Taglines: A stunning portrait in psycho-terror!
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage movie storyline. Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) is an American writer vacationing in Rome with his English model girlfriend Julia (Suzy Kendall). Suffering from writer’s block, Sam is on the verge of returning to America, but witnesses the attack of a woman in an art gallery by a mysterious black-gloved assailant dressed in a raincoat.
Attempting to reach her, Sam is trapped between two mechanically-operated glass doors and can only watch as the villain makes his escape. The woman, Monica Ranieri, the wife of the gallery’s owner, Alberto Ranieri, survives the attack and the local police confiscates Sam’s passport to stop him from leaving the country; the assailant is believed to be a serial killer who is killing young women across the city, and Sam is an important witness.
Sam is haunted by what he saw that night, feeling sure that some vital clue is evading him, and he decides to help Inspector Morosini in his investigation. He interviews the pimp of a murdered prostitute and visits a shop where one of the victims worked. There, he finds that the last thing she sold on the day of her death was a painting of a stark landscape featuring a man in a raincoat apparently murdering a young woman. He visits the artist, but finds only another dead end. As he makes his way back to his apartment, Julia is attacked by the same black-gloved figure, but Sam arrives home just in time to save her and the assailant escapes.
Sam starts to receive menacing phone calls from the killer, from which the police manage to isolate an odd cricketing noise in the background, which is later revealed to be the call of a rare breed of bird from Siberia, called “The Bird with Crystal Plumage” due to the diaphanous glint of its feathers. This proves important since the only one of its kind in Rome is kept in the Italian capital’s zoo, allowing Sam and the police to identify the killer’s abode. There they once again find Monica Ranieri, this time struggling with her husband, Alberto, who is wielding a knife. After a short struggle, Alberto is dropped from six stories onto a concrete sidewalk below. As he dies, he confesses to the murders and tells them he loves his wife.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Italian: L’Uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo) is a 1970 giallo film directed by Dario Argento, in his directorial debut. The film has been credited with popularizing the Italian giallo genre. It is the first installment in the Animal Trilogy, and was followed by The Cat o’ Nine Tails (1971) and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1972). Written by Argento, the film borrowed liberally from Fredric Brown’s novel The Screaming Mimi, which had previously been made into a Hollywood film, Screaming Mimi (1958), directed by Gerd Oswald.
The film was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe award for best motion picture in 1971. The film was originally cut by 20 seconds for its US release and received a ‘GP’ rating, though it was later re-classified as ‘PG’. It has since been released in the US uncut.[citation needed] Upon its release the film was a huge box office hit, grossing 1,650,000,000 Italian lira (roughly about $1 million US), twice the production cost of $500,000. The film was also a success outside of Italy, gaining €1,366,884 admissions in Spain.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
Directed by: Dario Argento
Starring: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi, Umberto Raho, Renato Romano, Giuseppe Castellano, Mario Adorf, Pino Patti, Rosita Torosh, Karen Valenti
Screenplay by: Dario Argento
Production Design by: Dario Micheli
Cinematography by: Vittorio Storaro
Film Editing by: Franco Fraticelli
Costume Design by: Dario Micheli
Music by: Ennio Morricone
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Titanus (Italy), Constantin Film (West Germany)
Release Date: February 19, 1970 (Italy), June 24, 1970 (West Germany)
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