San Francisco: Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) enters a bird shop to buy caged birds for his sister's birthday. Here he meets Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) (a famous socialite) who he fancies the socks off. He orders Love Birds for his sister.

Even though she does not work for the bird shop, Melanie delivers them to his flat, only to find that he has gone off for the weekend. She drives them up to his house in Bodega Bay.

Nothing more is then heard of Melanie's caged birds, however, the local uncaged birds take an instant dislike to our fur coated glamourpus...

In the first horrifying scene, the birds fly like locusts down the chimney into the Brenner's lounge. In another scene they attack a birthday party. On going to see her teacher-friend-guest house owner, birds sit on the climbing frames. They attack the school kids.

One of the mothers accuses Melanie of being evil and the cause of the bird attacks. In one last attack at the Brenner house, the birds get in, Melanie goes to a top room and is viciously attacked by the birds. However, they save her eyes, and our human heroes all leave the house with the birds sitting and watching...

Coo! "Arrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh argghhhhhhhhhhhh geddoff arrrggggghhhhhh yeeeeppppppssssssss. Offff-ohnoohnoits- arrrhggggghhhhhh!" Tweet? "...ohohohooorrrreeeeeeooo..."

Any bird pie.

"Thank goodness we never see the 1960's womenfolk doing their hair, it must have taken a small team of 5 to get it looking like that..."

"Melanies shaken reaction to the gull in the head when rowing that boat, should be preserved in feminist posterity museums. Frankly, it serves her right for having a hairstyle like a loaf of bread!"

"My, when those birds came down the chimney it had me zig zagging my mascara down my cheeks, but what's a 1960's girl to do?"

"One of those annoying movies in which you are constantly saying "why did you do that?" Totally annoying, I am glad the birds reacted like they did, it serves them all right."

"Rod Taylor looks like a babe in this movie, it is such a shame he did not whip his pecs out. Had they ran out of Roman gladiator epics for him to star in?

Oh, Hitchie babe, a triumph of its time. The special effects leave one wanting nothing more than a stiff brandy to calm ones nerves, if I can just get my hands to stop shaking so... I have no doubt, Cockie babe, that you had them screaming in the isles of any cinema which dared to screen this movie in the 1960's.

I personally found the movie claustrophobic in the extreme and, to be honest, it is this feeling that makes me hate the movie with every sinew in my body. It is, indeed, a movie of its time, and in its time it complemented many of the other horror beasts-against-man efforts which had everyone looking behind them fearing the worst. It was a good gag and probably nobody died because of it, or at least nobody of consequence.

The final scene, in which Melanie goes to the roof top room, is so horrible that it defies description. I have never, since, been able to walk through a group of pigeons without thinking about this movie. Sheer brutality, annoying stares into the camera, and a controlling mother who weeps a lot. Nice scenery though.

Next to an open window, at night, with all the lights on, for full 3D things-flying-into-the-room effect.

It is a surprising, little known, fact that birds do not like Hitchcock movies. They find his work pretentious, overacted and too screamy by far.

30 minutes - generally screaming into the arms of a big chunky man.

OK, is this a classic or not? It is certainly memorable, and a brilliant time piece.

If you picked this movie to pieces while you watched it, you might like High Anxiety, Mel Brook's brilliant satire of Hitchcock's styling.