character named God has gone a long ways towards charming me already. I was able to finger the culprit early on, but that didn’t destroy my enjoyment of this one; the stylistic touches add to the fun, Argento knows how to ratchet up the suspense at the right moments, and the confusing moments all eventually do clear themselves up and show their relevance to the story. The dubbing is not great, but it’s acceptable, so much of the humor still comes through. It’s not up to his best work, but I found this one quite entertaining.