Giant fan of Italian giallo motion pictures, and one in all my all time favourites on this style is The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970).
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage – which was the primary instalment within the Animal Trilogy, and was adopted by The Cat o’ 9 Tails (1971) and 4 Flies on Gray Velvet (1972) – was additionally the primary giallo film that Dario Argento directed, on his method to making his personal vital mark on this massively common class of filmmaking. Taken from the 1949 novel The Screaming Mimi by Frederick Brown, the film would lay the foundations for the usual giallo movie for the following ten years or so. And in contrast to the 1958 Hollywood model, directed by Gerd Oswald and titled Screaming Mimi, Argento’s providing could be way more violent and lurid, traits for which such giallo administrators as Argento would turn into so well-known.
The fundamental storyline of The Bird With The Crystal Plumage issues an American author, Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) who, while working in Rome together with his mannequin girlfriend, Giulia (performed by the stunning Suzy Kendall, whom I additionally cherished within the different two giallo motion pictures she made, particularly Spasmo and Torso), witnesses the tried homicide of Monica Ranieri (Eva Renzi), a gallery proprietor’s spouse, by a mysterious black-gloved attacker in a raincoat. As he’s trapped between two glass doorways, Sam is powerless to assist the lady, and so can solely watch in utter horror because the assailant makes a swift getaway.
The girl does handle to flee along with her life, and when detectives arrive to analyze the incident, they confiscate Sam’s passport, deeming him to carry info which may be helpful to their pursuit of a person they think could also be chargeable for a number of different murders within the metropolis.
Sam and his girlfriend quickly turn into deeply – and dangerously – entangled within the internet of the killer’s lethal recreation. When Sam will get a phone name from the fiend, he picks up on a sure sound, which is the cry of a uncommon species of fowl from Siberia often called “The Bird With The Crystal Plumage” (because of the diaphanous glint of its feathers). It is the one fowl of its type in the entire of Rome, and it’s stored within the metropolis zoo. Whereas the police are investigating their checklist of suspects, Sam continues his personal investigation, an investigation fraught with knife-edge rigidity and hazard.
There’s a notably nerve-wracking scene involving his girlfriend, when she is left on their lonesome of their condo, and the killer breaks in. This scene is among the most memorable and gripping scenes I’ve seen in a giallo film. And as for the twist on the finish… effectively, with out giving it away lest you have not seen the film, let’s simply say it utterly surprised me, as I by no means noticed it coming. An superior finish to a really superior transfer!
If you have not but seen The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, then I strongly suggest that you simply go and test it out. Not solely is it a veritable masterpiece of giallo filmmaking, however additionally it is a film that you may watch time and again, and there aren’t many movies you’ll be able to say that about.
Add Comment