Crystal Plumage (1970)
Dir: Dario Argento
Cast: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Eva Renzi,
Enrico Maria Salerno, Reggie Nalder, Mario Adorf
Not Rated, Approx: 96 Minutes
Blue Underground DVD
- L’ Uccello dalle piume di cristallo
the horror debut of Dario Argento.
genre’s most gifted filmmakers. The official debut of Dario Argento as a solo writer/director, The Bird with the
Crystal Plumage, earned him the label “the Italian Hitchcock” and garnered the attention of thriller fans everywhere.
Even now, some 36 years later, the film remains a favorite among the director’s fans and is still considered by many
to be a classy example of the genre.
the know, the giallo is a term used to describe the lurid crime thrillers that acquired considerable popularity
throughout the 70s. Often inspired by pulp mystery novels, the word giallo simply means ‘yellow’ in Italian and refers
to the type of paper on which the books were often printed. The worldwide successes of 'Bird' brought a lot of
attention to the genre, and before long similarly themed films were literally flooding out of Italy.
that in addition to borrowing elements from Hitchcock, he also uses touches populated by Mario Bava in his two
previous giallo thrillers: The Girl Who Knew too Much (1963) and Blood and Black Lace (1964). I don’t want to
spoil the events of any films in question however, so I’ll offer you a vague list of similarities: the idea of an American
witnessing some sort of crime while visiting a foreign country, the look and feel of the killer and finally, one key plot
twist shared by Bava’s 'Girl' with Argento’s 'Bird' that will not be spoiled in this review.
remarkable. Our hero is Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante), an American writer visiting Rome, who happens to be in the
wrong place at the wrong time. While walking back to his flat one night, he becomes eyewitness to a life and death
struggle between an imposing, black-clad figure and a panic-stricken woman. Dalmas tries to help but finds himself
trapped in the foyer of the store where the attack is occurring. His presence scares off the assailant but embroils him
in a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a twisted psychopath.
becomes obsessed with a mystery that unfurls to involve a mysterious painting, an incident of violence ten years
prior to the events of the story and a yellow-jacketed assassin. Moreover, we’ve got a deranged killer who gets off
on photographing women before sexually assailing them, so in short, the film is never tedious. Some of Argento’s
trappings may not fit neatly into place when all is said and done but the film packs such a wallop that it’s easy to
forgive the shortcomings.
the film’s plot, if you will. It’s a safe bet that 'Bird' would’ve played fine without them as they only exist to provide
exposition (the director would find more interesting ways to convey the narrative in later films), but I’m hard-pressed
to see how they take away from the pace. Then again, I was never all that annoyed by the explanation-laden
epilogue at the end of Psycho so maybe I’m not the best person to judge.
remember the mesmerizing opening, or the sinister taunts of the killer than anything that may not work. 'Bird' also
has the distinction of featuring one of the scariest moments in Argento’s entire canon; a tense-as-hell sequence
involving the killer’s raid on Dalmas’ apartment with only our hero’s girlfriend, Suzy Kendall, at home. It manages to
capture nearly everything that makes films of this kind work and Kendall’s performance simply seals the deal. We
can feel her panic gradually giving way to mania as her safety devices are taken away, first the phone, then the lights
and lastly, any chance of escape. This moment is a definite corker.
this film with my earlier words about it sharing elements with the Mario Bava movie, after all, why it works so well here
is just a part of the genius and skill of the director. He manipulates us into seeing things that may not be what they
seem and we, like Sam Dalmas, are left to wonder what little detail we’re missing. Argento always shows us, but he
cleverly averts our attention to something else that’s seemingly more important. This is unabashed confidence on
the part of the director, he threatens to blow the mystery in the opening minutes of the film only to trust his abilities
enough to believe that the viewer will not perceive the key detail.
few decades and is also credited with creating the giallo thriller that would amass amazing popularity in the years that
followed this film. I’d say that 'Bird' did for gialli what Friday the 13th did for slashers in terms of influencing the
wave of imitations. Neither were the first in their respected genres, but it probably was their great financial success
that brought about so many copy cats. Much like Black Christmas and Halloween existed before Friday the 13th,
Mario Bava’s gialli were successful in their own right during the mid 1960s and Argento acknowledges his influences
by borrowing some of their most impressive attributes, that’s true. But he also developed his own impressive style
which itself has spawned many imitators.
are almost always surprising and compelling. A lot of gialli feature superficial motivations for murder, but in the films
of Dario Argento, the killer’s reasons almost always stem from a deeply recessed trauma. His murderers are vividly
human, they’re capable of making mistakes and are often as vulnerable as their victims (as we see in the climaxes).
This is just one of the things that I feel separates his work from other gialli, the humanistic approach to his villains.
Other films have been known to showcase this idea, and Argento certainly didn’t create it, but it’s rarely as successful
as when used by this director.
spectacular two disc special edition. A vast improvement over the previously released VCI DVD, the Blue
Underground package features a beautifully presented 2.35:1 transfer, remastered in High Definition. The 16x9
widescreen puts VCI’s scratchy print to shame and allows the viewer to see just how lush the photography really is.
Kim Newsman, two English journalists. The set includes the international trailer, the Italian trailer along with TV
spots. The second disc is comprised of interviews with Argento, Vittorio Storaro, the film’s cinematographer,
composer Ennio Morricone and actress Eva Renzi.
remains a superbly crafted thriller as it closes in on being 40 years old. Funny, thrilling and surprising, it’s the
perfect starting place for Argento virgins while reminding the already converted precisely why Dario Argento is
regarded as a genius at what he does.
-Matt Serafini 9/10/06
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