Two Italian masters of cinematic style, writer/director Dario Argento and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC, conspired on the unusual 1970 thriller The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, the auspicious feature debut of both filmmakers. This new two-disc DVD from specialty distributor Blue Underground serves as the best-yet video incarnation of the film in any format, making it a unique and invaluable introduction to both men’s careers.

Loosely based on the 1949 short story “The Screaming Mimi,” which was first adapted by Hollywood in 1958, Crystal Plumage opens as Sam (Tony Musante), an American writer living in Rome, inadvertently stumbles upon a murder taking place in a chic art gallery. Inside, he can see a beautiful woman (Eva Renzi) grappling with a black-garbed figure at the top of a treacherous stairway, each fighting to control a long-bladed knife. Shot in Technicolor Rome’s proprietary two-perf Techniscope widescreen process — used here under the trade name Cromoscope — the film immediately takes advantage of its 2.35:1 frame in this harrowing scene, as Sam tries to enter the gallery through the double glass doors of its atrium-like opening. He is immediately trapped between them, with the resultant enclosure transformed into a transparent prison from which he helplessly watches the bloodied woman suffer after the killer flees the scene. It has been said that Argento conceived of Sam’s predicament while watching fish circling in an aquarium, and Storaro’s compositions perfectly capture this concept, as the gallery’s glass-walled chamber fills the frame edge-to-edge, presenting our ostensible hero as a human “exhibit.”

After the police fail to find their suspect, Sam decides to investigate the case on his own, and he soon gains the attention of the maniac and those who seek to conceal his identity.

Designed by production designer Dario Micheli, the film’s careful yet pervasive use of primary blues, reds and yellows adds a distinctive visual touch that foreshadows Storaro’s color-rich work in subsequent films. Indeed, it’s not every picture that features a mysterious nocturnal assassin (Reggie Nalder) clad in a Day-Glo yellow jacket, a bold sartorial selection that ultimately ensures his escape from Sam.

A later chase sequence offers one of the film’s most facile yet effective images: the darkness of a jet-black frame is suddenly pierced as Sam bursts through a doorway in the distance, the bright amber light casting him in a tense silhouette as he seeks to find his assailant. Without warning, the lights come up, revealing that the fiendish killer has cleverly led Sam back to the art gallery for nefarious reasons.

A lively and highly informative audio commentary by film journalists Alan Jones (author of the authoritative tome Profundo Argento) and Kim Newman not only succinctly dissects the production but also places it in the context of the times, crediting the film’s many innovations and explaining how they later impacted the genre.

Disc two offers four brief featurettes: “Out of the Shadows,” which features an anecdote-rich interview with Argento; “Painting With Darkness,” a more conceptual discussion with Storaro; “The Music of Murder,” an interview with composer Ennio Morricone; and “Eva’s Talking,” featuring actress Renzi. In their respective interviews, both Argento and Storaro are candid about their frustrating-yet-fruitful collaboration, and each offers genuine admiration for the other’s abilities while politely skirting any specifics.