Four Flies on Grey Velvet
Four Flies on Grey Velvet is a 1971 film from France and Italy, directed by Dario Argento, running 103 minutes. reelscum files it under giallo.
- Year
- 1971 · 1970s films
- Runtime
- 103 min
- Director
- Dario Argento
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- known (23/100)
Defined in the glossary: Giallo
Argento's third. Unavailable for decades, and worth the wait for the last shot.
The third of Argento's early animal-titled gialli, unavailable for decades due to rights problems and worth the wait mostly for its ideas. A drummer is stalked and framed by a blackmailer, and the film hangs on a bit of pseudo-science about the last image on a dead retina.
It is minor Argento, baggy and uneven, but it has flashes of what was coming: a decapitation shot in extreme slow motion, a bleak final image. Ennio Morricone scored it, and the two fell out afterward for years.
For completists first, but the good moments are very good.
Trailer
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Written about
- The giallo, 1963 to 1976
A line of yellow paperbacks, a killer in black gloves, and Mario Bava building the American slasher a decade before Hollywood cashed the cheque.
Filed alongside
Opera
Needles taped under the eyes so she cannot look away. Argento's last truly great film.
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Don't Torture a Duckling
Fulci's best film and his angriest. A giallo about mob justice in a village.
The Cat o' Nine Tails
Argento's least favourite of his own films. He is roughly right.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
The one usually called the first giallo. Still half a krimi.
Blood and Black Lace
The template, and still the best-looking film on this list.
Alice, Sweet Alice
American giallo in Catholic New Jersey. Genuinely disturbing and well acted.
Inferno
Argento's sequel to Suspiria. Even less plot, even more colour. A building that is alive.
Phenomena
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Torso
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The New York Ripper
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A Bay of Blood
Bava invents the slasher a decade early. Friday the 13th copied two kills outright.