Roberto Tobias (Michael Brandon) is a musician, who suddenly starts to notice that a man is following him. One night after a hectic session Roberto notices the shadowy figure watching him again, desperate to get to the bottom of his stalker incident Roberto pursues him to an old derelict theatre where in a strange turn of events a fight breaks out and Roberto accidentally kills his stalker. This alone might be a problem, but Roberto observes a strange plastic headed figure stood in one of the theatres boxes taking photographs of the incident.

Deciding not to go to the police as he does not feel he caused the man's death and certainly does not want to serve the guaranteed 15 year prison sentence, knowing he would not survive; Roberto opts to remain quiet about the murder with everyone except his wife Nina (Mimsy Farmer). Just as Roberto thinks that all is safe the plastic headed photographer begins calling Roberto, and sending him messages, with no financial goals in place Roberto cannot help but wonder what vile trap he has fallen into.

Four Flies On Grey Velvet is the most unusual of Dario Argento's offerings, and by most people's standards I appreciate this is a already a strange area to be in. Why I say its unusual is that Argento's other works have a certain feel about them, so much so that you can practically smell his hands on a movie. Four Flies does not look anything like an Argento movie, lacking the usual graphic focus, killer music score, and subtle almost Laurel & Hardy style humour. You could argue that Four Flies is in fact the product of any drug induced Italian, the movie has a certain hippie like free love feel, and a sense of humour that while strong is not typical Argento material.

The humour as a starting point is more "American" in its feel, but I guess a big factor in this is the fact that that Four Flies was the first of Argento's movies funded by a big organisation, in this case Universal Pictures. This could answer a lot of issues about the movie that feels an awful lot like the movie Easy Rider. The first sign of humour comes in the form of the big plastic head that the photographer wears "what's that all about?" I had to ask myself. Then in Roberto's visit to the river in search of God! God well actually Godfrey played by the legendary Bud Spencer, is an odd hobo type character living on the river with a hanger on of a friend called the Professor. As Brandon calls down to "God!" a chant of Halleluiah is heard to symbolise the importance.

Four Flies is not a horror, it falls into the category known as Giallo, a sort of who-dunnit style movie not dissimilar to anything Agatha Christie, but with a lot more of a savage edge. Where as with the likes of Agatha Christie movies, the person dies but you never see the murder; a Giallo usually contains the murder itself, though you don't get to see the perpetrator. While Four Flies is a very capable movie, it falls a little short in the guess who the killer stakes because as is the case with all these movies the killer is known to the audience, by the movies conclusion there were very few people that could actually be the killer.

The music to Four Flies lacks its usual Dario Argento pizzazz, but this falls down to the fact that the musical score is provided by Ennio Morricone, who despite being an excellent composer/writer I don't feel really got Dario Argento as rock band Goblin did. Several of Argento's earlier pictures had Morricone as the musical contributor, this occurred down to a relationship between Dario's father and the composer. While Morricone's score worked incredibly well for Bird With The Crystal Plumage, here its kind of lacklustre, a sort of hippie style track with lots of vocal screeching, making it soundvery much like a bad 70's blacksploitation movie.

Despite the difference in usual Argento humour, Four Flies is actually one of Argento's most amusing works, with a savage beating of a postman you realise is a mistake as soon as Brandon picks up the lead pipe, where exactly do you get lead pipe from anyway? A "shocking" decapitation left me doubled up in hysterics, because I'm convinced that Argento meant this to look bad, it lacks the vigour of his earlier or later works.

While I was not as impressed with Four Flies On Grey Velvet as I am with a lot of other Argento movies, (Cat O'Nine Tails aside) it was great to see the movie, it's one of those things that very few people get to see, due to feuds between Argento and movie producers Universal, who felt they had been given a bad deal compared to the power of "Bird"; Four Flies is definitely not as impressive as the predecessor nor does it have the character of Deep Red. What it does deliver well though is the fact that in his early directorial years Argento was not afraid to experiment.

The now available DVD can only be purchased from one source www.exploitedcinema.com who have the movie under temporary license the saleprice is about $25 (£12.50). Amazon have the same DVD through their Marketplace but more than double the price and through a less reliable seller.

Surprisingly there are special features, four different trailers for the movie from across the world, all of which slightly different some focusing on the movies humour, other on its action. Then there are trailers for Cat O'Nine Tails and The Bird With The Crystal Plumage both of which are the original Italian trailers, neither of which to be honest is in the best of condition; but at least you knowthey are the genuine article.

Finally the movie contains an alternate ending, and alternate opening sequence (sadly in Italian only).

The DVD has audio in English, and German; with subtitles in English, Italian and German.