L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo

Plot synopsis:
In the opening credits, a person, unseen except for a black-leather gloves and wearing a dark coat, takes photos of a young woman walking the streets of Rome. The next day, the woman is found murdered. The third mysterious killing in several months.Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) is an American writer currently living in Rome with his model girlfriend Julia (Suzy Kendall). Sam meets with Carlo (Renato Romano) who gives him a check for his most recent gig. But after two years of not writing anything, Sam is practically broke. He tells Carlos that he plans to leave Italy and return to the USA with Julia. On his way home that night, Sam passes a small art gallery where he witnesses the attack of a woman (Eva Renzi) by a mysterious black-gloved assailant dressed in a raincoat. Attempting to reach her, Sam is trapped between two mechanically-operated glass doors and can only watch as the villain makes his escape after stabing the woman.Eventually the police arrive and Sam discusses what he saw to Inspector Morosini (Enrico Maria Salerno). Sam says that he knows where was something odd about the scene, but he cannot place what's wrong about it. The police take Sam to the police station where they interrogate him all night. In the morning, Sam is permitted to leave, but Morosini takes his passport because he considers Sam an important witness and must not leave Italy. Morosini tells Sam that they have been three unresolved murders and that a "dangerous maniac" is loose in Rome. Sam phones the airport to cancel his airplane reservation and heads back to his apartment. On his way back, someone swings a meat cleaver at his head, but an elderly woman on the street warns him just in time. The black raincoat killer flees before Sam can identify him.Later that day, Sam goes back to the police station to report his attack and he is told that a black-leather glove was found at the crime scene and has been analyzed. Apparently, the attacker was left-handed and a smoker. Sam goes to the hospital to visit the woman who was attacked whom is Monica Ranieri (Eva Renzi), the wife of the gallery's owner Alberto Ranieri (Umberto Raho). Alberto asks Sam for a cigarette and Sam tosses his pack to Alberto who catches it with his left hand.A few days later, the unseen killer is seeking out additional women to kill by staking out the local racetrack. Meanwhile, Sam and Julia research the previous victims. Sam visits an antique shop where the first victim worked, and the flamboyantly gay owner tells Sam that a painting was sold that night of the woman's disappearance. The owner lets Sam borrow a black-and-white copy of the painting which consists of a woman being attacked in the snow of a local park.Morosini visits Sam at his home and tells him about the most recent murder and takes him to the police station. There, Morosini returns Sam's passport. By now, Sam has decided to stay and investigate the killings by himself. Morosini tells Sam that he will have a police detective follow the writer around for protection since the killer now is after him for seeing the attempt on Monica Ranieri. After Sam visits Alberto again at his home near the art gallery, Monica is there having returned home from the hospital and thanks him for saving her life. Next, Sam goes to a local prison where the second victim's pimp is there serving time where he asks information about the killer.That evening, Sam and Julia are walking down a dark street with the police detective tailing them, a black car appears and runs over the detective. While the black-clad unseen driver heads off, the car's passenger, a strange-looking man in a yellow jacket (Reggie Nalder) jumps out and pursues the couple with a gun. Julia gets away, but Sam is chased by both the yellow jacket assasin on foot and the black-jacket killer in the black car. After a chase through the streets and a local junkyard, Sam runs out onto a busy street. Sam realizes that the yellow jacket killer will not kill him with witnesses around, Sam then becomes the pursuer. But he loses the yellow jacket assasin who ducks into a hotel meeting room full of yellow jacket men.The next day, Sam visits the pimp in jail again who tells him that he knows a man who can help. Soon after, another man arrives at Sam's apartment and after he is given money, says he will contact Sam later to find out the idenity of the yellow jacket man who chased him. Then, the killer phones Sam and Julia at their apartment and threatens to kill them. The killer also phones the police station and taunts Morosini with planing to do more killings. Sam and Julia visit the police station where they listen to the recorded phone call where they hear a mysterious creaking sound in the background.The hired man returns to Sam's apartment and give him the name and address of the yellow-jacketed shooter. Sam goes to the small aparment of 'Needles', but finds the assasin dead from an apparent drug overdose. Later, Sam and Morosini are told by a voice annalyst that Sam's recorded call and an phone call to the police station placed to Morosini were made by two seperate people. Sam's friend Carlo hears the background noise and says that it sounds familiar. He takes the tape to listen some more. Meanwhile, the killer strikes again and kills another woman, named Tina, who returns to her apartment after an outing with her boyfriend.When Sam and Julia agree that things have gone too far for them, they make plans to return to America. But the next flight will not be until two days from now. Sam decides to visit the painter of the eerie painting, who lives in a run-down house on the outskirts of Rome. The eccentric artist tells Sam that he witnesses the event of the assault on the girl from over 10 years ago. Back in Rome, Julia is alone in Sam's apartment when the unseen killer pays her a threatening visit. Sam returns just in time, and Julia is saved, but the killer has already fled yet again.The next day, Carlo arrives where he tells them that he has finally identified the background noise on the tape which is the sound of a rare bird that can only live in Northern Siberia, and the only one that resides in Rome is in the local zoo. Sam and the police arrive at the zoo and realize that it is near the apartment of Alberto and Monica. When they burst into the apartment, the couple are struggling over a knife. When the police intervene, Alberto flees and falls out a window to his death on the street below. As he is dying after the fall, he admits to being the murderer.With the case apparently wraped up, Sam cannot find Julia who had run out of Alberto's apartment with Carlo and Monica. When Sam tracks them down to a small apartment a few blocks away (the same apartment the killer resides in), he finds Carlo dead and a bound and gagged Julia on the floor. Sam turns around and sees a snickering and wild-eyed Monica holding a knife. At this point, Sam finally remembers what he saw that night: it was not Monica being attacked but it was her husband Alberto trying to stop an attack on HIM! Sam chases Monica through the dark hallways and it leads right back to the art gallery where it all started. Monica drops a heavy sculpture down on Sam, pinning him to the floor. Before she can utilize her knife, the police arrive and subdue Monica.It is revealed by Inspector Morosini that Monica was a victim of a sexual assault and lived with the trauma of it for many years. In a transference-of-guilt, Monica imposed upon herself as the assailent and killed all those women as a way of re-enacting the assault on her and her loyal husband Alberto covered up for her and was the one trying to kill Sam to prevent him from finding out of his wife's murderous activities. With the case finally wraped up, Sam and Julia fly back to America.

Tags: insanity, suspenseful, horror, atmospheric

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