Winging A Cold War Apocalypse

Rating: Null/10 (6 February 2001)

Little known to most filmgoers was a traumatic experience that befell Hitch as a young boy, he was accidentally locked in a stairwell that had in it several badly decomposed bird carcasses, where he was forced to remain amidst the stench for hours one afternoon and evening until finally detected and freed. While Hitch counted the experience as notable but not significant in his childhood development, he did acknowledge it as a partial wellspring in inspiring 'The Birds'. The other major contributing factor was linked to his well known fear of the police. After completing 'North By Northwest', Hitch was invited by an associate to a social gathering of former policemen who had entered the intelligence profession, and their straightforward discussions of prospects for nuclear apocalypse apparently jarred Hitch to a level of discomfort that he felt the need to take on the apocalyptic dimension of life in the Cold War in a metaphorical manner. As the concept was being fleshed out, the idea came to Hitch of using the birds as a representative vehicle for life out of balance, and the rest is as they say, history. Just imagine, if these criteria had applied to the inspiration for "The Sound of Music", what a different film that would have been.....