L'uccello Dalle Piume Di Cristallo (aka Bird With The Crystal Plumage) (1970)

An American (Tony Musante) in Rome is passing by an art gallery when he witnesses a young woman (Eva Renzi) being stabbed by an unknown assailant. Her attacker gets away but soon he finds himself being stalked by the serial killer. Loosely based on the novel THE SCREAMING MIMI by Frederic Brown (previously filmed in 1958), this was the directorial film debut of Dario Argento. It remains a career high point and a defining moment in the rise of the Italian giallo. Dripping with style, the film is somewhat restrained in its use of violence compared to Argento's later films. This is his most Hitchcock like film with the film's final explanation by the psychiatrist of the killer's motive a tip of the hat to the final moments of Hitchcock's PSYCHO and Reggie Nalder as a hired assassin, a role he played in Hitchcock's 1956 MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. Argento is aided by Vittorio Storaro's confident cinematography and an intense underscore by the great Ennio Morricone. With Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno and Mario Adorf as a cat eating artist.