As Edwige, Waldo, Manta, and I rode down the elevator, we had a moment. Waldo took out a pack of Bubblicious. It was the watermelon flavor, my favorite. He first offered a piece to The Revenging Manta, but the ninja vigilante held up his hand to pass on the offer. He offered a piece to me and I asked for two, one for myself and one for Edwige, my kangaroo companion. We all chewed and blew bubbles, reveling in the pops and cracks our mouths produced. But that moment soon came to an end as the elevator dinged and the door opened. I swallowed my gum.

— To be continued. 

Sorry folks. I forgot that August was Giallo Month when I turned in my column on The Running Man. I remedy that this week with 1970’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage from director Dario Argento. This is the big one, the movie that kicked off Italy’s Giallo obsession in the 1970s and America’s Giallo obsession in the 2020s. While not the first Giallo ever made, it was the one that kind of cemented the genre. Did I mention that this movie features a score composed by Ennio Morricone?

Our movie begins with a young American writer named Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) getting a check for a book he’d written on rare birds so he can leave Italy with his girlfriend, Julia (Suzy Kendall). Sam wanted to be the next American literary sensation, but Italy seemed to give him a severe case of writer’s block. And then he witnesses a woman being stabbed by a masked killer in an art gallery.

The entrance to this art gallery makes patrons go through two electronic glass doors. Sam goes through the first glass door, but the killer manages to lock both sets of doors before fleeing, forcing Sam to watch the woman writhing in pain as he can neither enter to help her or leave and seek aid. After pleading with a passerby to call the police, detectives show upon the scene. The woman survives her wound, but an Inspector Morosini (Enrico Maria Salerno) notices a similarity between this murder and other killings in the area.

Back at the police station, Sam is grilled for details. He feels he’s helped the police as much as he can, but Inspector Morosini confiscates his passport and wants Sam to stay in town for a few more days. On his way home, Sam is almost beheaded by someone welding a meat cleaver, but the would-be assassin hits a pipe and scampers off when an old lady shows up. He tells his girlfriend of the day’s events and she laughs it off.

The police continue to to bungle the investigation as Sam goes looking for clues on his own. More murders occur and Sam gets into more danger the closer he gets to the truth. A painting of a young woman getting attacked is key to the solution of this mystery. I can never follow along with things, but I’ve heard it said that Giallo isn’t always supposed to make sense. The Bird with Crystal Plumage is part one of Argento’s “Animal Trilogy.” The Cat o’ Nine Tails will be next.

 Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443, episode 444, episode 450, episode 477, episode 491, episode 492, episode 493, episode 495, episode 496, episode 545, episode 546, episode 547, episode 548, episode 549, episode 575, episode 596, episode 597, episode 598, and episode 599) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.