Bird With the Crystal Plumage, The [Blu-ray] - Region 0 Blu-ray

In his first film as writer/director, Dario Argento (SUSPIRIA, DEEP RED, TWO EVIL EYES) single-handedly created the giallo genre and instantly emerged as the filmmaker critics worldwide hailed as 'The Italian Hitchcock.' Tony Musante (TRAFFIC, WE OWN THE NIGHT) and Suzy Kendall (CIRCUS OF FEAR, TORSO) star in this pulse-pounding suspense thriller about an American writer in Rome who witnesses - and is helpless to stop - a brutal assault, the cunning vengeance of a maniac, and the heart-stopping horror that lives - and kills - deep in the dark.

Blue Underground is proud to present this legendary shocker in striking High Definition, remastered from its original camera negative (including recently discovered never-before-seen footage of explicit violence) and remixed in 7.1 DTS-HD and 7.1 Dolby TrueHD. Illuminating Extras include four featurettes with Dario Argento, Oscar(R) winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, legendary composer Ennio Morricone, co-star Eva Renzi and much more!

EXTRAS:
Audio Commentary with Journalists Alan Jones and Kim Newman
"Out Of The Shadows" - Interview with Co-Writer/Director Dario Argento
"Painting With Darkness" - Interview with Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro
"The Music Of Murder" - Interview with Composer Ennio Morricone
"Eva's Talking" - Interview with Actress Eva Renzi
U.S. Trailer
Italian Trailer
TV Spots


Dario Argento takes sole writing credit for his directorial debut but The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is actually an unofficial adaptation of Fredric Brown's novel The Screaming Mimi. Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante), an American novelist in Italy, is a helpless spectator to a vicious attack in an art gallery. Initially a suspect, Sam becomes the key witness to the attempted murder, the fourth in a month but the first survived by the victim. Something about the attack haunts him and so he launches his own investigation as the murders continue, the killer finally turning on Sam. Argento exhibits a sure hand in his first film, creating an easy to follow thriller spiced with tightly choreographed murder scenes and leavened with character humor (his colorful cast includes a genial stuttering pimp and an eccentric artist who lives in a house with no doors). But it's his gift for arresting images and cinematic inventiveness that gives this thriller its edge, from the opening murder where Sam impotently watches the bleeding victim while trapped in a veritable glass cage to the killer's naked eye peering through a peephole at Sam's girlfriend (Suzy Kendall) as she hysterically searches for an escape from the killer's pounding attempts to break into her apartment. Future Oscar winner Vittorio Storaro shot the film and Ennio Morricone provides an unusual, often eerie score arranged for human voices. While less baroque than Argento's later work, it's a fine first film and a standout in the giallo genre. --Sean Axmaker