(1970)
Overall: MEH
For his directorial debut, Dario Argento wasted no time in solidifying himself as a proponent of giallos with the textbook entry The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, (L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo). Lifting plot elements from Fredric Brown's pulp novel The Screaming Mimi and serving them up in a highly Italian fashion, Argento does the sub-genre a solid service with burgeoning flare. A black-gloved switchblade killer offs numerous pretty, female victims while the authorities and an innocent bystander get caught up in the convoluted hoopla. Though Argento moves his camera around in a fairly ambitious fashion, the filmmaker's visual extravagance is understandably toned down from future works with this being his first such outing. The story is pedestrian so it would certainly benefit from much of his later flashy aesthetics and the twist here is hardly mind-blowing. In fact red herrings are hardly even bothered with at all, though the characters are likeable and well-portrayed enough to not get bored with. That said, this has one of the most ridiculous, "stupid would-be female victims in horror movies" examples there is as a woman immediately collapses to the floor in uncontrollably hysterics when her killer cannot even get into her room, only being saved by the dashing hero scaring the pursuer away. An adequate start yes, but it still ever so slightly underwhelms.
(1971)
Overall: MEH
Following in a quite similar vein as his previous giallo offering, Dario Argento's sophomore effort The Cat O' Nine Tails, (Il gatto a nove code), is still adequate yet unremarkable. The best component to not only Argento's work but giallos in general are the elaborate death sequences and optical pizzazz, yet sadly this one is largely lacking in both. There are only a handful of murders shown and only the final one where the killer falls to his death down an elevator shaft while burning his hands on the wires provides a sufficient chuckle due to its outlandishness. Elsewhere, it is people whose demise we can see coming from a mile away just getting strangled. The story has some disturbing elements like the kidnapping of a child and a fine gimmick of Karl Malden playing a blind, ex-news reporter who is assisting a dashing and not blind James Franciscus to uncover the mystery. Said mystery itself is lame though and the final murder reveal is proven to be of a character that we barely remember previously meeting in the first place, which is never a good sign. Considering that Argento himself ranks this as his least favorite film even after making Dracula 3D is rather telling though in all honesty, it is quite a few steps above that one at least.
(1971)
Overall: MEH
Though Dario Argento was delving more headlong into elaborately fiendish, showy visuals for his third straight giallo in a row, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, (4 mosche di velluto grigio), is still bogged down by the usual shortcomings. The script is once again equally boring and harebrained as the only narrative approach available is still a handsome, male protagonist being at the wrong place at the wrong time, getting harassed by an unseen killer, and then various characters enter in only to be predictably done away with. To be fair, there are a few minor tweaks to the formula (our main hero is targeted from the very beginning for one), but the structure is identical enough to be completely interchangeable with many other giallo offerings of the time, including Argento's previous two Animal Trilogy installments. The pacing is a mixed bag as the filmmaker has upped his chops at creating show-stopping murder scenes, but some of them overstay their welcome and become tedious instead of tense. Still, there are plenty of quirky details and wildly inventive camera angles to applaud, with enough low-brow humor, absurd plot details, and misogyny thrown in as well to keep the eye-balls sufficiently rolling. Oh and lest we forget, a whole lot of hip, jam band drum solos and shots of musicians playing music that does not match their arm movements is also on display.
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