The Bird with the Crystal Plumage movie synopsis. In Italy, the American writer Sam Dalmas witnesses an attempt of murder of the owner of an art gallery, Monica Ranieri, a couple of days before returning home. Inspector Morosini, who is in charge of investigating the three previous murderers of the serial-killer, asks for help to Dalmas and takes his passport. Dalmas decides to stay with his girlfriend Julia and to help the police in the investigation. The killer threatens Dalmas and Julia by phone and the police overhears a strange noise in the tape. Soon the serial killer stalks Julia and Damas. Who might be the killer?
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.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage was released in Italy with a 101-minute running time on 19 February 1970. It was released in Berlin, Germany with a 94-minute running time at the Gloria-Palast on 24 June 1970. In Germany it was marketed as an adaptation of a Bryan Edgar Wallace story. 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.
About the Story
Sam Dalmas is an American writer vacationing in Rome with his English model girlfriend Julia. 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.
Finding that Julia and Monica have run off, Sam goes after them, eventually coming to a darkened building. There he finds his friend Carlo murdered and Julia bound, gagged, and wounded. The assailant emerges and is revealed as Monica Ranieri. Sam suddenly realizes that he didn’t actually miss anything during the first attack; he simply misinterpreted what he saw: the attack he witnessed in the gallery was not Monica being assaulted but rather Monica attacking her husband, who was wearing the raincoat. She flees and he pursues Monica to her art gallery.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
Directed by: Dario Argento
Starring: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi, Giuseppe Castellano, Mario Adorf, Rosita Torosh, Fulvio Mingozzi, Karen Valenti, Werner Peters, Renato Romano
Screenplay by: Dario Argento
Production Design by: Dario Micheli
Cinematography by: Vittorio Storaro
Film Editing by: Franco Fraticelli
Costume Design by: Dario Micheli
Makeup Department: Giuseppe Ferranti, Lidia Puglia
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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