Still packs a punch

Rating: 7/10 (24 June 2014)

Alfred Hitchcock's nightmarish tale about the avian-world inflicting a terrible vengeance on their human tormentors.
Rod Taylor stars as Mitch Brenner, a bachelor lawyer.
The story begins with Brenner having a fractious encounter in a San Francisco pet shop with Melanie Daniels, a chic but haughty young woman, played by Tippi Hedren, Hitchcock's latest hunk of blonde ice. Clearly smitten by the handsome attorney, the woman follows him to his home in Bodega Bay, an idyllic fishing hamlet north of the city to give him a peace offering of two love birds. However, her arrival with the captive livestock in tow seems to trigger a hostile reaction from the local feathered population. Beginning with an odd, momentary assault on the mysterious visitor by a lone seagull, all hell eventually breaks loose when thousands of marauding birds of different species repeatedly attack the small community.
Jessica Tandy is Taylor's clinging and domineering mother with Veronica Cartwright as his sister and Suzanne Pleshette as his ex- girlfriend. Taylor, in his prime, looks good and makes a powerful and comforting protector in life-threatening circumstances.
Although the pedestrian script by Evan Hunter (based on a short story by Daphne Du Maurier) doesn't provide any real scope for the cast, the performances are still excellent. And, in the end, Hitchcock's sheer mastery of suspense over rides any shortcomings.
"The Birds" premiered in March, 1963 to somewhat mixed reviews. The public, however, showed no such ambivalence and (dare I say it ?), 'flocked' to cinemas across America to partake in the quirky horror that was on offer.
Obviously, it's an effects - driven movie and on that count it still packs a punch.