Region:
Video: Enhanced Widescreen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
DVD Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
Language: English, italian
Weight factor: 1 item(s)

Plot Synopsis

After wrapping up a recording session with his garage band, drummer Roberto (Michael Brandon) follows and confronts a mysterious stranger who has been stalking him to an abandoned theater where Roberto impulsively stabs him. A grinning puppet-like figure takes photos of the attack from a mezzanine box, which arrive in an envelope at Roberto's home the following day. It appears that he is being blackmailed, but it's not clear from whom or why. Suspects include a club-footed neighbor and various friends. After Roberto confesses to the stabbing, his housekeeper discovers the killer's identity, is murdered, and an increasingly paranoid Roberto sends his wife, Nina (Mimsy Farmer), out of town. He eventually tracks down the man he stabbed with the help of a flamboyant detective (Jean-Pierre Marielle) and colorful transient friend Godrey (Bud Spencer), but both the man and the detective are killed. Roberto's cousin Dalia (Francine Racette) visits and, against their better judgment, they begin a passionate love affair. Elsewhere, the police use a special camera that can capture the final image a murder victim sees off their eyeball; this technique is used to track down the real killer. ~ Michael Buening, All Movie Guide

Editorial Reviews:

The third directorial effort by famed Italian splatter maestro Dario Argento, created during the middle of his giallo (pulp thriller) phase, Quattro Mosche di Velluto Grigio is an unfortunately overlooked and hard-to-find choice nugget in his oeuvre and the final film of his so-called "Animal Trilogy." The bravura opening-credits sequence, tuned to the music of Roberto's band (composed by Ennio Morricone) spliced with beating heart-shock cuts, establishes Argento's signature Hitchcock-meets-garishly-psychedelic style and sets up Roberto's stalked-by-a-stranger backstory. Its final shot, of a fly getting crushed by cymbals, suggests the tongue-in-cheek cant to the murder mystery that follows. Though the film is stocked with several incredibly effective suspense sequences, the inclusion of a pun-prone gay detective and the inchoate ramblings of Roberto's hobo friend God lead one to believe Argento did not take this film too seriously, so it is less stylistically oppressive than later productions. The storyline is burdened by the sort of Freudian hogwash and scientific make-believe used to propel lesser thrillers, but it's nonetheless relatively easy to follow and so grippingly laid out it's hard to get bogged down in specifics and prevents the film from slipping into camp. Franco di Giacomo's endless evocative photography is topped off by a hilariously grotesque ending. ~ Michael Buening, All Movie Guide