The wondrous score by Ennio Morricone only adds to one of the most acclaimed genre offerings of 1970.

Argento's inexperience as director led him to nearly be fired and replaced by Lombardo mid-production, but thanks to his robust contract he was able to complete the film. [9]Off with His Head!: The killer tries to chop Sam's head off, but misses because an old woman passing by warns him.

It looks terrific in its HD glory, and thanks to a twist in the final minutes, you may get the urge to watch the whole thing again from a different perspective.

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Arrow ports over mostof the material from their previous Limited Edition Blu-ray, replacing a couple of things and adding on. In relation to disc content, Arrow doesport everything over. From the original Blu-ray review: After initially becoming a suspect himself, Sam is increasingly obsessed with trying to decipher what he saw on that violent night, digging into a string of similar murders. He becomes the audience surrogate, questioning what he saw in the same way that an audience member should question the images up on the screen. What did he miss? What did we miss? In an eventual common trait of the giallo, the hero ends up both a suspect, at least initially, and a target. Giallo is often about average people who are thrust into worlds of violence and Sam Dalmas is a typical genre protagonist, someone whose safety is threatened by what he’s seen even as he can’t quite comprehend exactly what he witnessed. In giallo, plunges into violent worlds are sudden—Sam doesn’t ask to be a crucial part of this case, but he has no choice once he opens that door.

Koven, Mikel J. (2006). La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film (e-booked.). The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5870-1. It also established the key traits that would define Argento’s filmography, including lavish visuals and a flare for wildly inventive, brutal scenes of violence. See his offering Tenebrae reviewed elsewhere if you want further proof. “Grows obsessed” The Bird with the Crystal Plumage ( Italian: L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo) is a 1970 giallo film written and directed by Dario Argento, in his directorial debut. It stars Tony Musante as an American writer in Rome who witnesses a serial killer targeting young women, and tries to uncover the murderer's identity before he become their next victim. The cast also features Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi, Umberto Raho and Mario Adorf. To accommodate the international cast and better facilitate English-language distribution, the film was shot primarily in English and MOS, with all dialogue and foley dubbed in. The English-language version was supervised by Robert Rietti; Tony Musante and Suzy Kendall did their own English dubbing. The Italian version was overseen by Mimmo Palmara. In 1970, young first-time director Dario Argento ( Deep Red, Suspiria) made his indelible mark on Italian cinema with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage– a film which redefined the ‘giallo’ genre of murder-mystery thrillers and catapulted him to international stardom.

Examples in this film:

It doesn't look like Arrow has done any further restoration, not that it was really needed: a few minor tram lines and a few specs still show up, though they're a little more noticeable, probably due to the increased resolution. That said they're still very minor.

Argento initially had no intention of directing the film, but after several directors including Duccio Tessari and Terence Young turned it down, Argento decided to make it himself, and got his father Salvatore to produce. [9] He and his assistant Aldo Lado heavily rewrote the script during filming, so that it became less and less directly tied to Brown's novel. [9] Casting [ edit ] Once More, with Clarity: You can clearly see that Monica is the one holding the knife if you know what you're looking for, but the scene likely goes by too fast the first time to notice. Take My Hand!: When Sam and Inspector Morosini are attempting to arrest Alberto, he falls out of the open window while fighting them. Sam and Morosini each grab one of his arms, but are not able to hold him and he falls to his death. A scene with an eccentric artist might leave some cat lovers reaching for the off button. But while the movie may be littered with problems, its positives far outweigh the negatives. And one of the best things about it is I was still guessing who the killer was in the final few minutes. Blue Underground have provided the same quartet of interviews that graced their Special Edition SD release. First up is a surprisingly decent session with Dario Argento, himself, entitled Out Of The Shadows. Notoriously uncomfortable and laborious when it comes to such things as discussing his own work on-camera, the filmmaker actually comes over quite well this time out, no doubt because of his evident pride at what he accomplished on his fledgling directorial mission. He describes the less-than-overjoyed reaction he gained from Morricone when he provided the musical genius with ideas of how he thought the score should sound, and he manages to answer the question that both Alan Jones and Kim Newman posed when commentating on the movie - about whether or not a real camera was dropped from a sixth floor window to obtain that incredible swift-descent shot. The interview lasts for 18 minutes.a b c d Collins, Frank (19 June 2017). "THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1970) • Frame Rated". Frame Rated . Retrieved 4 July 2023.