The Birds

Director: Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock

Overview

The story begins as an innocuous romantic triangle involving wealthy, spoiled Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), handsome Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), and schoolteacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette). The human story begins in a San Francisco pet shop and culminates at the home of Mitch's mother (Jessica Tandy) at Bodega Bay, where the characters' sense of security is slowly eroded by the curious behavior of the birds in the area. At first, it's no more than a sea gull swooping down and pecking at Melanie's head. Things take a truly ugly turn when hundreds of birds converge on a children's party. There is never an explanation as to why the birds have run amok, but once the onslaught begins, there's virtually no letup.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/06/2014
UPC:	0025192085239
Original Release:	1963
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Universal Studios
Time:	2:00:00
Sales rank:	2,799

Special Features

Deleted scene The original ending The Birds: Hitchcock's monster movie All about The Birds Storyboard sequence Tippi Hedren's secret test Hitchcock/Truffaut interview excerpts The Birds is coming (Universal International Newsreel) Suspense story: National press club hears Hitchcock (Universal International Newsreel)

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Rod Taylor	Mitch Brenner
Tippi Hedren	Melanie Daniels
Jessica Tandy	Lydia Brenner
Suzanne Pleshette	Annie Hayworth
Veronica Cartwright	Cathy Brenner
Ethel Griffies	Mrs. Bundy
Charles McGraw	Sebastian Sholes
Ruth McDevitt	Mrs. MacGruder
Joe Mantell	Salesman
Malcolm Atterbury	Al Malone
Morgan Brittany	Schoolchild
Lonny Chapman	Deke Carter
Suzanne Cupito	Actor
Richard Deacon	Man in Elevator
Alfred Hitchcock	Man Outside Pet Shop with Poodles
Doreen Lang	Mother in Cafe
John McGovern	Postal Clerk
Bill Quinn	Farm Hand
Karl Swenson	Drunk
Doodles Weaver	Fisherman
Elizabeth Wilson	Helen Carter

Technical Credits

Evan Hunter

Alfred Hitchcock	Director,Producer
Evan Hunter	Screenwriter
Robert Burks	Cinematographer
Edith Head	Costumes/Costume Designer
George Tomasini	Editor
Howard Smit	Makeup
Norman Deming	Producer,Production Designer,Production Manager
Robert F. Boyle	Production Designer,Set Decoration/Design
Bernard Herrmann	Score Composer
George Milo	Set Decoration/Design
William Russell	Sound/Sound Designer
Waldon O. Watson	Sound/Sound Designer
Daphne du Maurier	Source Author
Lawrence A. Hampton	Special Effects
Ub Iwerks	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

Arguably the last great movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, The Birds eschews customary fright-film formulas and settings to show what might happen to ordinary people in everyday settings if one species decided to suddenly wage war on another. Beautiful blonde Tippi Hedren portrays a bored playgirl who arrives in a coastal California community just as huge flocks of birds begin attacking the inhabitants for no apparent reason. She seeks temporary shelter with bachelor attorney Rod Taylor while the feathered felons continue to wreak havoc in the small town. Evan Hunter's script never offers a satisfactory explanation for the mass assault, but rationality isn't important in this film -- survival is. In fact, because there is no reason for the birds to act as they do, Hitchcock is able to precisely manipulate the atmosphere of mounting terror. It's a reflection of his genius that The Birds still keeps viewers on the edge of their seats.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

The Birds features a classic Alfred Hitchcock setup: average people placed in circumstances turned upside down. And of course, there are the requisite dark insinuations and strange psychological underpinnings. Though we're never sure why the birds are rising up, their behavior seems to be a response to humankind's complacency and arrogance. It's a frightening yet sportive vision of Judgment Day. As in Psycho, Hitchcock's previous film, the normalcy of the setting is allowed to set in before the audience is thrown into the perverse drama. When the bird violence comes, Hitchcock pulls out all the stops to make it as realistic as one could imagine. There are 371 trick shots in the film. Some have dated, but for the most part the effects are still effective. The last shots are especially memorable. And the movie features a unique soundtrack from frequent Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann: no music, only bird sounds organized as if they were music, for maximum creepy impact. The Birds stands as the end of an unprecedented period when Hitchcock could no wrong; he made only five more features, with decidedly mixed artistic and financial results.

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