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1970 - 96m.
Italy

Dario Argento changed the way I look at movies. I remember when I was around twenty years old, a friend of mine brought over a laserdisc of Suspiria for us to check out and I was shown that a horror film can be a lot more that just slashers and monsters. I quickly watched all the other classic Argento films like Tenebrae, Opera, and Deep Red and this developed into my obsession with Eurohorror and all that it offers. Had it not been for that fateful night, I may never have learned about Fulci, de Ossorio, Soavi, Deodato, D'Amato, and the many other European directors who have influenced my horror tastes. Argento also introduced me to the giallo genre which I have come to love and I find it somewhat strange that it is only now that I have finally seen Argento's film that arguably brought the giallo to America (although many say that Mario Bava was responsible for this years earlier). Now, with this definitive release from Blue Underground, I was able to see the movie the way that it was intended.

It is easy to see how Argento became such a force from the first few minutes of this film as we get an incredibly stylish stabbing scene in an art gallery to set the tone. The whole manner that this is constructed from the set design to the logistics of how our hero witnesses the crime make this a unique scene that would have made even the most jaded critic take notice. From here, our main character Sam (Tony Musante) gets himself involved in the criminal investigation to figure out what really happened in the art gallery and to try to reach into his memory to recall something he may or may not have witnessed. Sam's quest to unravel the mystery leads him to a painting, an artist with a taste for felines, an antique shop, and a zoo while he tries to escape being killed. While Sam is investigating things, the killer continues to perform stylish murders one of which involves an Italian beauty, a see-through nightie, and a knife. The movie eventually culminates in revealing the identity of the murderer after a series of red herrings, dead-end clues, chases through the streets of Rome, and Suzy Kendall looking gorgeous.

Argento comes out swinging in his debut as he proves himself as a filmmaker after his previous career as a critic. Although the film is a little slow at times, it is clearly an Argento film and we can see the style that he would develop over the next seven years until he made his masterpiece, Suspiria. Early on, Argento employed the interesting camera shots, production design, and murder set pieces that his career would be defined by. I do not think that Bird is Argento's best work but it shows a hungry young filmmaker unleashing his unique vision upon the world. The only element that I found slightly detracted from the movie as a whole was the plot. The last third of the movie became a little too busy in its cleverness and I was somewhat confused by the time everything was supposed to come together. This has been a problem in some other gialli as well as the filmmakers find themselves trying to be too smart and forgetting that the audience is not always going to 'get' things the same way that they do.

Tony Musante comes across as being slightly arrogant which makes for an interesting character that is not entirely likeable. I am not sure if this was intended or if it was from Argento and Musante's on-set disdain for each other. Kendall is great as Musante's girlfriend and she went on to make Torso with Sergio Martino three years later. She has previously had some memorable roles in the classic drama To Sir, With Love with Sidney Poitier as well as the horror mystery Circus of Fear with Christopher Lee and Klaus Kinski. Genre fans will also recognize the creepy-looking Reggie Nalder (Mark of the Devil, Salem's Lot) as the assassin in the yellow jacket. Argento aficionados will already know this but whenever you see the murderer's black-gloved hands, that is the director himself doing a unique cameo that he would repeat throughout his career. Overall, this is a great debut from a director who would rise to become a genre legend. I only wish he could somehow regain the vision to make movies like this today. (Josh Pasnak, 4/23/08)

Directed By: Dario Argento.
Written By: Dario Argento.

Starring: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Eva Renzi, Enrico Maria Salerno.