The Bird With The Crystal Plumage

The Bird With The Crystal Plumage is a 1970 Dario Argento film, his first as director. The score is by Ennio Moriccone (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Battle of Algiers, Once Upon a Time in the West, Two Mules for Sister Sara, Exorcist II: The Heretic, The Thing (1982), White Dog, Red Sonja, Hamlet (1990), The Mission, The Untouchables (1987) and many others).

I have seen few films by this director and have heard that his earlier ones are a better introduction than his later movies. I'm not finding this one or Deep Red at all difficult to watch, and I do not like modern slashers.

Slant Magazine says, "the film is arguably Argento's most Hitchcockian venture" and suggests that it "is perhaps best enjoyed by those new to Argento." Classic-Horror.com says, "Argento is a creative force to be reckoned with. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage proves that he has always been so." DVD Talk closes with this:

Crystal Plumage has its plot holes and unfair red herrings, but nothing we can't live with. Argento also requires a couple of extra scenes to wrap up his story, but otherwise his murderous movie machine is a winner.

Roger Ebert says, "It works mostly by exploiting our fear of the dark." Rotten Tomatoes scores it at 91%.