The Birds The Birds There are no active dates for this event. Not Available Thursday Jan 21, 2016 7:30 PM - Saturday Feb 20, 2016 7:30 PM | $18.00 - $36.00 Get Tickets The Birds a play by Conor McPherson After weeks of aerial attacks, four strangers find sanctuary from an environmental catastrophe in an isolated and abandoned lakeside cabin. But that sanctuary is disturbed by questions of what constitutes civilized behavior in the absence of civilization. Adapted for a post-9/11 world by Conor McPherson, "The Birds" based on the short story by Daphne du Maurier that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film. "A powerful piece of theatre and a reminder of just how important that story has become... truly frightening... a night in the theatre that should not be missed." Tippi Hedren "The Birds" features Sarah Harlett, Sean Nelson, Shawn Belyea, and Meme Garcia-Cosgrove, and opens January 21 at 12th Ave Arts.

The play is directed by Greg Carter and stage managed by Gabrielle Strong, with designs by Reed Nakayama, Tommer Peterson, Brendan Patrick Hogan, and Jenny Ampersand. More information at strawshop.org SPECIAL PRICES ON MONDAY PERFORMANCES Discussion Writing for Hitchcock: An Interview with Ed McBain - MysteryNet.com Writing for Hitchcock: An Interview with Ed McBain Novelist Evan Hunter (AKA Ed McBain) discusses his work by Charles L. P. Silet When Alfred Hitchcock started work on his film, The Birds (1963), he asked critically-acclaimed New York novelist Evan Hunter (also known as crime writer Ed McBain) to write the script. Hitchcock knew Hunter could work in the Hollywood milieu from his contributions to Alfred Hitchcock Presents (the director’s long-running television show) as well as Hunter’s other screenplay adaptations of his best-selling novels. He later confided in Hunter that he chose a famous novelist to write the screenplay for The Birds to garner the critical respect and recognition that had eluded his other films. MysteryNet: When did you first meet Hitchcock?

Hunter: I met him after he had done “First Offense,” which was a serious story of mine, on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I didn’t write the screenplay for that but it was based on my story. When I did write one it was based on a story by Robert Turner. It was a difficult thing to do because the story was just an internal monologue, the kid thinking about the electrocution of his father at 11:00 o’clock. I transferred it to a bar where the kid’s drunk and trying to get drunker and is obnoxious and I put in all the bystanders in the bar to open it up. This may have been in Hitch’s mind when he called upon me to do The Birds, because the Daphne du Maurier story, “The Birds” involves just two people in a cottage. They hardly say anything, there’s no dialog in the entire story. Hitch also told me later, and I learned later from other sources, that he was looking for some “artistic respectability” with The Birds.

This was something that had always eluded him, and he deliberately chose to work with a successful New York novelist, rather than a Hollywood screenwriter, many of whom are much better screenwriters than I am. MysteryNet: Tell us a little bit about your experience of working with Hitchcock. Hunter: Hitch told me on the phone that he had called my agent and asked if I would want to do The Birds. I’d had some stuff done on his television show, so I vaguely knew him. But I wasn’t familiar with du Maurier’s story, so I said “Let me read it.” I read it and it sounded interesting and I accepted the job. But when I spoke with him he said “Forget the story now that you’ve read it, because all we’re using is the title and the notion of birds attacking people.” He said, “That’s it. So when you come out to the coast, come out with some ideas we can pursue and I’ll have some and we’ll talk further.” In the first two days we shot down my ideas and his ideas, and started from scratch. MysteryNet: And as you worked you worked in tandem?

Hunter: We spent a lot of time trying to figure out who the girl was going to be– that’s Hollywood talk: “the girl;” it ain’t my talk– and “the boy” and figured out how we were going to get the story going. I would come in every day having thought the night before and he would always say “Tell me the story so far,” and I would tell him and then he would start shooting holes in it. He was always thinking in terms of the shot he could get, and I was always thinking in terms of the logic of the actions of the characters. He wanted a scene where Melanie Daniels rents a boat and goes across the inlet and gets hit by a bird. That’s the first bird attack. I would think why is she going to all this trouble renting a boat when she could easily drive around? But it was a good working relationship. He was meticulous about the circumstances in the script. There are holes you could drive Mack trucks through in some thrillers. He said “In my films I’d like to think that if you’d reel it back you’d say, ‘Oh, yeah, there it is.'” Nowadays of course we can do that through video replay.

MysteryNet: You said that you worked with other directors and often times the script gets so changed its hardly recognizable. How much of The Birds is really yours? Hunter: Most of it is. The most noticeable deletion was not shooting the end of the script as I had written it. I had another ten pages of script that he did not shoot, or if he shot I never saw them. And the most noticeable addition was the scene where in an attempt to give the girl some depth at the birthday party for the children Rod Taylor takes her up on a hilltop and removes from one pocket of his jacket a martini shaker, and then from the other pocket two martini glasses and pours martinis for them. On this hilltop they start talking about her empty life. It’s a stupid scene and I don’t know who wrote it.

Rod Taylor said to me, the day they were shooting it and I was on the set, he said “Evan, did you write this scene?” I read it and I said, “No,” and he said, “We’re shooting it this morning.” I said “Well, let me talk to Hitch about it.” I went to Hitch and said “This is a dumb scene, it’s going to slow down the movie enormously, slow down the point where the birds attack the children at the birthday party, and it serves no purpose and I don’t think it should be in the movie.” And he looked me dead in the eye and he said “Are you going to trust me or a two-bit actor?” MysteryNet: What was in the ending that you wrote? Hunter: Mitch leaves with his family driving a convertible with a cloth top and there was a reason for that. And the reason was that I wanted to make the final assault the birds attacking the car’s top. Also in my version, as we leave the farmhouse we see the devastation that was wreaked on the town itself. We see overturned school buses and signs of people having defended their homes against the bird attacks.

So it becomes not just an isolated attack on Mitch and his family but a town-wide attack with implications that it may have gone even beyond the town. Mitch and his family finally get to another road block and it’s covered with birds and Mitch gets out and moves some stuff and he gets back into the car. As they start driving through it the birds all come up off the roadblock and start attacking the car as they’re driving out of town. In that area in Northern California the coast roads have these horseshoe curves but the birds fly in a straight line after the car, and as they attack the canvas top we see from inside the car looking up all these beaks tearing at the canvas and finally the whole top goes back and the birds are hovering over the car. Just then the road straightens out and Mitch hits the gas pedal and the car moves off and the birds just keep falling back, falling back, falling back. In the car they all catch their breath and Mitch’s sister says, “Mitch do you think they’ll be in San Francisco when we get there?” and he says, “I don’t know, honey,” and that’s the last line of the movie. MysteryNet: Why didn’t Hitchcock shoot it that way?

Hunter: I think he was very tired by then, and this would have required a lot of work with the scene in the car where four characters are in a tight space and the camera is in with them watching the beaks and then the scene of the birds hovering and the birds following and the helicopter shots, animation, everything. It was just too much to do. MysteryNet: What about the restaurant scene which you wrote in Connecticut and you shipped back to Hitchcock in Hollywood? Hunter: I love that scene, that was like a one act play. Hitch called and he said I need something more. I don’t know how we discovered where we would take them, the central characters, Melanie and Mitch, but once I knew it was a restaurant, The Tides, then I had the whole scene in place and it just wrote itself. MysteryNet: It’s a scene which sort of explains, or provides, a kind of logic, to explain the birds’ behavior. Hunter: That’s right. It’s really a scene of great confusion because nobody knows what the hell is happening. We made, if you’ll forgive the expression, an “artistic” decision early on that we were never going to explain the bird attacks, never.

Otherwise the film would become science fiction and we didn’t want to do that. MysteryNet: Was Hitchcock easy to work with? Hunter: Oh yeah, I loved working with him. He was like the father anyone wished he would have. He was intelligent, he was world-traveled. He knew everybody, he was famous, he was a star in his own right. I don’t know how many people would recognize Steven Spielberg if he walked into a restaurant, maybe in Hollywood, but I don’t think they would in Iowa. But if Hitch walked in they’d damn well know him. He was a big, big star. One of the few directors I think who has ever had such a high profile. Charles L.P. Silet teaches courses in film and contemporary literature at Iowa State University and writes extensively on the mystery field. He is currently working on a collection of his interviews with major contemporary writers.

Under the pseudonym of Ed McBain, Evan Hunter is the author of the acclaimed 87th Precinct mystery series as well as the Mathew Hope mysteries The Birds 1963 ( FILMING LOCATION ) Alfred Hitchcock - YouTube The Birds 1963 ( FILMING LOCATION ) Alfred Hitchcock Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Sep 28, 2012 FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK After filming "Shadow of A Doubt" in Santa Rosa in 1948, Alfred Hitchcock returned to Sonoma County in 1961 to find a remote coastal location for his next project "The Birds." He chose Bodega Bay, with surrounding bleak treeless hills, quiet fishing harbor and fog. Based on a short story by Daphne DuMaurier, the original story took place in an English seashore village where murderous birds attacked the local villagers.

Evan Hunter, who had written "The Blackboard Jungle" and "Last Summer" wrote the screenplay; Alfred Hitchcock financed the film from his successful television show. Never had a director portrayed animals working in unison with intelligence. "The Birds" became the first horror/ fantasy film. Special effects, including mechanical birds, live and wild birds on strings, and optically altered film overlays of birds in flight made this a most frightening film. The fog did not always cooperate, so much of the film needed to be tinted gray. Nearly three years were required to complete work on the film for its release in 1963. The 150 year old Potter School behind St. Theresa's Church five miles south of Bodega Bay in Bodega, was vacant at the time of the filming. After Alfred Hitchcock's crew repaired the exterior it was used for several scenes. Today it is a private residence and is sometimes open for tours. The school teacher's house was a façade erected during the filming. The Catholic Church, briefly visible in the film, was made famous when it was photographed by Ansel Adams.

Many of the shots of the children running from the schoolhouse were done on Taylor Street in Bodega Bay above the Diekmann's Bay Store with the original two story store visible at the bay's edge. Close ups of the running scene were set up at Universal Studios with the children running on a treadmill. Taylor Street is about a half a mile north of the Visitors Center. Various restaurant scenes, portions of the gas station fire, and the boat dock scenes where filmed at the Tides Wharf and Restaurant. The actual fire was lighted in a parking lot at Universal Studios with a mock up of Highway One and the Tides Wharf. The fire was also filmed from a helicopter for film footage that was superimposed on a painting of a fishing village. The village center in the movie was a set. The Tides Wharf was completely rebuilt in the 1990's and is located across Highway One from the Visitors Center. The ranch house on Westshore Road, part of the Gafney ranch that had occupied Bodega Head for nearly 100 years was used for exterior shots of the Brenner House. The derelict structure, now part of the U.C.

Marine Laboratory in the Sonoma Coast State Beach, was repaired by the film crew and used for exterior shots, including the children's birthday party and the end of the film. The house has been demolished, but the ancient cedar trees look much the same as they did in "The Birds." The cedar grove is across the harbor from the Visitors Center and is visible from Highway One. The scenes of Tippi Hedren driving her Aston Martin into Bodega Bay were filmed on Bay Hill Road, about a mile and a half north of the Visitors Center. There is a guide book with more information about the filming of "The Birds" available at the Sonoma Coast Visitors Center in Bodega Bay. Has the mystery behind Alfred Hitchcock's thriller The Birds finally been solved? | Daily Mail Online comments The bizarre event which inspired Alfred Hitchcock's cinematic masterpiece The Birds has finally been explained. The director was said to have based the 1963 film on a creepy incident in California, where flocks of frenzied, dying birds flew into the windows of homes in Monterey Bay. Scientists have come up with an answer for the freak of nature - that the birds had been poisoned by toxic plankton.

Birds of prey: The iconic image from Hitchcock's The Birds (starring Tippi Hedren) which was reportedly based on a real incidence in California when flocks of seabirds crashed into houses and died Terror from the skies: The Birds told the story of a small town in California where citizens were maimed and killed by vicious birds 'I am pretty convinced that the birds were poisoned,' said ocean environmentalist Sibel Bargu of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge to USA Today. The scientists came up with the theory after studying the stomach contents of marine life from the time of the birds' deaths in 1961. They discovered toxic algae on three-quarters of the plankton the birds ate which damaged nerves - causing seizures, disorientation and finally, death. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share The algae were believed to have become poisonous after being infected from leaky septic tanks, installed quickly during the housing boom in the Sixties across California. At the time, police officer Ed Cunningham had been on patrol when a deluge of dead birds began to land on his squad car at around 2:30 am.

The officer told the Santa Cruz Sentinel in 1961: 'By the time I had stopped the car they were raining down all around me. Freaky: A police officer picks up dozens of dead sea birds which fell from the sky in Monterey Bay, California in 1961 Getting in a flap: Crows chasing schoolchildren and sparrows invading a home in the horror film The Birds 'They were big birds and they were falling so fast and hard they could have knocked me senseless. I thought I had better stay in the car and that's just what I did.' The horror/thriller classic The Birds tells of a wealthy woman (played by actress Tippi Hedren) who follows a potential love interest to his home town in Northern California which comes under a plague of vicious birds, killing and maiming residents and forcing them to hide inside boarded up homes. The title came from a short story called The Birds written in 1952 by Daphne Du Maurier but Hitchcock was said to have requested copies of newspapers in California around the time of the real-life bird deaths.

Hitchcock's 49th film was met with critical acclaim, receiving a prestigious debut screening at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar for special effects. HITCHCOCK 'THE OBSESSIVE' Alfred Hitchcock developed a dangerous obsession with Tippi Hedren – star of The Birds – which blighted both their careers. A new drama, The Girl (starring Sienna Miller, pictured, as Hedren) is currently being filmed and depicts an infatuated Hitchcock, 62, sexually harassing the blonde starlet, 31. He controlled all aspects of Hedren's life including her diet and off-set wardrobe, even forbidding her to drive with male co-stars. She finally quit when he made it clear that she would never work again unless she gave in to his sexual demands. Tippi’s decision to walk away stalled her career because Hitchcock kept her to her contract and refused to allow her to work with other directors. But the collapse of the couple’s working relationship also had a devastating impact on the director, whose long run of hit, classic movies dried up. Tippi Hedren, a model who was in her first starring film role, won a Golden Globe for best newcomer.

Hundreds of birds (gulls, ravens and crows) were trained for the film, while mechanical birds and animations were employed in other scenes. The film embodies typical Hitchcock techniques to ramp up the suspense. There is no musical score just an electronic soundtrack of bird cries and flapping wings. The British director's skilled filming techniques were also employed giving the audience the impression of the camera looming over them or putting viewers on edge by using a distorted perspective. Hitchcock had originally wanted Cary Grant and Grace Kelly to play the lead roles in The Birds. Grant had previously appeared in the celebrated North by Northwest while Kelly was equally successful in Rear Window (1954). He opted for Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren - who he had spotted by chance in an soda advert. He tied the actress into an exclusive contract for several years and later became dangerously obsessed with her. The Birds also contains one of Hitchcock's famed cameos. In this film, he is the man walking dogs out of the pet store at the beginning of the movie. As with many of Hitchcock's masterpieces, the end of the film is riddled with ambiguity. The reason for the birds' attack is never revealed - and mysterious forces are alluded to.

The freak bird fall which inspired the Hitchcock horror film has not been the only recorded incident of strange deaths. Randall Cerveny, a professor of geography at the School of Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning at Arizona State University in Tempe, listed several examples for USA Today. One of the earliest examples was in Baton Rouge, July 1896, when wild ducks, woodpeckers and catbirds fell from the sky and cluttered the streets. One theory is that a strange windfall drove the birds inland from the Florida coast and a sudden change in temperature killed them en masse. On September 11, 1948 in New York City, thousands of different kinds of birds were killed when they crashed into the Empire State Building. An explanation was never worked out as 'there was no fog and weather conditions were good during the night and morning' according to a book written in 1961, Mysterious Fires And Lights.

The Master of Suspense: The Birds (1963) was British director Alfred Hitchcock's 49th film and based on a freak incident when birds fell from the sky in California several years earlier The Birds (Film) - TV Tropes The Birds You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share — Alfred Hitchcock , tagline The Birds is a 1963 suspense/horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock , based on the short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. The film's innovative special effects, soundtrack, and apocalyptic theme influenced later "revenge of nature" disaster films. Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) is a young San Francisco socialite. She decides to follow lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) to his home in Bodega Bay, California. She apparently picks the wrong time to visit. The birds of Bodega Bay are becoming increasingly aggressive and soon every human being around comes under attack, with Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette), a close friend of the Brenners, becoming one of the early casualties.

Unlike most other films of its era, The Birds does not have a music score or an ending in the conventional sense. The soundtrack was supervised by Bernard Herrmann ; bird cries and wingflaps were played on an expanded Trautonium (called the Mixtur Trautonium) by Oskar Sala, assisted by German composer Remi Gassmann. The screenplay was written by Evan Hunter . Ub Iwerks helped out with the special effects involving the birds. There was a made-for-TV sequel, The Birds II: Land's End (1994), with a new cast of characters (and Ms. Hedren gamely contributing a cameo as a shopkeeper.) It fared poorly. This Movie Contains Examples Of: Adult Fear : The whole scene with the birds attacking the school. An In-Universe trope, as one woman overhears Melanie explaining about what happened to the school while eating with her children and immediately tries to hitch a ride with another diner patron out of town . After-Action Patch-Up : Mitch treating Melanie's head wound in the diner. This scene depicts the beginning of a friendlier relationship between the two of them. Alan Smithee : The Birds II was credited to him.

Author Appeal : Bird motif (this more explicit than other films) and an icy blonde lead actress. Attack of the Killer Whatever : In this case, birds. The Bad Guy Wins : The infamous ending, which indicates that the birds have succeeded in taking over the town, and quite possibly the entire country. Balloon-Bursting Bird : The film involves said avians attacking a little girl's birthday party. During the assault, the birds pop a number of balloons. Bat Scare : While the evil avians are a recurrent threat, their final attack, as Melanie enters a room and finds it's filled with them, must fit. Beauty Is Never Tarnished : Averted and played straight. Melanie's hair does (eventually) get disheveled, and she gets some nasty head wounds towards the end. But for all the running and falling down, her clothes are always perfectly clean and free of wrinkles. Big Bad : The birds themselves. Interestingly, they don't quite cause the conflict so much as they are the conflict itself; their attacks kickstart and drive the plot, and they are not as much characters as they are a full-scale living doomsday scenario.

Big "NO!" : Well, how would you react if you were attacked by birds in a small room, sending you into a catatonic state, and then your friends tried to guide you outside into a landscape of staring birds to get to the car? Naturally Melanie flat-out refuses, at first. Bittersweet Ending : See No Ending below for the details. However, Lydia and Melanie share a tender moment in one of the last shots, implying that the old woman has come to care for her - and that the trauma may have actually bonded them. Break the Haughty : Mrs Bundy the ornithologist is a pompous Agent Scully who refuses to believe that the birds are attacking. The last we see of her is after the chaos in the town - and she's visibly stunned into silence. Broken Bird : Pun aside Melanie is reduced to a catatonic wreck after getting attacked by birds in the attic. It was a similar situation for her actress in real life too. Cassandra Did It : Melanie is the one who argued against the ornithologist who said birds lack the ability to flock together and attack, and immediately after an attack is blamed because the attacks started after she arrived.

Cassandra Truth : It takes a very long time for the main characters convince the law enforcement that birds are attacking, them chalking it up to coincidence. Not until the largest attack on the town occurs do they start investigating. Cerebus Call Back : As everyone plans to flee the house, Cathy begs to bring the love birds Melanie got her as a present - reminding everyone of the reason Melanie ended up in Bodega Bay in the first place. Creepy Crows : A fair segment of nature's battalion here, and are strongly associated with this movie. Daylight Horror : Most of the bird attacks happen during the day. Developing Doomed Characters : The movie opens with a romantic-flirtation plot. Disproportionate Retribution : One of Mitch's clients shot his wife in the head six times. For changing the channel when he was watching a ball game. Eye Scream / Staggered Zoom : A brief shot of one of the victims, with his eyes pecked out. Feathered Fiend : Type B. This movie could be seen as the Trope Codifier .

Five-Second Foreshadowing : Melanie sees a sparrow in the Brenners' fireplace just before dozens of them come pouring into the room through the chimney. Foreshadowing : There's plenty of actual foreshadowing in the first half of the movie - Melanie taking time to notice a swarm of seagulls in San Francisco, and attention to lots of birds sitting on telephone poles. For the Evulz : Different, random groups of birds start swarming and killing the populace of Bodega Bay. No reason or explanation is given as to why they attack. They just do it. Fowl-Mouthed Parrot : The reason Melanie orders the mynah bird at the beginning of the film. She planned on teaching the bird a few of the "semantics" she picked up in a college class at Berkley before giving the mynah to her uptight Aunt Tessa. Grudging "Thank You" : Lydia thanks Melanie in this way for taking care of her after a nervous breakdown. Halfway Plot Switch : It starts off feeling like a romantic comedy, and takes its time getting to the real point. Harmful to Minors : The school scene, among others. Heroic B.S.O.D.

: Melanie enters a catatonic state after the final attack in the attic. Hot Teacher : Annie, who was once a lover of Mitch's. In-Name-Only : Well, technically it's based on the du Maurier short story. The screenwriter actually had read the short story, but Hitchcock specifically told him not to bother with it, as all he wanted to use was the title and the core premise of birds attacking people. Needless to say, the author Daphne Du Maurier was not pleased with this. Infant Immortality : Played with. The birds attack a group of children twice in the film, but all of them survive. There's mention of one needing to be taken to hospital, but ending up fine. Ironic Nursery Tune : Sung by the schoolchildren as crows gather on the jungle gym. It's Quiet... Too Quiet : There is no music at all in the soundtrack, not counting the singing children. Kill All Humans : Seems to be the birds' goal. Malignant Plot Tumor : Romance happens. Then lots and lots and lots of angry birds happen. Mama Bear : Lydia, to Mitch. Meaningful Background Event : The birds silently gathering on the playground equipment behind Melanie.

Missing Mom : Melanie's mother has been gone for years. She's implied to be a Daddy's Girl as a result. Santa Cruz County History - Santa Cruz Public Libraries Santa Cruz County History - Unusual & Curious Birds "Invade" Santa Cruz, California by Wally Trabing The film, "The Birds", was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was based on the story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. The film was released in 1963. Two years earlier, a real life "invasion" of birds occurred in Santa Cruz. The event was reported in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on August 18, 1961. Mr. Hitchcock asked the Santa Cruz Sentinel for a copy of the story, as reported in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on August 21, 1961. Excerpts from both stories are reproduced here with permission.

Santa Cruz Sentinel, August 18, 1961; page 1: Seabird Invasion Hits Coastal Homes; Thousands of Birds Floundering in Streets, by Wally Trabing "A massive flight of sooty shearwaters, fresh from a feast of anchovies, collided with shoreside structures from Pleasure Point to Rio del Mar during the night. Residents, especially in the Pleasure Point and Capitola area were awakened about 3 a.m. today by the rain of birds, slamming against their homes. Dead, and stunned seabirds littered the streets and roads in the foggy, early dawn. Startled by the invasion, residents rushed out on their lawns with flashlights, then rushed back inside, as the birds flew toward their light. . . . When the light of day made the area visible, residents found the streets covered with birds. The birds disgorged bits of fish and fish skeletons over the streets and lawns and housetops, leaving an overpowering fishy stench. . . . The most learned explanation of the bird tragedy came this morning from Ward Russell, museum zoologist at the University of California. He said the shearwaters generally live in the southern hemisphere.

As far as they are concerned this is their winter flocking area. Often when they are disturbed while feeding they will rise in flocks from the water. A blinding fog covered the coast last night and this morning. "They probably became confused and lost and headed for the light," he said. The only light available was the street lights and overnight lights in some homes and businesses. . . . Russell said that this is a fairly rare phenomena and it takes certain atmospheric conditions to cause this confusion. He said that during very foggy conditions the lighthouses along the coast are struck by the thousands of seabirds." Santa Cruz Sentinel, August 21, 1961; page 4: Alfred Hitchcock Using Sentinel's Seabird Story "Hollywood mystery producer Alfred Hitchcock phoned The Sentinel Saturday to let us know he is using last Friday's edition as research material for his latest thriller. Hitchcock, who owns a home in the hills near Scotts Valley, had phoned from Hollywood early Friday morning and requested a copy of the paper be mailed to him there.

It seems Hitchcock is now preparing to film Daphne DuMaurier's 10-year-old novel, "The Birds," which ironically deals with the invasion of a small town by millions of birds." For Additional Information See this recent example of "Birds Invading Santa Cruz," filmed on the Capitola Wharf. View similarly tagged articles: Alfred Hitchcock , birds , films Disclaimer: It is our continuing goal to make available a selection of articles on various subjects and places in Santa Cruz County. Certain topics, however, have yet to be researched. In other cases, we were not granted permission to use articles. The content of the articles is the responsibility of the individual author. It is the Library's intent to provide accurate local history information. However, it is not possible for the Library to completely verify the accuracy of individual articles obtained from a variety of sources. If you believe that factual statements in a local history article are incorrect and can provide documentation, please contact the Webmaster. Search The Birds (1963) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This!

Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people. Director: Daphne Du Maurier (from the story by), Evan Hunter (screenplay) Stars: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 25 titles created 14 Aug 2011 a list of 21 titles created 09 Oct 2013 a list of 28 titles created 8 months ago a list of 30 titles created 5 months ago a list of 40 titles created 2 weeks ago Search for " The Birds " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 5 nominations. See more awards » Videos A San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock Two young men strangle their "inferior" classmate, hide his body in their apartment, and invite his friends and family to a dinner party as a means to challenge the "perfection" of their crime. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A family vacationing in Morocco accidentally stumble on to an assassination plot and the conspirators are determined to prevent them from interfering. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive. Director: Alfred Hitchcock An ex-tennis pro carries out a plot to murder his wife. When things go wrong, he improvises a brilliant plan B.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock Mark marries Marnie although she is a habitual thief and has serious psychological problems, and tries to help her confront and resolve them. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A serial murderer is strangling women with a necktie. The London police have a suspect, but he is the wrong man. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A psychotic socialite confronts a pro tennis star with a theory on how two complete strangers can get away with murder - a theory that he plans to implement. Director: Alfred Hitchcock When a reformed jewel thief is suspected of returning to his former occupation, he must ferret out the real thief in order to prove his innocence. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A young woman discovers her visiting uncle may not be the man he seems to be. Director: Alfred Hitchcock Edit Storyline Melanie Daniels is the modern rich socialite, part of the jet-set who always gets what she wants. When lawyer Mitch Brenner sees her in a pet shop, he plays something of a practical joke on her, and she decides to return the favor. She drives about an hour north of San Francisco to Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends the weekends with his mother Lydia and younger sister Cathy.

Soon after her arrival, however, the birds in the area begin to act strangely. A seagull attacks Melanie as she is crossing the bay in a small boat, and then, Lydia finds her neighbor dead, obviously the victim of a bird attack. Soon, birds in the hundreds and thousands are attacking anyone they find out of doors. There is no explanation as to why this might be happening, and as the birds continue their vicious attacks, survival becomes the priority. Written by garykmcd ...And remember, the next scream you hear could be your own! See more » Genres: 29 March 1963 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia Tippi Hedren was actually cut in the face by a bird in one of the shots. See more » Goofs When Melanie is in the boat and attacked by the gull, she is wearing a gold necklace. When she's looking out the window in the diner, the necklace is gone. The necklace is also not visible in the phone booth.

I would have to watch the movie again to see if she arrives to the diner with her mink jacket and scarf or maybe she left both of them in the car before entering the diner. See more » Quotes Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk : Oh, hello, Miss Daniels. Melanie Daniels : Have you ever seen so many gulls? What do you suppose it is? Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk : Well, there must be a storm at sea, that can drive them inland, you know. I was hoping you'd be a little late because he hadn't arrived yet. Melanie Daniels : Oh, but you'd said three o'clock... Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk : Oh I know, I know. I've been calling all morning. Oh, Miss Daniels you have no idea. They are so difficult to get, really they are. We have to get them from India, when they're just baby chicks,... [...] During the credits are at the beginning, sound effects from the film are shown. See more » Connections Arabesque no.

1 in E (1888) (uncredited) – See all my reviews Imagine Hitchcock trying to sell this idea to the film studios: the lives of a mundane country family are shattered when vicious rooks attack. Why? No particular reason. And what then? They fly away. and then? They come back again and attack. And then go and then . .. It seems like an impossible plot to pull off, but Hitchcock does it, slowly building up the tension which spasmodically swells and subsides. Younger viewers may get irritated with the slow stealth of the opening scenes and may want to thrash the T.V. when the film comes to its beautifully droll conclusion, but form once those birds start attacking, every viewer is riveted. It was fine Hitchcockian innovation that took this very slim, cock-a-mamy story and turned in to a tense thriller. But the greatest innovation is the film score - there isn't any. No director is more closely identified with the music of their films, but in Birds, Hitchcock created a horror that is uniquely quiet. The great man appreciated something that so few others do - the atmospheric potency of silence, and how, in different settings, silences can differ in character.

Yet so many who watch the film seem to forget that the music isn't there. That's the film's greatest attribute. 169 of 277 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes

Question: The 1963 film ‘The Birds’ is based on a story by which novelist?
Answer: Daphne du Maurier