When Tippi Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette lead the children out of the school, the birds come swarming over the roof and descend on the children, driving them toward the town and lake. Since the crows, as they come over the roof, are rendered through animation, they look like bats flying out of a haunted house, a cheap and hackneyed image, not worthy of Hitchcock. One of the posters for The Birds uses this shot. He kills his brother by sliding down a balustrade that flanks an outside staircase leading up to a house. The brother, seated at the bottom of the balustrade, is knocked onto an iron fence that is topped with spikes.
Staircases play an enormous role in Hitchcock's films.
Veidt, who sleeps in a coffin, commits murders under the orders of Dr. Caligari. One might say that Norman commits murders under the orders of Mother. Caligari is the most famous example of German Expressionist film, and is well worth seeing today. Hitchcock was in Germany in the early twenties, working with many of the leading figures of Expressionist film. The Lodger shows many influences of Expressionist film.