Dario Argento launched his long, sporadically brilliant directing career with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970). It provides a template for future giallos, a sloppy but compelling mystery spiced with stylish slayings. American writer Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) witnesses the attempted murder of Monica Ranieri (Eva Renzi) in an art gallery. Police tie the attack to a serial killer terrorizing Rome, and Inspector Morosini (Enrico Maria Salerno) presses Dalmas for details. Dalmas can't remember any clues, but becomes drawn into case anyway as the killer targets him and his girlfriend Julia (Suzy Kendall). A menacing phone call provides an enticing detail that Sam and the Inspector can't quite finger.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is loosely inspired by Fredric Brown's The Screaming Mimi, but owes an equal debt to Alfred Hitchcock's oeuvre and Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup. Argento shows the citizen detective hounded by ineffectual cops as he investigates. He catches an imperfect glimpse of the murderer, trapped between soundless glass doors as Monica's attacked; later, he records a menacing phone call and rattles his memory for hidden details. Argento's Deep Red revisited these tropes, adding Blowup star David Hemmings for good measure.
Plumage has a relatively coherent storyline, a giallo rarity, with clever Macguffins in the title bird and a rare painting. As usual though, its characters are thin. Tony Musante is a bland hero and Suzy Kendall's a pretty whiner. Enrico Maria Salerno breathes life into his stock role, though Mario Adorf's wasted in a strange cameo as a reclusive artist. Eva Renzi is more effective, her role more prominent than appears at a glance.
Plumage's black-gloved killer, fractured flashbacks and long takes became an Argento signature, with Ennio Morricone's eerie score an adequate placeholder for Goblin. The most graphic scene shows the killer attacking a woman in bed, methodically stripping her with a knife; later, we're granted a POV shot of him wielding a razor blade. There's also an excellent chase scene, where a gunman hunts Sam through shadowed alleyways and a crowded bar.
The Bird in the Crystal Plumage doesn't match Deep Red or Tenebre as Argento's masterworks, but it shows his strengths and weaknesses fully formed. Few directors had such a variable filmography, but few were so effective at their best.
