The plot is infuriatingly vague, but Hitchcock's got the goods of a semi-classic...

Rating: 7/10 (24 December 2006)

Any viewer might be forgiven for having mixed feelings at the conclusion of "The Birds". Evan Hunter's obtuse screenplay about a mass of violent bird attacks off the coast near San Francisco offers a situation with no explanation, no cause and no solution. This Alfred Hitchcock film is smoothly directed, but passive and a bit tentative. Tippi Hedren (Hitchcock's discovery, whom he hoped to groom into the next Grace Kelly) is an immaculate, impenetrable blonde Ice Queen who may be the one responsible for stirring up the birds, but this is never justified. Hedren's haughty manner is just as mysterious and implacable as the bird attacks (watch her in the elevator: her expression never wavers--she's like a mannequin). In fact, most of the women seem to be hiding some mysterious thought; Hitchcock holds close-ups of the female characters for so long, we wait for hidden subtext to be revealed and--despite a few telling lines of dialogue--it isn't. Rod Taylor is forthright and muscular as the lawyer who takes a fancy to Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette is a strangely contemplative, husky-voiced teacher, Jessica Tandy is Taylor's mother and Veronica Cartwright is Rod's sister (niece would've seemed more likely, or was Cartwright adopted?). Those are the only main characters, and even with so few the script can't iron out their stories. For instance, Tandy happens upon a man pecked to death by birds, she stumbles out of the house and passes a stable-hand but can't tell him what she saw; after she arrives home where Taylor and Hedren are, she butts them out of her way and takes to her bed! When Hedren phones from a diner and tells her father about a bird attack on the school, she completely forgets to mention a sparrow attack in Taylor's house the night before (she might've also mentioned the man pecked to death in his own bedroom!). "The Birds" is a very confusing picture from the viewer's side because we are kept at arm's length from these people. As for the birds, it doesn't help to hear everyone asking, "why are they doing this?" when we in the audience have absolutely no idea either. Still, it is one of Hitchcock's most stylish productions and there are several sequences that, while not without peer, are impeccably mounted and delivered. *** from ****