Eye confess!

Posted by rhsmith on November 18, 2008

If you know anything about the cinema of Dario Argento, “the Italian Hitchcock,” you’ll likely be familiar with the relationship of his third feature film FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET (4 MOSCHE DI VELLUTO GRIGIO, 1971) to the phrases “neglected,” “rare” and “impossible to see.” The third and final entry in Argento’s so-called “animal trilogy” (which began with the brilliant THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE/L’UCCELLO DALLE PIUME DI CRISTALLO in 1969 and continued with the less-than-brilliant but nonetheless enjoyable CAT O’NINE TAILS/IL GATTO A NOVE CODE the following year), FOUR FLIES was distributed in the United States by Paramount. Following disappointing box office and a spate of discouraging reviews (Roger Ebert’s Chicago Sun Times hatchet job not only panned the film as “badly dubbed and incoherent” but credited the direction to Dario Argento’s producer father Salvatore), the film was withdrawn and has languished in the vaults ever since.

That is… until now.

Cult film compleatists all over the globe are rubbing their palms together at the announcement that FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET will be released on Region 1 DVD (in widescreen and with a choice of Italian or English soundtracks) on February 24, 2009 from Mya Communication. The weird thing is that most of us don’t think the movie is all that great. It’s middling Argento, falling well below the quality of his best work (THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, DEEP RED/PROFONDO ROSSO, SUSPIRIA, TENEBRE) but certainly better than the stuff he’s been cranking out lately (THE CARD PLAYER, DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK?, MOTHER OF TEARS). What the film has going for it is its vintage, it’s look (thanks to cinematographer Franco DiGiacomo, who later lensed the Taviani Brothers’ NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS/LA NOTTE DI SAN LORENZO and the Oscar-winning IL POSTINO/THE POSTMAN) and the alternatively lovely and jarringly discordant musical score by Ennio Morricone (his last for Argento until 1996). There’s also an intriguing central performance by American actress Mimsy Farmer, who traded in Hollywood starlet-dom for a long working vacation abroad in such Euro-cult thrillers as THE PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK IL PROFUMO DELLA SIGNORA IN NERO, 1974), AUTOPSY (MACCHIE SOLARI, 1975), and THE BLACK CAT (1981).

It says something about the particular aesthetic of the diehard fan of the giallo (giallo is Italian for yellow and, due to the custom of pulp thrillers being printed in Italy with yellow dust jackets, the color has come to stand for the whole of the suspense subgenre involving mysterious, gloved killers and their chic and often aristocratic prey) that we’ll get excited about and rally behind something even we consider to be just okay. FOUR FLIES suffers from some bland casting (after originally considering the likes of Terence Stamp and even John Lennon, Argento cast American actor Michael Brandon in the lead role… perhaps intrigued by the sameness in their slightly androgynous physical appearances) and incongruous comedy relief (Bud Spencer’s cameo as “God” is a reference to the 1949 Frederick Brown novel The Screaming Mimi, elements from which Argento had pirated for all the entries in his “animal trilogy,” but mostly for THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE). The film’s conclusion is also a bit hoary for what was at the time supposed to be the height of sophistication and modernity: the killer’s identity is revealed through a photographic trick that was made popular in the 30s and 40s, when it was believed that the last thing a person saw was imprinted upon the retina of their eyes. (This urban myth was referenced most recently on an episode of the Fox sci-fi series FRINGE, proving irrefutably that you can’t keep a bad idea down.) And yet there’s something about Italian psycho-thrillers that adds value to their component parts even when the aggregation of same don’t amount to a hill of cannellini beans. The most middling, plodding giallo is strangely rewatchable and I suspect I’ll have that reaction while refreshing my perspective on FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET. I’ll watch it once through, start to finish, and think “No, it isn’t very good, is it?” and then I’ll rerun certain scenes, talk about them with fellow Argentophiles, grab frames to use in future blog posts, rerun the moments I like best, watch the whole film again from start to finish, all the while thinking “There’s something here… but what?” The experience should prove to be positively Argentoesque.

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9 Responses Eye confess!

Posted By Fred : November 18, 2008 3:41 pm

I’m glad to hear Four Flies will be out on DVD, even though I agree with your assessment that it is the least accomplished of Argento’s 70s output. I like the soundtrack, always enjoy seeing the quirky Mimsy Farmer in anything and especially enjoyed the Arabian beheading sequence that keeps getting repeated and the gay detective. However, Michael Brandon is just so damn BLAND! I understand the character is supposed to be passive agressive, but Brandon underplays it so much that you have to wonder if it was acting choice or Argento’s direction or both. This left a huge hole in the film that no amount of humor, horror or quirkiness could fill. At least Cat O’ Nine Tails had the good acting duo of Karl Malden and James Franciscus. I’ll definitely pick up a copy of Four Flies, but doubt I’ll watch it as much as Profondo Rosso or Bird with the Crystal Plummage.

Posted By Peter Nellhaus : November 18, 2008 5:23 pm

“Four Flies” was the first Argento film I saw. It was Richard Menello (co-writer of “Two Lovers”) who first told me to check out his films. I’m glad I’ve put off buying the German DVD I read about several months ago. By the way, I had read that Argento was originally thinking of casting James Taylor in the part eventually taken by Michael Brandon.

Posted By Stephen : November 18, 2008 6:40 pm

Glad I can finally ditch my third-gen bootleg VHS copy of this! Even though the whole is less than the sum of its parts, I still enjoy the film in fits and starts.

This post also reminds me that I have that original poster kicking around somewhere, maybe it’s time to give it some wall time.

Posted By RHS : November 18, 2008 6:53 pm

I have the American one-sheet, too (a variation on the insert card at the top of this post). It’s not too thrilling (I prefer the art used on the cover of the German DVD, also above) but I like it.

Posted By Neil : November 18, 2008 9:01 pm

If nothing else, it’s great news because now online discussions of the movie, for better and worse, will be about the movie itself and not its elusive quality. I’m not sure which I’d put over the other in the Four Flies… vs. Cat O’Nine Tails discussion. Cat… is probably “better”, but for reasons that are almost contrary to why one watches a giallo. I’ll probably rewatch Four Flies… more with both on the shelf.

And I have to say, it’s the Morricone score I’m most likely to listen to. I’ve heard people gripe about it, but I think it’s almost unbearably groovy!

Posted By Nicholas : November 20, 2008 2:42 pm

I identify with what you write about the sum of all gialli being greater than their individual parts. For me it’s that in the past 5 or 6 years we finally are able to have an easier lock on the most significant of these films since so many are now available in widescreen on video. It’s become much more of a possibility to appreciate something as part of a whole period or movement in cinema than ever before because of this sort of access, and the result is, just as you describe, that even a lack of real enthusiasm for a title like this probably won’t stand in my way from buying it.

I look forward to revisiting that opening credit sequence, the score, a couple of other small set pieces in this otherwise only marginally interesting movie. DVD’s magic formula of affordability + high standards for quality have ironically made me at once a more knowledgeable viewer — and one now interested in simply appreciating a fragment of something.

Nick

Posted By rhsmith : November 22, 2008 10:51 am

Seeing one of the better gialli in an optimum setting is like being let loose in a museum… there’s stuff you like, stuff you don’t like so much, stuff you hate… but throughout, a nice sense of being truly lost in something bigger than yourself. Because Argento’s films (particularly the early, funny ones… no, wait a minute, I’m thinking of Woody Allen) are often about perception, it’s really less about what he shows you than what you see or sense for yourself.

Posted By Jeremy : November 24, 2008 1:03 pm

I’m more than a little obsessed by Mimsy Farmer in this film. So much so that I always seem to convince myself the movie is better than it is.
I am extremely excited about finally seeing a crystal clear copy of it though and will always prefer it to Cat…although finally I will admit it doesn’t hold a candle to Argento’s best work from the seventies. Morricone’s score is indeed truly out of sight and should be celebrated more.

Posted By RHS : November 25, 2008 2:49 am

I’m a big defender of Cat O’Nine Tails while being fully aware of the qualities (or deficits, if you will) that put people off of it. It took a few viewings for me to warm to it and to see the things about it that are really interesting… and in that spirit I look forward to catching up with Four Flies… in the near future. But isn’t it funny how certain movies can become something like a foster child to you – unwanted by the rest of the world but suddenly the thing nearest and dearest to you?

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