Michael's Horror Lase-O-Rama: The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1998, ROAN Group)

Source: LDDB.com

---

The first Dario Argento film I ever saw was Suspiria, purchased on VHS from a second-hand store twenty years ago. At the time, I had no idea what to make of it. Maybe it wasn't the best choice for my initial foray into Italian cinema, and maybe I didn't understand what was going on half the time, but I'll be damned if bits and pieces of the film didn't lodge themselves into my brain. The night after watching it, I remember laying in bed trying for hours to fall asleep, but being unable to do so because my mind couldn't stop trying to make heads or tails out of the experience. Watching Suspiria gave me the same feelings as waking up after a terrifying nightmare, and trying to make sense of all the illogical "dream logic" that nightmares possess. You ask yourself how and why any of the bizarre things going on could have possibly made sense, and maybe you can even laugh at them later as you realize how completely absurd things got, but the fact remains that while in the dream state, your subconscious is fully and completely committed to the events unfolding seemingly right before your very eyes.

Slowly over the years, I've sought out other Argento films, and found myself generally enjoying them to some degree or another. I didn't do a lot of research on the man, or set out to specifically look for his movies, but if I stumbled across one out in the wild, I usually picked it up and gave it a try. Then, as luck would have it, a few months ago I found myself combing through LaserDiscs at one of my usual haunts, and I came across a copy of the one you see pictured up top.

I had never heard of The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, but all I needed to know was that ROAN Group distributed it, Dario Argento directed it, and it was released in 1970. ROAN was a top-notch publisher of LaserDisc media, focusing their efforts on international works and out-of-print domestic releases from the 1930s to the 1970s. They specialized in horror and exploitation cinema, and were responsible for numerous 'Disc releases of Italian Giallo films like Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace, as well as several Hammer features such as The Satanic Rites of Dracula and The Abominable Snowman. I'll pick up ROAN 'Discs even if I'm unfamiliar with the movie, just because they took such extraordinary care with pressing and usually added special features like commentary tracks, theatrical trailers, and interviews whenever possible. And while The Bird With the Crystal Plumage is light on extras, with only a single bonus trailer at the end of the feature, the fact it was a Dario Argento film I hadn't seen before had me reaching for my wallet without knowing what to expect.

I was not disappointed.

---

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage follows Sam Dalmas, an American author suffering from severe writer's block. When a friend suggests he leave the US and visit Italy (because "nothing much ever happens there"), Sam and his girlfriend Julia book a multi-month stay at a small apartment in Rome. The trip is a moderate success, but just a few days before his flight back home, Sam witnesses an attempted murder while walking home after dark: a young woman and a mysterious dark figure clad in a hat and raincoat clash in the mezzanine of a local art gallery. The shadowy figure stabs the woman and escapes out the back while Sam tries to figure out how to get into the building while the woman collapses to the floor, clutching her bleeding stomach.

Sam gets the attention of a passer-by who contacts the police, and they arrive in time to get the woman, Monica Ranieri, medical attention. Unwilling to let Sam leave because he's a witness to an attempted homicide, the cops confiscate Sam's passport and interrogate him. Despite answering their questions multiple times, Sam insists that there's nothing more he can tell them--he didn't recognize the raincoated figure, and he'd never met Monica before (who is the wife of the gallery owner, and was there after-hours taking care of some bookkeeping). Despite being certain he's told the police everything he knows, Sam feels there's something he's overlooking, and cancels his return flight home to stay and assist the police with their investigation.

Sam and Inspector Morosini (the officer in charge of the case) each continue to work on different leads, as Morosini confesses to Sam that Monica is only the latest victim in a city-wide killing spree which appears to be the work of a serial killer. The killer focuses his attention on young, beautiful women, but aside from that fact there's nothing else the victims have in common: they all lived in different places, worked different jobs, and had different hair styles and colors. Sam finds his writer's block has all but vanished due to the excitement, and he continues to conduct his own investigations, much to Julia's chagrin, especially after the killer begins to taunt first Morosini and later Sam over the telephone and makes direct threats on Julia's life. Sam decides the danger isn't worth it and is preparing to fly out of Italy when he plays back a recording of one of the threats for a friend, who recognizes a strange sound in the background as the cry of an extremely rare bird, native to Siberia, and almost impossible to keep alive in any other climate. In fact, Sam's friend knows where the only one of its kind in captivity in Italy resides, a revelation which will lead both Sam and the police to the home of the murderer...which may spell disaster for them all.

---

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage was phenomenally entertaining, and utterly unlike any other Dario Argento film I've ever seen. It's clearly a Giallo, as it utilizes plenty of the tropes of the genre: multiple women in peril, black-gloved killers, and shadowy chases through dimly-lit areas. Filmed on location in Italy, it's a gorgeous reminder of what the country looked like fifty years ago, with plenty of awesome outdoor and indoor locations that seem that much creepier for their old world architecture and new world sensibilities. There's a phenomenal scene in the second half of the film where Sam is chased by a menacing assassin played by Reggie Nalder, essentially playing the same character he played for Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much. The scene starts out on a dark side-street but shifts to an abandoned alley, then finally a massive, bus-filled parking lot that manages to seem both enormous and claustrophobic at the same time thanks to Vittorio Storaro's exceptional cinematography. Naturally there's a twist, and just when both Sam and the viewer think they have the killer's identity figured out, that's when the film pulls the rug out from under them. The 'missing detail' Sam has been struggling to uncover is, cunningly enough, right in front of the audience the whole time, though much like Sam, I didn't realize I had seen what I had seen. I won't spoil it here, but it makes perfect sense and plays fair with the audience.

If there's one complaint I have with the film, it's that the conclusion and wrap-up take place far too swiftly and neatly. There's a fantastic climax, and then we're treated to a couple minutes of voice-overs explaining why the killer was behaving that way, and then the credits roll. It works, I just wish there had been a little more time and effort put into the exposition. Some Giallo films have conclusions that make very little sense, or ask just a little too much suspension of disbelief from the audience, but Bird doesn't make either of these mistakes. Given this was Argento's first major theatrical film, that in and of itself is quite an accomplishment!

Long story short, I loved The Bird With the Crystal Plumage. The LaserDisc version is presented in a two-sided, CLV-format disc, with a transfer taken from the original 35mm theatrical print (right down to the 'cigarette burns' in the upper right corner), and lovingly mastered into a 2.35:1 widescreen presentation. Movies like this, with their thick, rich black levels, are perfect for the LaserDisc medium, and this one is no exception. Audio is crisp and clean, featuring both digital and analog tracks mastered from the original Mono mix used in the English language version. Ennio Morricone provides the soundtrack, which is by turns jazzy and haunting, sometimes jaunty, sometimes just plain eerie with its titters of female laughter which often play before some poor young girl is about to be savaged by the killer. I get more impressed with this man's film scoring genius the more of his soundtracks I hear.

I was thoroughly entertained the whole time I watched this movie, and I have no problem suggesting it to anyone who enjoys Italian cinema, Giallo films, or Argento's works in general. The violence is minimal, but there are a couple of scenes that managed to get under my skin anyway just for the cruelty suggested or depicted. That said, compared to some of Argento's later productions, this one's positively tame, with very little in the way of blood or nudity. It plays very much like a Hitchcock-style noir mystery, and it does so masterfully.

Five glinting feathers out of five, and check out this psychedelic, trippy trailer!

@janenightshade, have you seen this one? If so, what did you think? :)