The Bird With the Crystal Plumage
Cast & Crew
Dario Argento
Tony Musante
Suzy Kendall
Eva Renzi
Enrico Maria Salerno
Mario Adorf
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Sam Dalmas, a writer from Philadelphia who is vacationing in Rome, sees through the window of an art gallery a woman struggling with a man. Suddenly the man, brandishing a knife, runs away, and the woman collapses to the floor. Police question Sam, the only witness to the attack; and Inspector Morosini, taking Sam's passport, advises him to remain in the city. Gallery owner Alberto Ranieri identifies the injured woman as his wife and business partner, Monica. Sam begins his own investigation of the incident, both out of curiosity and because he is anxious to depart Italy as soon as possible. He visits the Ranieri apartment but is unable to interview Monica because she is recuperating from the attack. Meanwhile, police, having linked the attack with the recent stabbing deaths of three other women, learn of a fourth murder. Several attempts are made on Sam's life, and he is told in an anonymous telephone call (which he tape-records) that his girl friend, Julia, a model with whom he lives, will die unless they both leave the country. Sam reports the threat to the police and turns over to them the tape recording he has made of the caller's voice, which, as it turns out, does not match the voice in a call police have received from a man claiming to be the murderer. Moreover, Sam's tape contains a peculiar squeaking sound in the background. Morosini, concerned about Sam's safety, returns his passport and releases him from his promise to remain in Rome. Dover, an ornithologist friend of Sam's, believes that the squeaking on the tape is the call of a rare bird which is housed in the city zoo. Sam, Dover, and Julia meet Inspector Morosini at the zoo, and there Sam observes that a window of the Ranieri apartment looks out upon the bird's cage. Alerted by a scream from the Ranieri apartment, police break in there to find husband and wife fighting over a knife. In the struggle Ranieri falls [or throws himself] from the open window, and, dying, he confesses to the four stabbing murders. Sam soon realizes that Monica is the murderer and that Ranieri was protecting his deranged wife, but before she is apprehended, Monica kills Dover and nearly makes victims of Sam and Julia.
Director
Dario Argento
Cast
Tony Musante
Suzy Kendall
Eva Renzi
Enrico Maria Salerno
Mario Adorf
Renato Romano
Umberto Raho
Raf Valenti
Giuseppe Castellano
Pino Patti
Rosa Toros
Fulvio Mingozzi
Karen Valenti
Guido Di Marco
Omar Bonaro
Werner Peters
Carla Mancini
Bruno Erba
Crew
Dario Argento
Salvatore Argento
Carlo Diotallevi
Franco Fraticelli
Sidney Glazier
Dario Micheli
Dario Micheli
Ennio Morricone
Roberto Pariante
Vittorio Storaro
Camillo Teti
Enrico Umetelli
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Released in Italy in 1970 as L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo; in West Germany in June 1970 as Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Handschuhe; running time: 94 min.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1969
dubbed
Cromoscope
Released in United States 1969
