Hitchcock at his 'beak'

Rating: Null/10 (12 August 1999)

Well, its Friday the 13th, of Aug. '99 of course, and someone from beyond the grave wants to spook you.Actually its Hitch's 100 rd birthday and what better way to spook you than with THE BIRDS.
I first saw this movie as a child and it scared the pants off of me.I had nightmares for months after, like millions of other young people. Today I appreciate the mystery its conveys.
In the movie we just don't know why the birds attack unprovoked but we're treated to some speculative ideas.
Initially, Tippi Hedren gets the blame, the attacks starting when she arrives in Bodega Bay.Playing the character, Melanie Daniels, a rich daughter of a newspaper magnate,Hedren is labelled as 'pure evil' by one of the townsfolk.
But this isn't right, you see Melanie is not even raven-haired, she's pure blonde.Hitch knows we won't fall for that old trick,so in comes a charute smoking ornithologist complete with feather in hat who blinds us with fact after fact about how sweet and nice our fine feathered friends are. The birds dispute this by their actions surrounding a cafe menacingly. naw,that's not the answer,back to the drawing board folks.
So there is no explanation given except perhaps that the Bodega Bay residents were skimpy with the bird seeds that week and therefore the birds felt,er a little .. peckish.No it's just as if..as if your left in silence, like the silence of no movie score, or the silent scream of Jessica Tandy, or perhaps the silence of Hedren being peaked to death in the attic scene. Each element is like gathering a twig here, a sapling there,a leaf elsewhere and building them up into a nestling symbolism that comprises, stealth, secretiveness,mysteriousness and pure creepiness that eventually hatches under your skin.
Technically unique,THE BIRDS uses various special effects ,such as, animation,models and live birds to stage the attacks.It's truly amazing, the school house attack being my favourite.
But my overall favourite piece is when Rod Taylor tries to walk to his car at the end of the movie.A single perched crow turns its head and curiously looks up at Taylor then at his hand and bites it!!. Seagulls timidly peck at his pants and shoes,all the while cooing softly. In our minds were saying Rod get back in the house your outnumbered!! It's not truly anticlimactic,it's just pure suspense,anticipation of what might happen rather than does.
It's also amazing that no other director,at least to my knowledge, has pursued this aviaristic theme.
There's a very funny story told by the director Peter Bogdanovich about Hitch.
One day he was waiting for Hitch at some hotel somewhere and when they met,they got on an elevator to go down to the hotel lobby,some 20 stories below them. Hitch got in the back and the lift filled up with people.Suddenly Hitch starts to speak... "There was blooood eveerrywhere",he starts in his British accent. "Bloooood on the carpet,blooood on this chaps clooothing,blooood on the couch," Bogdanovich is trully puzzled,what brought this on, he thought,but he decides to chime in. "Really,Hitch?", "Yeeesss", drools back Hitch. The elevator stops somewhere on the 12th floor,there's an exchange of people and it moves off again. "Blooood streaming from his nose," continues Hitch, "His cloothes were a complete meess," Unable to escape the talking,people were cocking an ear or two to this diminutive,bald,rotund gentleman with the oh-so drool English accent. The elevator gets close to the lobby, Hitch goes in for the kill.
"GOOD GOD MAN,WHAT EEEVVVEEERR HAPPENED TO YOU?" continuing slowly he says, "..and do you know what he said to me"?
The elevator reaches the lobby,doors part, and nobody appears to want to move. Hitch quietly makes his way out of the lobby trailed by a small contingent of people seeming to follow him.Bogdanovich comes up to Hitch's level. "Well, Hitch, what did the man say"? "Whaaat"? replies Hitch. "The man with the blood all over him". "OH thhhaat,...nothing..that was my elevator stooory", and walks on.