The Birds
Short description
The Birds is a horror thriller set in the small coastal town of Bodega Bay, California. Melanie Daniels, a wealthy young San Francisco woman, meets lawyer Mitch Brenner in a pet shop, where he pretends to mistake her for a sales clerk. Amused and irritated, she buys a pair of lovebirds and drives to the town where Mitch spends weekends with his mother and younger sister. Soon after she arrives, a seagull injures her, and birds of many kinds begin gathering and attacking the townspeople in increasing numbers.
Alfred Hitchcock directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by Evan Hunter. It was the thirty-seventh of the forty-three films he directed, following Psycho and preceding Marnie. Tippi Hedren plays Melanie, with Rod Taylor as Mitch, Jessica Tandy as his mother Lydia, Suzanne Pleshette as schoolteacher Annie Hayworth, Veronica Cartwright as Cathy Brenner and Ethel Griffies as the ornithologist Mrs. Bundy, among a credited cast of twenty-eight.
Produced for about three million dollars, the film took roughly eleven million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.6 out of 10 from around 219,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.5 out of 10 from over 4,500 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 8.6 out of 10 from seventy-three reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- Tippi Hedren is absent from the famous poster of the film, which depicts a woman screaming in terror. Jessica Tandy is featured on the poster.
- The film does not feature the customary "The End" title card.
- A stunt double for Tippi Hedren stood in for her in the scene where Mitch carries Melanie down the stairs, because at the same time Tippi was in the hospital due to physical exhaustion from the week-long filming of the scene where she is attacked by birds shortly before the end of the film.
- Originally, the rights to adapt Daphne du Maurier's story were purchased for use as a plot in one episode of the series 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' (1955).
- Several endings were considered for the film, one of which would have shown the Golden Gate Bridge completely covered in birds.
- Initially, Alfred Hitchcock wanted Joseph Stefano ("Psycho") to write the screenplay, but the latter disliked the plot of Daphne du Maurier's story. The screenplay was written by Evan Hunter.
- Melanie's car is an Aston Martin DB2/4.
- Hitchcock's film was not the first adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's story. There are at least two radio adaptations. Additionally, James P. Cavanaugh wrote an adaptation of the story for a half-hour episode of the series 'Danger' (1950).
- According to Rod Taylor, the seagulls were fed a mixture of wheat and whiskey. This was the only way to keep them on the ground for an extended period.
- It took seven days to film the scene where Melanie (Tippi Hedren) is attacked by birds shortly before the end of the film. To prevent the birds from flying away, they were attached to the actress with long nylon threads. According to Hedren, it was the worst week of her life.
- The film contains 370 shots with special effects. The final shot consists of 32 elements filmed separately.
- As audiences exited the cinema at the London premiere of the film, they could hear a loud cacophony of bird sounds from loudspeakers hidden in the trees.
- After the suggestion of using mechanical birds in most scenes was rejected, the renowned animal trainer Ray Berwick was brought in.
- A scene of a conversation between Melanie and Mitch was cut from the film after Lydia Brenner left for the Fossitt farm. No footage of the scene survives; only the script pages and set photos remain. These materials can be found on a special DVD edition.
- Despite the absence of music in the film, composer Bernard Herrmann is credited as a "sound consultant".
- Alfred Hitchcock cast Tippi Hedren in the lead role after seeing her in a beverage commercial.
- Two flamingos, 50 red cardinals and starlings, and 6 penguins were also present at the London premiere of the film.
- The raven that sits on Alfred Hitchcock's shoulder in all the promotional photos is absent from the film. It was bought for $10 from a twelve-year-old boy after filming had already wrapped.
- Alfred Hitchcock can be spotted at the beginning of the film – he walks out of a pet shop with two dogs.
- “The Birds” was the first film released under the “Universal Pictures” logo, rather than “Universal-International.”
- A bird genuinely injured Tippi Hedren's face in one of the film's scenes.
- The film lacks a musical score, with the exception of sounds created on a "mixtrautonium" (one of the first electronic musical instruments) and children's singing in a school.
- After the film was shown on NBC-TV on January 6, 1968, it became the highest-rated film on television at the time of its premiere. “The Birds” held this record until 1972, when “Love Story” (1970) was broadcast on television.
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