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The Birds (1963)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 4:41 pm    Post subject: The Birds (1963) Reply with quote




This is the closest Hitchcock ever came to a science fiction story, and some folks might say it really isn't one. The movie doesn't explain why birds of many different species suddenly have a real bad attitude and want kill everybody — including nice folks like Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren.





This also differs from other Hitchcock movies in that the suspense is not caused by humans plotting evil deeds for nefarious purposes. That's its chief strength, because the burning question throughout the movie — unanswered even at the end — is why are the birds attacking mankind? And since the motivation for murderous birds it absolutely impossible to guess, this Hitchcock movie deliberately denies us what ever other film by the master has given us.

A delicious mystery to solve.

With The Birds. we're terrorized not only by what could happen to our likable hero and his loved ones, we're tortured by the burning question — "Why are these feathered fiends so pissed off at us!"






It completely disproves the old adage: What you don't know can't hurt you. Shocked
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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Aug 07, 2022 3:43 pm; edited 7 times in total
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 5:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

And it was the 1st major role for Veronica Cartwright.



Veronica and her younger sister Angela sure look similar!



Angela filming late 1st season Lost In Space, Veronica filming late 1st season Daniel Boone.

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 19, 2017 4:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Enjoy this amusing example of Mr. Hitchcock's excellent sense of humor, and then the more traditional trailer below it.
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_____________The Birds Official Teaser Trailer


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__________________The Birds (1963) Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Thu Dec 28, 2023 1:50 pm; edited 1 time in total
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alltare
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 19, 2017 11:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember that there was a clever newspaper review at the time, entitled "A Tern for the Worst".
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue May 30, 2017 4:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Enjoy these interesting trivia items from IMDB. Very Happy
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When audiences left the film's UK premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, they were greeted by the sound of screeching and flapping birds from loudspeakers hidden in the trees to scare them further.

Note from me: I'll bet Hitch chuckled like Santa Claus when he watched the folks run screaming to the parking lot! Very Happy

Rod Taylor claims that the seagulls were fed a mixture of wheat and whiskey. It was the only way to get them to stand around so much.

Note from me: They must have saved some of the whiskey for the SPCA representative!

The classic scene in which Tippi Hedren watches birds attacking the townsfolk was filmed in the studio from a phone booth. When Melanie opens the phone-booth door, a bird trainer had trained gulls that were taught to fly at it. Surviving photos of the shooting of the scene were published in the book "Hitchcock at Work" by Bill Krohn.

Note from me: This is one of the most memorable scenes in the movie. However, I want to know how you go about training seagulls to fly at a phone booth! Do you just throw them against it repeatedly and then reward them with fish after they regain consciousness? Shocked

The famous poster art for the film where a woman is pictured screaming is not Tippi Hedren but is in fact Jessica Tandy taken from the scene where the birds come down the chimney.

Note from me: This is a good example of how some folks post bullsh*t trivia items. The woman in the poster is NOT Jessica Tandy! Shocked

Alfred Hitchcock briefly considered Cary Grant for the role of Mitch Brenner, but decided against using the hugely expensive actor because he felt the birds and the Hitchcock name were the big attractions.

Note from me: It's easy to imagine Cary in this movie, but loyal fans of Rod (like us) are glad he got the starring role. Cool

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

Note from me: Too bad it didn't open around Christmas! Hitch could also have included the following:

Seven Swans a Swimming
Six Geese a Laying
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
. . . and a Partridge in a Pear Tree! Very Happy

Although there is no musical score for this film, composer and Alfred Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann is credited as a sound consultant.

Note from me: I heard this odd fact years ago, but I've never understood it. Just how did a great composer like Bernard Herrmann help the sound man put together the sounds of screeching birds? Shocked

Hitchcock revealed on The Dick Cavett Show (1968) that 3,200 birds were trained for the movie. He said the ravens were the cleverest, and the seagulls were the most vicious.

Note from me: Hitch should have made an sequel in which we learn that the bird attacks were being organized and directed by their avian leaders — the wise old owls! Wink

Although it was never shot, another ending was scripted by Evan Hunter and sketched by Harold Michelson. The script and sketches appear as a bonus feature on the DVD version.

Note from me: This item is driving me crazy! What was the "alternate ending"? Shocked

Cast member Doodles Weaver was the uncle of actress Sigourney Weaver, who worked with Veronica Cartwright in Alien (1979), and with Tippi Hedren's daughter, Melanie Griffith, in Working Girl (1988).

Note from me: Ah yes, the old "six degrees of separation" in Hollywood!

Near the end of the film, when Mitch carries Melanie down the stairs, it is actually Tippi Hedren's stand-in being carried by Rod Taylor. Hedren was in the hospital recovering from exhaustion after a week of shooting the scene where Melanie is trapped in the upstairs room with the birds.

Note from me: I don't mean to sound insensitive, but poor Tippi had to have her stand-in play the scene in which she was exhausted and traumatized because she was too exhausted and traumatized to do it herself?

Ain't Hollywood ironic?

A number of endings were being considered for this film. One that was considered would have showed the Golden Gate Bridge completely covered by birds.

Note from me: I'm glad they didn't do this. The ambiguous ending which shows the landscape covered with birds while the main characters driver cautiously off into the distance is interesting . . . but the suggestion that major cities have succumbed to a massive bird invasion seems a bit much.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 25, 2017 11:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The genius of this film is it took a common element of everday life and turned it into the element of menace.

We don't pay attention to the birds in our daily life any more than we do of any one of a number of other commonalities of our existance. Yet, he turned it into the Mc Guffin of the piece! Brilliant!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 31, 2019 1:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maurice wrote:
Took one Google search to find it...

Unfortunately, the link doesn't work now, Maurice, but I think I found another one that does. Is this the video you posted?

I hope so. It's really good. Very Happy


____________ Evan Hunter on The Birds ending


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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The Spike
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 7:29 am    Post subject: Birds of a different feather do indeed flock together. Reply with quote

The Birds is directed by Alfred Hitchcock and adapted to screenplay by Evan Hunter from the story of the same name written by Daphne du Maurier. It stars Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette, Jessica Tandy, Veronica Cartwright and Ethel Griffies. Cinematography is by Robert Burks and editing by George Tomasini.

Mother's love? Better to be ditched or loved?

When animals attack! The only outright horror movie that Alfred Hitchcock ever directed, The Birds sees the great man get the utmost terror from something so amiable in our lives - Birds! Modern day critics can hark on about it being dated all they like, it still doesn't detract from what a frenzied experience "The Birds" can still be - let alone what it did for cinema goers in 1963! Admittedly upon small screen ventures too much is missed or under enhanced, which is a crying shame.

But it isn't dark Annie! It's a full moon.

Plotting is simple in trajectory terms. Hip socialite Melanie Daniels (Hedren) has a friendly vocal joust in a pet shop with handsome Mitch Brenner (Taylor), the result of which sees Melanie, on a mischievous whim, buy a couple of lovebirds and set off for Mitch's weekend retreat out in Bodega Bay to deliver them as a show of devilish womanhood. Upon arrival in Bodega Bay, though, Melanie seems to be the spark for the birds in the area to start attacking humans, and pretty soon the attacks escalate and intensify...

Hitchcock and Hunter offer up no reasons or answers for what occurs in Bodega Bay (to keep it murky we learn late on via radio that other towns become affected), and famously the ending is open ended as well, forcing the audience to unravel ideas themselves. There's no musical score in the film, thus Hitchcock gets the terror and tension out of editing, bird effects, and unholy sounds. The pacing is also a key area, it's a good hour before things go decidedly nasty. The wait keeps the viewer on edge, we seriously get to know the principal characters (the actors worked well by Hitch) and then the terror is unleashed. Perfect.

Hitchcock's skill at staging a memorable scene is well evident here. The climbing frame that sees one crow arrive, cutaway as Melanie smokes on a bench, back to the frame and now it's four crows, cutaway, back, and five crows - eight - then a "murder of crows". The birds first attack at the birthday party, the telephone kiosk, gas station mayhem, the birds swooping into view above the school roof and the POV viewpoint as we join a bird hovering above a town under siege, all great scenes, as is the crowning glory that is the eerie silence that accompanies the edge of your seat finale.

Motifs are plentiful, from Mothers to sexuality, from broken crockery - to glass - to abandonment fears, Hitch has fun, especially with the human interactions, or lack of in certain scenes. It's a film that cries out for analysis, such is the director's want, in turn it's a riveting horror picture and a crafty enigma. It sounded daft as a basic idea for a film, and some must have thought Hitchcock had missed the boat of the creature feature boom of the 50s. Yet "The Birds" stands tall and proud as a damn fine piece of film from a true maestro of his craft, one of his last true classics and still today, over 50 years after its release, the film provokes theory discussion and visual terror in equal measure. 9/10

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2024 8:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Yet another beautifully "Spike-afied" review of a great movie. I think The Birds and The Time Machine demonstrate just what a fine actor Rod Taylor was.

Since YouTube has been robbed of its ability to provide free movies, I decided to download Archive.org's fine 1.2 GB version of The Birds and make it available to All Sci-Fi's members at the link below.

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The Birds (1963)Link is NOW active!

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Dammit, guys! What other websites gives you free downloads like this? NONE that I know of! Shocked Mr. Green
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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