The Birds (1963)

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Daphne Du Maurier (story)
Evan Hunter (screenplay)

Release Date:

30 May 1963 (Argentina)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Suspense and shock beyond anything you have seen or imagined!

Plot:

A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness.

Plot Keywords:

Socialite | Bird Attack | Birthday | Children | Seagull

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Tippi Hedren	...	Melanie Daniels (as 'Tippi' Hedren)
Suzanne Pleshette	...	Annie Hayworth
Rod Taylor	...	Mitch Brenner
Jessica Tandy	...	Lydia Brenner
Veronica Cartwright	...	Cathy Brenner
Ethel Griffies	...	Mrs. Bundy - Ornithologist
Charles McGraw	...	Sebastian Sholes - Fisherman in Diner
Doreen Lang	...	Hysterical Mother in Diner
Ruth McDevitt	...	Mrs. MacGruder - Pet Store Clerk
Joe Mantell	...	Traveling Salesman at Diner's Bar
Malcolm Atterbury	...	Deputy Al Malone
Karl Swenson	...	Drunken Doomsayer in Diner
Elizabeth Wilson	...	Helen Carter
Lonny Chapman	...	Deke Carter - Diner Owner
Doodles Weaver	...	Fisherman Helping with Rental Boat
John McGovern	...	Postal Clerk
Richard Deacon	...	Mitch's City Neighbor
Bill Quinn	...	Sam - Man in Diner (as William Quinn)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Morgan Brittany	...	Brunette Girl at Birthday Party (uncredited)
Darlene Conley	...	Waitress (uncredited)
Alfred Hitchcock	...	Man Walking Dogs Out of Pet Shop (uncredited)
Dal McKennon	...	Sam the Cook (uncredited)
Mike Monteleone	...	Gas Station Attendant (uncredited)
Jeannie Russell	...	School Child (uncredited)
Roxanne Tunis	...	Extra (uncredited)

Directed by
Alfred Hitchcock

Writing credits
Daphne Du Maurier		(story)
Evan Hunter		(screenplay)

Produced by
Alfred Hitchcock	....	producer (uncredited)

Cinematography by
Robert Burks		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
George Tomasini

Production Design by
Robert F. Boyle		(as Robert Boyle)

Set Decoration by
George Milo

Makeup Department
Virginia Darcy	....	hair stylist
Howard Smit	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Norman Deming	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
James H. Brown	....	assistant director

Art Department
Harold Michelson	....	storyboard artist (uncredited)

Sound Department
Remi Gassmann	....	electronic sound production and composition
Bernard Herrmann	....	sound consultant
William Russell	....	sound recordist
Oskar Sala	....	electronic sound production and composition
Waldon O. Watson	....	sound recordist
Bernard Herrmann	....	sound designer (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Larry Hampton	....	special effects (as Lawrence A. Hampton)
Dave Fleischer	....	special effects (uncredited)
Chuck Gaspar	....	special effects (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Ub Iwerks	....	special photographic advisor
Albert Whitlock	....	pictorial designs
Bob Broughton	....	visual effects (uncredited)
Scott Dougherty	....	digital restoration producer: Cinesite (uncredited)
Roswell A. Hoffmann	....	second unit matte photography (uncredited)
Jerry Pooler	....	digital restoration supervisor (uncredited)
Tiffany Smith	....	digital restoration coordinator: Cinesite (uncredited)

Stunts
Leonard P. Geer	....	stunts (uncredited)
Sol Gorss	....	stunts (uncredited)
Dean Smith	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Bobby Greene	....	first assistant camera (uncredited)
Leonard J. South	....	camera operator (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Edith Head	....	costumes designer: Miss Hedren
Rita Riggs	....	wardrobe supervisor

Other crew
Ray Berwick	....	trainer of the birds
James S. Pollak	....	titles
Peggy Robertson	....	assistant: Mr. Hitchcock
Lois Thurman	....	script supervisor
John 'Bud' Cardos	....	bird wrangler (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Universal Pictures (presents)
• Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions (uncredited)

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1963) (USA) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (1963) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Väinän Filmi (1963) (Finland) (theatrical)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1968) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• DiscoVision (1979) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• MCA Home Video (1985) (USA) (VHS)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (1986) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Carlotta Films (1999) (France) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Universal Pictures (1999) (Germany) (VHS)
• Universal Home Entertainment (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Benelux (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Universal Film (1963) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• CIC Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2008) (Greece) (DVD)
• Universal Home Video (Brazil) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Nordic (2001) (Sweden) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Walt Disney Productions (uncredited)

Also Known As:

"Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds" - UK (complete title), USA (complete title)
"Los pájaros" - Argentina, Mexico (imdb display title), Peru, Spain
"Les oiseaux" - Belgium (French title), Canada (French title), France
"Die Vögel" - Austria, West Germany
"Fåglarna" - Finland (Swedish title), Sweden
"Os Pássaros" - Brazil, Portugal
"De vogels" - Netherlands (informal literal title)
"De vogels" - Belgium (Flemish title)
"Els ocells" - Spain (Catalan title)
"Fuglene" - Norway
"Fuglene" - Denmark
"Gli uccelli" - Italy
"Kuslar" - Turkey (Turkish title)
"Linnut" - Finland
"Madarak" - Hungary
"Ptáci" - Czechoslovakia (Czech title)
"Ptaki" - Poland
"Ptice" - Serbia
"Ta poulia" - Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System) (uncredited)

Certification:

Australia:M (TV rating) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1963) | UK:15 (video rating) (1987) | UK:X (1963) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Spain:T | Portugal:M/12 | Finland:K-15 (uncut) (2002) (DVD) | South Korea:15 | Brazil:14 | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | USA:GP (re-rating) (1971) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | France:-12 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:16 (1976) | Norway:18 | Peru:14 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (certificate #20385) (original rating) | USA:PG-13 (new rating) (1984) | West Germany:16 | Singapore:PG | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

17110 Bodega Lane, Bodega, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Also attending the London premiere were two flamingos, 50 red cardinals and starlings, and six penguins.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the scene where the red haired girl falls, she breaks her glasses, however her face was too close to the ground for the glasses to shatter so badly. The cracks on both lenses are also thick white star burst patterns showing they had been already smashed by something like a hammer, and even if the glasses had genuinely smashed from landing on the ground, the damage would not be identical to both lenses seeing as how they landed at an angle, only one lens would have sustained the most damage and left one side still in tact. The glasses were broken before they were even dropped.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Melanie Daniels:Hello there, Mrs. MacGruder.
Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk:Oh, hello, Miss Daniels.
Melanie Daniels:Have you ever seen so many gulls? What do you suppose it is?
Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk:Well, there must be a storm at sea, that can drive them inland, you know. I was hoping you'd be a little late because he hadn't arrived yet.
Melanie Daniels:Oh, but you'd said three o'clock...
Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk:Oh I know, I know. I've been calling all morning. Oh, Miss Daniels you have no idea. They are so difficult to get, really they are. We have to get them from India, when they're just baby chicks, and then we have...
Melanie Daniels:But this one won't be a chick, will he?
Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk:Certainly not. Oh no, certainly not. This will be a full grown mynah bird, full grown.
Melanie Daniels:And he'll talk?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Pervert's Guide to Cinema (2006)

Soundtrack:

Rissle-dy, Rossle-dy

Seaside gulls go mental in Hitchcock's macabre masterpiece!

Despite spending most of his career within the realms of the thriller genre, Alfred Hitchcock hasn't restricted himself where variation is concerned. Most of his best work represents a different type of thriller, and The Birds is no different. It is often said that Psycho is Hitchcock's first foray into the horror side of the thriller, and it is indeed; but it's not the complete horror film that The Birds is. Often cited as an obvious influence for Night of the Living Dead, The Birds follows Melanie Daniels as she travels to the seaside town of Bodega Bay with a pair of lovebirds for Mitch Brenner, an eligible bachelor that she met in a pet shop in San Francisco. However, while there the birds of the coastal town begin to attack the residents and so begins a terrifying tale of man's feathered friends waging a war against humanity...

It could be said that the plot of The Birds is ridiculous, and it is. The idea of birds, a type of animal that isn't aggressive, attacking humans despite living with us for millions of years is preposterous and is never likely to happen. However; it is here where the film's horror potency lies. Birds live with us in harmony; we're so used to them that for the most part we don't even realise that they're there, and the idea of something that we don't notice suddenly becoming malicious is truly terrifying. Especially when that something is unstoppable, as the birds are portrayed as being in this film. The fact that the birds' motive is never really explained only serves in making it more terrifying, as it would appear that somewhere along the line they've just decided to attack. Of course, the film could be interpreted as having Melanie's arrival, or the presence of the lovebirds as the cause for it all; but we don't really know. This bounds the film in reality as if there was a reason given, it might be improbable; but there's no true reason given (although there are several theories), so it can't be improbable!

The first forty minutes of the film feature hardly any - if any - horror at all. Hitchcock spends this part of the movie developing the characters and installing their situation in the viewers' minds, so that when the horror does finally come along, it has a definite potency that it would not have had otherwise. In fact, at first the birds themselves come across as a co-star in their own movie as there are brief references towards them, but they never get their full dues. However, once the horror does start, it comes thick and fast. Hitchcock, the master craftsman as always, uses his famous montage effects and never really shows you anything; but because you're being bombarded with so many different shots, you'd never realise it. Many people have tried to copy this technique, but most have failed. Hitchcock, however, has it down to an art and this is maybe the film that shows off that talent the best. There are numerous moments of suspense as well, many of which are truly nail biting. We see the birds amassing and ready to strike - but they don't. And this is much more frightening than showing an attack from the off. Hitchcock knows this. The final thirty minutes of The Birds is perhaps the most thrilling of his entire oeuvre. First, Hitchcock gives us an intriguing situation where numerous inhabitants of the town give their views on the events, and also explains the birds' situation with humans, even giving the audience an angle of expertise from an ornithologist's point of view. He then follows it up with a truly breathtaking sequence of horror that hasn't been matched since for relentless shock value.

Hitchcock has made many great films, and this certainly stands up as one of them. Here, Hitchcock gives a lesson in film directing and creates a truly macabre piece of work in the process. I dread to think what the state of cinema would have been if Hitchcock had never picked up a camera, but luckily for us; he most certainly did.