The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) on Netflix
GP19701h 36mHorrorMysteryThriller
Sam Dalmas, an American writer in Rome, sees a woman attacked in an art gallery and is trapped between glass doors. The police hold his passport while they hunt a serial killer.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb7.1/1027,491 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes85%
Trailer
Plot summary
Sam Dalmas is an American writer living in Rome with Julia, his English model girlfriend, and he is trying to overcome writer's block. Two days before they plan to fly home, he passes an art gallery and sees a man in a black raincoat and black leather gloves attacking a woman inside. Sliding glass doors trap Sam, so he cannot reach her. She survives and the assailant escapes. Because the police believe the attacker has already killed three young women in the city, they take Sam's passport so that he cannot leave. The attack keeps troubling him, and he begins helping Inspector Morosini. At the antique shop where the first victim worked, he learns that the last item she sold was a painting of a man stabbing a young woman in a snowy landscape.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Dario Argento's inexperience as a director nearly got him fired and replaced by Lombardo mid-production, but a robust contract allowed him to complete the film.
- The Bird with the Crystal Plumage was the first giallo to achieve significant commercial and critical success, and it spawned a brief fad for gialli with verbose animal titles such as Black Belly of the Tarantula and The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire.
- Ennio Morricone composed the score, his first for a giallo film and the first of five collaborations with director Dario Argento.
- Tony Musante, who was cast in the lead after starring in Metti, una sera a cena, had a tense relationship with Argento on set, as Musante's method acting clashed with Argento's technical directing style.
- Argento and his assistant Aldo Lado heavily rewrote the script during filming, so it became less and less directly tied to Brown's novel.
- Reggie Nalder, who had played a hitman in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, was cast after Argento saw him filming an American TV show in Rome.
