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Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds
Studio executives summary / pitch
Pushy, early 1960's 'woman of prey', gets preyed on by the birdies. A movie of bloody birdie revenge with the sucka's going for the eyes every time.
Short plot summary

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.

Rating
Adult: Contains moments of birds swooping into bouffant hairstyles, birds eating extra's eyes out, birds pecking mercilessly on the shoulders and ears of small children, small boat rowing in fur coats and THAT birdy horror scene in the roof...
Please spoil this movie for me by telling me all the good bits and then the ending.

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...

Quotable quotes

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

What snack should I eat while watching this movie?

Any bird pie.

What our panel of critics thought
"Lots of women looking sternly into camera, some with sinister eyes and/or psychological disorders. Surely at this time in feminist history, there is some needlework they must have forgotten?"

"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?

Justify this movie's existence in the classic strand. From theVoiceof Reason.com's Veritable Cornucopia

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.

If I were to watch this at home how best should I sit?

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

Could this movie be improved with more special effects?
For their time, some of the effects are extremely good - the birds in the living room are clearly a special effect, very scary. Perhaps the one thing that lets this movie down, and this is true for a number of movies around this time, is the use of blue screen in certain shots. Take as an example Melanie in the rowing boat, some shots just look stupid.
How philosophical is this film?
The basis of the movie seems to be that Melanie is evil and so the birds are attacking her. She is a rich, predatory, socialite who is determined to get her man, amidst a number of women keen to 'just be around' Brenner. Oh if only we hadn't fallen to sleep in the psychology lessons we took at college to know what all this means...
Would your pets enjoy this movie?

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.

What can I take from this movie to make me a better person?
There are some good lessons in rowing-boatmanship in a fur coat in this movie. Take notes: she's got the docking with a rope down to a tee...
Estimate number of minutes of screaming in this film..

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

How much would you pay for a copy of this movie in goods?
A small plastic joke poo.
Would this movie win awards for performances of the f-word?
No. This is 1963ville.
Other comments

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.

Date of review
December 5 , 2002
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