Rating: 
Summary: For Giallo Fans
Review: "The Bird with the Crystal Plummage" is pretty atypical of the kind of strange, slightly surreal or op art horror films that were the rage in the 60's and early 70's, this one being an Italian giallo. It is the debut of Dario Argente, and no, it is not in the same league as Hitchcock, in spite of some nods to the Master, but there are the germs of what would become Argente's signature techniques as a director; he would perfect this distinctive style in films like "Suspiria." Frankly, there is something a tad amateurish about this film, yet it still is quite effective with chills and even a twist ending. It's not a film to watch alone at night (or maybe, for some, it is). Although I scoffed at all those breathy "la la la"s on the soundtrack (very 60's), for instance, they did succeed in unnerving me.
Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) is an American reporter living in Rome who witnesses an attempted murder, although as it states above, he does manage to scare off the would-be killer. Shortly he learns that there is a serial killer at large in Rome, this attempted murder the mark of the same hand, and becomes absorbed in getting to the bottom of it, plagued by the feeling that something "wasn't right" about what he saw. There are indeed many plot twists and macabre characters that pop up, keeping viewers on edge.
What bothers me, however, is that the pretty young women that appear in these films are mainly there to serve as victims. Some entertainment is supposed to be found in watching them being terrorized, mutilated and murdered in as much graphic detail as possible; actually the gore is much less here than in later giallos from Argente, but the upshot remains the same: pleasure in watching a pretty girl killed. This is an aspect I dislike and the link of sex and violence, particularly with women as victims, remains a blatant "kick" today as it was then. Lots of sexual S&M (whippings, stake-burnings, etc.) seemed to explode in horror films beginning in the 60's. That aspect is as unsettling as all the creepiness in the film.
In sum, a creepily effective giallo with good twist ending should satisfy giallo/horror fans, but violence towards women as "turn-on" disturbing.
Rating: 
Summary: Buon giorno, Mr. Hitchcock.
Review: *The Bird with the Crystal Plumage* is cult-fave Dario Argento's first movie. Horror fans have complained that *Bird* is too tame for their bloody taste; that it's for "completists" only. (Meaning, Argento fans should have it only to complete their collection, and others need not bother.) They're right, in a sense: we certainly don't swim through rivers of blood and gobbets of gore as we will later in Argento's *Deep Red* and *Suspiria*. This 1969 film explicitly tips its hat to *Psycho* -- and the Hitchcock oeuvre, generally -- without straying too far beyond the parameters of graphic violence that had been set by the earlier film. Hitchcock devotees will be familiar with the type of protagonist presented here: an American in Rome who becomes a witness to a murder, finds himself under a cloud of suspicion, is hunted by the real killer, starts an investigation of his own . . . you know the drill. (Tony Musante's inept performance is good for some chuckles. Though to be fair, he's Olivier compared to the amateurs Argento tends to cast in his films.) In any case, there's more to any movie than just blood & guts, all you horror fans out there. This movie has about 6 or 7 set-pieces -- Musante witnessing the crime while trapped within glass partitions like a bug in a jar; a chase through a graveyard for Rome's public buses; our hero getting literally pressed down by a collapsed sculpture that has spikes; the surprising revelations at the end; and especially the cloaked killer's attempt to carve a hole through a door using his murderous knife, in order to get at the hero's girlfriend -- ALL of which are worthy of the deepest admiration.
Rating: 
Summary: A movie only an Argento fan could love.
Review: A great title and one fabulous scene: the attack in the art gallery at the beginning, which is truly beautiful and chilling. It's all downhill from there and by the end I was fairly bored. If I had seen the video version, I might have blamed its lameness largely on dubbing, but I saw it in a theatre in the original Italian with subtitles. Argento shamelessly pleads for Hitchcock comparisons with his lifts from "Psycho," and plenty of commentors dutifully oblige him. The two directors shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence. Judging from the two Argentos I've seen, this and "Suspiria," he just makes assemblages of flashy set pieces with characters and story as an afterthought. Plenty of his fans admit this cheerfully, which I guess is to their credit. But I fail to see how this makes him a modern master of suspense. In "Bird", I saw people too dishwater-dull to care about, and a plot so lazy that it doesn't matter what's going to happen next because none of it makes sense anyway. What am I supposed to be gripped by? Argento's design sense? D.A.'s stellar reputation and obvious visual skills are enough for me to check out some of his other stuff, to see what I might be missing. But so far, it seems to me the cult of "Argentines" need to get a grip. A note: Oddly, Amazon, contrary to their usual practice, lists the widescreen and pan-and-scan videos as two entirely separate items, with different reviews and everything. I just thought people should be aware of this.
Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: Although I was obsessed with finding Suspiria years ago before it was available on video or laser, Bird... and Deep Red are still Argento's best films. I am still waiting for Deep Red widescreen on DVD !
Rating: 
Summary: An different terrific suspense thriller.
Review: An american writer (Tony Musante) witness a close murder by a person, who could be a He or a She. He becomes drawn into the web of mystery and violence. This film features a good lead performance by Musante, Strong Cinematography by Vittorio Storaro (Apocalyspe Now, Ladyhawke) and Fine music score by Ennio Morricone (John Carpenter`s The Thing, The Untouchables). One of Dario Argento`s (Suspiria, Phenomena) best films and also his first film. Cromoscope. Grade:A-.
Rating:
Summary: An Authentic Masterpiece from Argento
Review: Bird with the Crystal Plumage, despite a mouthful title, is an authentic masterpiece from Dario Argento, along with Profundo Rosso/Deep Red. Stylistically the film is rather Hitchcockian (conscious references are made to Hitch, for instance, through the presence of Reggie Nalder as an assassin, who plays a similar role in Hitch's The Man Who Knew Too Much)and Argento fans may find it tame and subdued in comparison to his later works. Whatever it lacks in stylistic flourishes, however, the movie makes up for with a well-constructed, suspenseful narrative, taught editing, serviceable-to-good performances (all elements sometimes lacking in Argento's later efforts) and one of the creepiest music scores ever written by Ennio Moriconne, thankfully isolated in an audio track. This is one purchase of an Italian giallo DVD I am glad to have made.
Rating: 
Summary: For Argento completists only
Review: Dario Argento's career can be mapped with two films: Suspiria, a benchmark for all supernatural horror films, and Profondo Rosso, a benchmark for modern mystery. Argento has mande many more films in his time, of course, but those are the two standouts, and it often seems as if the other films he's made all tie back to those two. I've never gotten that feeling as much as I did with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, one of Argento's first releases. This one goes into the straight-mystery genre, and many elements of Profondo Ross can be found here, even down to similar scenery. The plot, also, is a familiar one-- a serial killer stalking the streets of Italy and an American citizen staying in Italy who gets himself involved in the investigation. It seems almost as if Argento were cutting his teeth here, preparing himself and getting his symbolism in line for the real work; as such, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is for Argento fans only; others would be much better served finding a copy of Profondo Rosso.
Rating:
Summary: Suspense at its best!
Review: Dario Argento's first film is among his best. My favorite set-up (average guy caught in bizarre adventure) along with beautiful camerawork makes for a great two hours. A must for Argento fans and for fans of suspense films. Best line in the movie... "Bring out the perverts."
Rating:
Summary: This Is Where Argento's Journey Begins
Review: Dario Argento's first film is an extremely enjoyable taut thriller, introducing visual themes that crop up on subsequent films (murders with sexual overtones, inventive camera work, lighting, and color schemes), a wonderful Ennio Morricone soundtrack, and plenty of black humor. This DVD has the theatrical trailer along with the full Morricone score. If you're a thriller fan you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Broad appeal for Argento's debut feature
Review: Even those who don't care for writer-director Dario Argento's later baroque extravaganzas may warm to his debut feature "The Bird With the Crystal Plumage" (L'Uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo, 1969), a well-received thriller in which an American writer living in Rome (Tony Musante) witnesses an assault on a woman in an art gallery and is subsequently targeted by the would-be assassin, a crazed psychopath who's been terrorizing the city with a series of brutal murders. Typical of an Argento thriller, the hapless hero's investigation unleashes a cycle of violence which culminates in a climactic unmasking that will take some viewers completely by surprise. Loosely inspired by Fredric Brown's novel 'The Screaming Mimi' (filmed under that title in 1958), Argento's first film is a fairly straightforward thriller with horror asides, anchored by a strong narrative, an increasingly bizarre series of supporting characters, and a strong Everyman hero who slots the puzzle together piece by piece before realizing that the most important clue to the killer's identity was there in front of him all the time. Musante is given excellent support by English actress Suzy Kendall as his girlfriend (the scene in which she's besieged alone in her apartment as the killer hacks through the door with a knife is truly the stuff of nightmares) and Enrico Maria Salerno as the cop charged with finding the killer before he/she strikes again. Despite Argento's prior screenwriting credits, including significant contributions to the script of Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" (C'era una Volta il West, 1969), producers were unconvinced of his directorial abilities and wanted to pull him off the picture during the first few weeks of shooting, but Argento persevered under an iron-clad contract and ultimately proved his critics wrong with the finished product, a genuinely engrossing mystery punctuated by scenes of explicit horror. The film puts a late-1960s Italian spin on the kind of movie that Hitchcock had already popularized in America, and is leavened with the same kind of uproarious humor: Salerno gets the best line of dialogue during a police line-up when he despairs: "How many times do I have to tell you? Ursula Andress belongs with the transvestites, not the perverts!" And later, an outrageously camp antiques dealer offers a jaw-dropping description of one of the killer's former victims: "It was said she preferred women. I couldn't care less - I'm no racist, for heaven's sake!" Briskly edited by Franco Fraticelli, and featuring a brief appearance from distinctive character actor Reggie Nalder ("Mark of the Devil", "Salem's Lot") as an assassin-for-hire, "Bird" is arguably Argento's warmest, most humane thriller until "Tenebrae" (Tenebre) in 1982. VCI's region-free DVD runs 95m 47s (not including the UMC logo at the beginning, which wasn't part of the original film) and restores all of the violence that was cut from the initial US theatrical release. The restored material is derived from a separate source - possibly VHS - and is of lesser quality than the bulk of the film, which offers a bright, colorful rendition of the Cromoscope image, slightly reframed to 2.20:1 (from the original 2.35:1), anamorphically enhanced. VCI were forced to issue a 'corrected' version of the disc when it was discovered that one of the restored sequences - the bedroom murder - had been edited incorrectly. However, both versions offer an unnecessary two-channel stereo 'enhancement' of the mono original which sounds more than a little forced and unnatural, made worse because the dialogue is badly out of sync for the duration of the movie, and while the film relies primarily on Vittorio Storaro's widescreen visuals, the audio blemish provides a hideous distraction during prolonged conversation sequences. Ennio Morricone's lilting, melancholy music score is cut off at the end, just as the last credits disappear from the screen, whereas it continued for almost another minute in the theatrical version. There's a letterboxed trailer and an audio-only soundtrack option, but no captions or subtitles of any kind.
|
