Pros: the opportunity to see a great director before he reached his prime
Cons: Fans of Argento's gorier films might be disappointed by the lack of gore here
The Bottom Line: An early Argento classic, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage shows the young filmmaker before he became one of Italian horror cinema's most revered directors.
Mike_Bracken's Full Review: Bird with the Crystal Plumage
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage: Glazier/ Seda Spettacoli
Rating: USA: PG/ UK: 18/ Finland: K-18/ Germany: 16
Released in 1969, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage would be the first film directed by Italian horror icon Dario Argento (Deep Red, Tenebre, and Suspiria). And while it's one of his lesser-known films, it certainly shows both a major talent in the early stages of his career as well as many themes that would be recurrent in his later work.
The plot, which borrows liberally from Fredric Brown's thriller The Screaming Mimi, is the most linear of Argento's films (edging out the fairly straightforward TENEBRE) and a fine example of Italy's giallo subgenre. For those of you not familiar with giallo films, here's a brief explanation:
Giallo (Italian for "yellow") films are a subgenre in the Italian cinema based on popular thriller/mystery novels (so named because their covers are yellow.) These films are essentially murder mysteries, but what sets them apart from their British and American counterparts are the elaborate set-pieces and gory deaths. They are almost single-handedly responsible for ushering in the whole 1980's American slasher era (Friday the 13th is essentially a giallo. Friday the 13th Part 2 director Steve Miner admits to borrowing several death sequences from Mario Bava's Twitch of the Death Nerve.) The films are traditionally noted for placing many red-herrings throughout the plot to throw off the audience, and for featuring masked killers. Good examples of the form are Bava's Blood and Black Lace and Argento's films Tenebre and Four Flies on Grey Velvet.
The Bird With the Crystal Plumage tells a simple, but effective, tale. When Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante: Pope of Greenwich Village), an American writer living in Rome, witnesses an attempted murder while walking home late one night he unwittingly becomes involved in the investigation to capture a madman responsible for the deaths of three women--which causes the killer to take an interest in him.
At its core, the film is almost Hitchcockian in its construction. Unlike later Argento fare, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage features relatively no gore, choosing instead to emphasize the mystery instead of the murder. Like Hitchcock's work, it features a storyline full of twists and turns as well as several red-herrings throughout before it reaches a denouement where every motive is revealed. Fans of Argento's more gory horror offerings might be disappointed with this film, but if they can put aside their disappointment, they'll find what is ultimately a finely crafted thriller.
The film lacks the visual bravura of later works like Suspiria or Opera, but it does showcase many elements that would become Argento staples. In the film's opening, Dalmas witnesses the attempted murder while trapped between two glass walls--unable to attempt to stop the attacker or get help for the victim. It's a theme that would be one of the driving forces in his 1987 film Opera...where the young diva would be bound and forced to watch those dear to her be slaughtered by a masked killer. The idea of a writer trying to solve a murder mystery would be re-explored and expanded upon in 1982's Tenebre. The masked, gloved madman with a fetish for bladed weapons would reappear in almost all of the director's work--and like here, would always be played by Argento himself until the film's climax.
The lack of visual flourishes aside, the film displays some competent, if somewhat plain, direction. The film bogs down when there's a scene involving the police, leading one to speculate that perhaps that's why later Argento films rarely feature any kind of police involvement. Still, the film's most impressive sequence, where the killer, who's outside the apartment, menaces Dalmas' girlfriend Julia (Suzy Kendall: Craze, Death Dealer), clearly demonstrates the auteur's potential.
The Bird With the Crystal Plumage benefits from some fine performances from a strong cast. Musante, Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno (as Inspector Morosini) and Mario Adorf (as a painter who eats cat meat) all bring credibility to their roles and keep what could have been a fairly melodramatic low-budget thriller both interesting and believable.
Legendary film composer Ennio Morricone (Stendhal Syndrome, The Thing, Salo) provides the movie's score, turning in a soundtrack that's somewhat dated sounding by today's standards. It's a fine score, though, managing to never become too obtrusive and it's far better than the heavy metal Argento would use in the majority of his 80s films.
The Bird With the Crystal Plumage is a fine giallo thriller made by a young director who would forever change the face of Italian horror. It's a solid film made by a man who was just beginning to bloom as an auteur and who would later be christened "Italy's Hitchcock". If you're a fan of Argento, or just a fan of thriller films in general, then be sure and check out this under appreciated gem.
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