‘We warned you not to be alone!’
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a 1970 Giallo thriller about an American writer who attempts to unmask a serial killer he witnessed in the act of attempted murder, and who is now hunting him and his girlfriend.
The Italian-West German co-production was written and directed by Dario Argento (Dark Glasses; Dracula 3D; Giallo; The Mother of Tears; Do You Like Hitchcock?; Sleepless; Trauma; Two Evil Eyes; Phenomena; Inferno; Suspiria; Deep Red; Four Flies on Grey Velvet; The Cat o’ Nine Tails), making his directorial debut. The movie stars Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall (Tales That Witness Madness; Craze; Torso) and Enrico Maria Salerno.
The film is an uncredited loose adaptation of Fredric Brown’s novel The Screaming Mimi, which had previously been made into a 1958 Hollywood movie of the same name, directed by Gerd Oswald, even though Argento denied this for years until he finally admitted it.
In an interview with Nocturno magazine in 2002, Italian filmmaker Aldo Lado (Who Saw Her Die?; Short Night of Glass Dolls; Night Train Murders) claimed that he co-wrote Bird, however, Argento has always categorically refuted this.
Plot:
Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) is an American writer living in Rome with his model girlfriend Giulia (Suzy Kendall). Suffering from writer’s block (“I haven’t written a line in two years”), Sam is on the verge of returning to America, but witnesses the attack of a woman in a modern 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 (Eva Renzi), the wife of the gallery’s owner, Alberto Ranieri (Umberto Raho), survives the attack and the local police confiscate 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…
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“The various stalking scenes are handled with style and élan, and if the murders themselves are not as operatic and over-the-top in their savage intensity as they would be in later films, they are still loaded with wonderful touches and details which linger in the mind long after the film has finished.” Troy Howarth, So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films Volume One book
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“Taking the lead from Mario Bava, Argento quickly established his trademark elements of beautifully staged set pieces, fetishizing graphic violence, and clever misdirection.” J.A. Kerswell, Teenage Wasteland: The Slasher Movie Uncut book
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“The dialogue is sappy; the post-synchronization dreadful; the blood too thin; the moods too thick—and yet The Bird With the Crystal Plumage has the energy to support its elaborateness and the decency to display its devices with style. Something from each of its better models has stuck, and it is pleasant to rediscover old horrors in such handsome new décor.” Vincent Canby, The New York Times, July 23, 1970
“The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is billed as a thriller, and it’s a pretty good one. But its scares are on a much more basic level than in, say, a thriller by Hitchcock. It works mostly by exploiting our fear of the dark.” Roger Ebert, October 14, 1970
Cast and characters:
Tony Musante … Sam Dalmas
Suzy Kendall … Julia
Enrico Maria Salerno … Inspector Morosini
Eva Renzi … Monica Ranieri
Umberto Raho … Alberto Ranieri
Renato Romano … Professor Carlo Dover
Giuseppe Castellano … Monti
Mario Adorf … Berto Consalvi
Pino Patti … Faiena
Gildo Di Marco … Garullo
Rosita Torosh … Fourth Victim
Omar Bonaro … Police Detective
Fulvio Mingozzi … Police Detective
Werner Peters … Antique Dealer
Karen Valenti … Tina, Fifth Victim
Carla Mancini … Girl watching TV
Bruno Erba … Police Detective
Reggie Nalder … Yellow Jacket Assassin
Technical specs:
1 hour 36 minutes
Audio: Mono
Eastmancolor
Aspect ratio: 2.35: 1
Filming locations:
Filmed in 1969 in Rome and Naples.
Original titles:
L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo – Italy
Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Handschuhe – Germany (where it was promoted as a Krimi)
Alternate US title:
Point of Terror
US reissue title:
The Phantom of Terror
Fun facts:
The rare “Siberian” bird from which the title of the film comes is a Crowned Crane native to Africa.
Original trailer [1080p HD]:
Arrow Video trailer [4K UHD]:
Free to watch on YouTube [1080p HD] – click to watch:
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