Melanie Daniels is the daughter of a newspaper mogul and uses her "power" to conduct publicity stunts, like jumping in a lake naked. One day while at a San Francisco bird shop, awaiting a bird she ordered, a male stranger shows up and acts as if Melanie is a worker there and requests two lovebirds for his sister's birthday. It turns out that the man is Mitch Brenner, a criminal lawyer who despises practical joker. He recognized Melanie, so he pulls this stunt to show her how it feels to be the target and leaves. Not to be outdone, Melanie buys two love birds, finds Mitch's address, and surprises him by delivering them herself. Once in the tiny, quiet fishing town of Bodega Bay, Melanie is attacked by a seagull, which is just the beginning of a brutal occurrence of bird attacks in the town.
"The Birds" is based on a story by Daphne Du Maurier and was originally purchased for use on the television series, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."
"The Birds" is Hitchcock at his best in this thriller horror that pits nature against man in a tour-de-force of apocalyptic magnitude. Although only Bodega Bay is shown being attacked by birds, it is implied that the attacks will be spreading elsewhere. Hitchcock takes a dire situation without a hard reason and turns it into a story of terror on a micro scale.
The story is simple: birds attacking people for no evident reason. Some criticize a story for not giving the viewer a real explanation of "why" an event is occurring. This is called a MacGuffin, which Merriam-Webster defines as a term "coined by Alfred Hitchcock [as being] an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance. Hitchcock makes it work by focusing on just a few people and their reaction to the attacks. "The Birds" is very much a character-driven story with great character development of the few main characters.
In addition to the birds, we have a few character-to-character subplots that make them seem all the more believable. We have Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) and Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) become romantically involved. Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette) is still in love with Mitch from years previously. Then we have Mitch's mother, Lydia Brenner (Jessica Tandy), who is protective of her son because her husband died and she does not want to be left alone. These subplots are terrifically performed by the superb cast. Even itch's little sister, Cathy Brenner (Veronica Cartwright) holds her own, as does the rest of the supporting cast.
This movie makes extensive use of special effects of the day. It features 370 effects shots. And the final shot is a composite of 32 separately filmed elements. While a standard blue screen would normally be used for a film such as this, matte shots of the birds were not acceptable due to the birds' rapid movements. So an alternative sodium vapor process was employed by Ub Iwerks, the world's leading expert on the process.
A few memorable effects scenes include, the birds attacking the schoolchildren as the run from the school, when Melanie is in a phone booth as birds attack people outside, and the ending with birds everywhere. Many other possible endings were considered, one of which included the Golden Gate Bridge completely covered by birds. Hitchcock settled on the ending that we see - without the usual "THE END" title because he wanted to imply a never-ending terror.
The film is not accompanied by a musical score, but it does utilize a mixtrautonium, an early electronic instrument. The children singing the Scottish song, "The Wee Cooper O' Fife," in the school as the birds begin gathering is creepy indeed. It is a strange choice because the song is about wife beating.
"The Birds" is a great classic horror by Hitchcock. It is a must-see for all fans of Hitchcock, classic horror, or apocalyptic-type stories.
