Euro Cult Movie Forum > Gialli
Four Flies On Grey Velvet (Dario Argento, 1971)
Paul:
Original Italian title: Quattro mosche di velluto grigio
Not a particularly great giallo, Argento's third film (and concluding part of his Animal Trilogy, following BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE and CAT O'NINE TAILS) has become somewhat of a holy grail among EuroCult collectors due to it's lack of availability on VHS and DVD. The film was never legally released on VHS in the US, UK or Australia, with only Italian or French language prints officially put out in France, Italy and Belgium (and possible Greece?). An English-language bootleg surfaced, taken from a scope print of pretty awful quality: the print is horrendously dark, rendering many of the night scenes unwatchable and the print damage is so bad that a great deal of the footage in the scene that introduces Bud Spencer is missing...
I've only seen the film once - saw it at the Argento retrospective held during the 1996 Fantasm Film Festival at the NFT in London - it's a good, solid giallo. It's not a perfect film, but does benefit from some beautiful scope photography and some nicely constructed set-pieces. I'm desperate to get my hands on a legitimate DVD, as I'd love to see the film again, properly, but all previous attempts made by film companies to release the film have met a brick wall. A rights entanglement between two major Hollywood studios and a now bankrupt Italian production company have led to any proposed releases being abandoned...
That is, until now. Over on DVD Maniacs, our man--Marin--from European DVD distributor NEW Entertainment has been dropping hints (and screengrabs!), suggesting that one of Italy's most allusive titles is due for imminent release. He does stress in his posts that it is NOT New that is putting it out, but all other references to this release are vague at best.
Here's two of the surviving screengrabs (the couple of other pics he added seem to have disappeared) that he posted on DVD Maniacs. AS you can see, they're of a nice quality, so let's hope this release sees the light of day!
So Marin, can you tell us what's going on, or what? :-\
spannick:
not more than anywhere else which is next to nothing - yet -
Paul:
You're a real tease - still, we've waited a hell of a ong time to get hold of this film in a decent version, so we can wait a little longer.
zombiefan3999:
ill own this also. If and when it ever gets out.
MarcMorris:
Paramount own world rights.
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