The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
Dario Argento's directorial debut and the first and best of his animal trilogy.
Well crafted and especially well acted, Tony Musante makes for an appealing hero who witnesses an attempted murder at a posh gallery and is then rather unwillingly roped in by a local detective - an equally good Enrico Maria Salerno - to help trace the would be killer. Sadly English actress Suzy Kendall is underused for the most and then totally loses herself in over acting madness at the finale.
Stylishly shot, Argento's classic camera techniques were in the teething stage here but on the whole are delightfully done. Witness a tracking shot of Musante which elevates from street level onto a roof top before giving us a magical vista of Rome. The same goes for the murder set pieces. Innovative and occasionally bloody but not as gruesome as in later efforts. Whilst a couple are rather tame, one assault in a womans bedroom is all quite sleazy. Dario does ramp up the tension in the build up to a kill in a way so many Italian thriller directors fail to do. You can see his Hitchcockian traits in The Bird With the Crystal Plumage and whilst it's possibly a lazy way to describe him it also feels spot on.
The Bird With the Crystal Plumage is often described as a seminal giallo. Yes i'd go along with that. Recommended!
|