165: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

After the meandering, self-indulgent, post-modern 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967; #166) I needed some fun, and I found I’d made a perfect choice with Dario Argento’s debut feature, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970).  This mystery has everything that a good piece of entertainment should.  It’s enchanting with its depiction of a strange set of murders, and it’s easy to see why audiences and the main character alike get caught up in the resulting intrigue.  It’s a little bit sexy and a little bit scary and all-around enjoyable. 

           

            Just before the expatriate American writer Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) plans to leave Rome with his girlfriend Julia (Suzy Kendall), he witnesses the violent attack of a woman through the pane glass doors of an art gallery.  It’s the kind of gallery which features art that would be loved by fans of 2 or 3 Things and rich weirdoes. The woman survives as a result of his muted interference, but Sam does not wish to become involved in the investigation.  That is until he becomes convinced, at first by a police inspector and then by himself, that he saw something during the attack which does not add up.  Becoming obsessed, he slowly finds that the more he learns about the murders the more the murderer takes an interest in him, setting up some amazing sequences of suspense.

           

            While many of the plot elements employed here are somewhat predictable, the ultimate twist of the story delivers in spades, and the movie had me guessing until almost the final scene.  Ending in the same place where the plot began, here Argento makes clever use of the post-modern décor.  This is the second Argento that I’ve seen in as many weeks and I must say that, based on these pictures, I believe I was mislead about his work.  Neither Bird nor Suspiria (1977; # 173) seemed hokey or schlocky to me while I was watching.  Yes, in retrospect some of the elements employed therein have a bit of a campy feel, but I didn’t find them distracting as I was genuinely engrossed in each of these films.  Admittedly, the dubbing in Bird isn’t as well executed as in the later picture.

           

            Unlike Godard’s attempts with the subject of my previous entry, I don’t think Argento made The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (an intriguing title that ultimately bears relatively little significance to the plot) with any intentions of creating a grand statement about life in the contemporary world.  The film is simply a taut piece of suspense that generated enjoyment, in my life at least, and should be sought out by intelligent audiences looking for a thriller with just a hint of low culture.

Grade: 3 Hats Off