The Birds

I was reading through a thread about somebody being annoyed by noisy birds. Lysergic posted a couple pics that made me want to see if I could find this movie.

In this 1963 thriller by Alfred Hitchcock, a small Northern California town is attacked by birds.
The Birds

The trailers:



The movie:


Some fun trivia:

A scene in the film shows a service station where a bird knocks over an attendant filling a car with gas. The gas flows across the street where a man lights his cigarette igniting the gas. The fire follows the gas stream to the pump and explodes. The service station was located across from "The Tides" restaurant and pier. In reality this service station did not exist at the time of the filming. However, several years later a service station was built and is still located at the spot shown in the film.

Tippi Hedren was actually cut in the face by a bird in one of the shots.

The movie features 370 effects shots. The final shot is a composite of 32 separately filmed elements.

The use of standard blue screen techniques for doing matte shots of the birds proved to be unacceptable. The rapid movement of the birds, especially their wings, caused excessive blue fringing in the shots. It was determined that the sodium vapor process could be used to do the composites. The only studio in America that was equipped for this process was the Walt Disney studio. Ub Iwerks, who had become the world's leading expert on the sodium vapor process, was assigned to this production.

At 25:25 Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) holds the cotton ball against her wound. The way her hand and forearm are positioned makes the appearance of a bird and the ring on her pinky represents the eye. Tippi Hedren confirms this and said that Alfred Hitchcock wanted to put subtle meanings throughout the film about the upcoming bird attack.

a reply to: Skid Mark


Noisy birds!! Heheheh.


There's also dark half Stephen King. And "Deadbirds",, I liked that one...

a reply to: breakingbs
I loved The Dark Half (both the book and movie). I never saw Deadbirds. I'll have to look it up. Thanks.

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Ah yes, The Birds! Good old classic edge of your seat kind of movie. I haven't seen that in ages. Good film!

a reply to: Night Star
Yes it is. I always enjoyed this one.

I love that movie.

I used to watch it whenever it was on.

Haven't seen it for many years. Are you watching TV or computer?

LOL!!! Well at this point, DID you watch TV or computer?

My parents took me with them to see this movie when I was three (probably not appropriate, but whatever). My mom loves to tell the story how during a climactic moment towards the end involving the female star, I stood up and shouted "Somebody kill those damn birds!" The audience broke out in applause and laughter. Guess I released a little tension.

When I was in 4th, 5th, 6th grade, my parents were starting to let me watch scarier movies. The BIrds and Aliens were two I got to cut my horror movie teeth on. I also got to follow up with other classic Hitchcock and sci-fi horror type films after those.

My mom's reasoning behind letting me watch Hitchcock? It wasn't realistic compared to modern horror, and sci-fi was allowed, even more modern stuff, because stuff in space couldn't be real (I don't know how that excused The Thing) though). I never did get to see the classic slasher flicks like Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street like a lot of my friends did. I did see Psycho which might be the first slasher in a sense.

a reply to: ketsuko
You started off on the good ones. I think Psycho could be called a slasher movie because of the infamous shower scene.

a reply to: crappiekat
The first time I saw it was on TV. This last time was on youtube, so computer. Matter of fact, I embedded the video so others can watch.

a reply to: kaylaluv
I'm not sure if that's too young or not. I watched horror movies from the time I was very young. Anywho, that's a funny story. I can imagine a kid yelling that.

a reply to: Skid Mark

Nice thread, you did a lot of work, nice job!

a reply to: Quantum12
Thanks. It's one of my favorite movies and I love the trailers, too.

Great flick

I think my fav Hitchcock is North by North West. Or Psycho. tough call.

The School House in the film still stands in Bodega. The building has quite a history.

A few years after the film crews vacated the premises, the Taylor family bought the then falling-down building and made it a private residence. This is what it looked like when the Taylors purchased it in 1963.

source

I don't know if Leah Taylor -- the current owner listed -- is related to Rod Taylor. I'll try to find out.

One of my favorite movies. I have it saved on DVR and watch it from time to time. Amazing special effects for the time.

ETA: It would appear that there is no familial connection between Rod Taylor and Leah Taylor. There are reports of paranormal events in the building: source

a reply to: zazzafrazz
I like those two too. I like the show he had too. Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

a reply to: argentus
That would be cool if they were related.

Yeah they used a lot of robot birds. Also live ones. I read a story where they'd trained the gulls to land on people's heads when they stood still. Months after the movie was over they were still doing it.

I saw in the trivia that one of the buildings was haunted. Everyone got a bad feeling there. I think it was the church.

a reply to: Skid Mark

Somewhere I read.......... I have to find this but don't have a link at my fingertips right now....... that some birds, (I think gulls) were actually tethered to Tipi Hedrin in one of the scenes, and it freaked her out, which, of course, make her reactions solid gold for Hitchcock.

ETA: Tipi Hedrin was born in 1930 and is not only still alive, but still working! ..........and she looks wonderful. Good on you girl. You didn't go for the over-the-top plastic surgery. You let yourself age naturally. Even after a lion that you foolishly allowed to live with you and daughter Melanie Griffith raked you, you didn't go there -- at least facially.

a reply to: argentus
Thanks for that. I had no idea she was still alive and working. From the looks of it she's been very busy. I also didn't know that Melanie Griffith was her daughter.