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The Birds (film)
Encyclopedia
The Birds is a 1963 horror film
directed by Alfred Hitchcock
based on the 1952 short story "The Birds
" by Daphne du Maurier
. It depicts Bodega Bay, California
which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few days.
The screenplay was written by Evan Hunter
. Though Hunter had read Du Maurier's original short story, Hitchcock told him to disregard it as all he wished to use was the title and the idea of birds attacking people.
) is a young wealthy socialite
who meets a lawyer, Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), in a San Francisco pet shop. He, looking to purchase a pair of lovebirds for his sister's eleventh birthday, pretends to mistake her for a salesperson, which infuriates her and leads her to inquire as to the reason for his behavior. He mentions a previous encounter that he had with her. Intrigued by him, she finds the address of his home in Bodega Bay, California
. She purchases a pair of lovebirds and drives to his house by sneaking across the small harbor in a motor boat, leaving the birds and a note. As she is heading back across the bay, a seagull swoops down and inflicts a cut on her head.
Over the next few days, the avian attacks continue, as Melanie's relationship with Mitch, his clinging mother, Lydia (Jessica Tandy
), his younger sister, Cathy (Veronica Cartwright
), and Cathy's teacher (who is also Mitch's ex-lover) Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette
) develops. The second strange bird incident occurs when Melanie stays for the night at Annie's house as a gull swoops down and kills itself upon hitting the front door. The next attack occurs at Cathy's birthday party
, where the children are set upon by seagulls and attacked. The following evening, sparrows invade the Brenner home. Avian violence escalates when Lydia discovers a friend dead in his bedroom with windows smashed, his eyes pecked out and dead birds everywhere. Lydia, horrified, returns to the farm where she is comforted by Melanie. Lydia asks Melanie to check on Cathy at the school. While Melanie waits on a bench outside the school, crows slowly accumulate on the playground behind her. Becoming aware of the birds, Melanie warns Annie and the two attempt to evacuate the children safely. As Melanie, Annie and the children flee from the school, the birds attack, harming several children.
Following this attack, an argument erupts at a local restaurant over the cause and legitimacy of the claims of this strange behavior. One resident believes the attacks are a sign of the apocalypse
, but a traveling mother chides the man and others for scaring her children. Mrs. Bundy (Ethel Griffies
), an amateur ornithologist, insists that different bird species do not flock or attack together. Despite her words, a motorist is attacked while filling his car with gasoline; he is knocked unconscious, and the gasoline continues to pump out onto the street. Another motorist, unaware he is standing in the puddle of gasoline, disregards warnings from the people in the restaurant, and lights a cigar
and drops the match on the ground. An explosion and fire result and Melanie is forced to take refuge in a phone booth as thousands of birds attack the townspeople. After returning to the restaurant, the hysterical mother accuses Melanie of being the cause of the attacks, noting that the birds didn't begin being violent until after her arrival in Bodega Bay. After this attack subsides, Melanie and Mitch find Annie dead on her front porch and Cathy crying at the window.
Melanie and Mitch's family take refuge in the Brenners' house, boarding up the windows. The house is attacked by the birds more viciously than ever before, and at several points they nearly manage to break in. Mitch is injured when a few birds manage to break through a window. In the evening, when everyone else is asleep, Melanie hears noises from the upper floor. Not wanting to disturb a sleeping Mitch, Melanie takes a flashlight and investigates. Entering a room at the top of the stairs, she finds that the birds have managed to break through the roof. They violently attack her, sealing her in the room until Mitch comes to her rescue. He and Lydia tend to her, but determine she must get to the hospital in her catatonic state. A sea of birds ripple menacingly around the Brenners and Melanie as they leave the house but do not attack. The radio reports several smaller bird attacks in nearby communities. The film concludes ambiguously, as the car slowly makes its way through seemingly infinite flocks of birds into the sunrise.
, awoke to find sooty shearwater
s slamming into their rooftops, and their streets covered with dead birds. News reports suggested domoic acid poisoning (amnesic shellfish poisoning
) as the cause. According to a local newspaper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel
, Alfred Hitchcock requested news copy in 1961 to use as "research material for his latest thriller".
and Grace Kelly
in the film's lead roles, but was unable to do so. He used Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren
, both of whom he signed to personal contracts (only Hedren made subsequent films with Hitchcock, however).
, instead relying on sound effects and sparse source music
in counterpoint to calculated silences. Oskar Sala
and Remi Gassmann are credited with "electronic sound production and composition," and Hitchcock's previous musical collaborator Bernard Herrmann
is credited as "sound consultant." Some of the bird sounds were created by Sala and Gassmann on the Mixtur-Trautonium
. Source music includes Claude Debussy
's Deux arabesques
, which Tippi Hedren's character plays on piano
, and "Risseldy Rosseldy", an Americanized
version of the Scottish
folk song
"Wee Cooper O'Fife
", which is sung by the schoolchildren.
with Hitchcock and Hedren in attendance. In March 1963, the Museum of Modern Art
in New York City
hosted an invitation-only screening of The Birds as part of a 50-film retrospective of Hitchcock's film work. The MOMA series had a booklet with a monograph
on Hitchcock written by Peter Bogdanovich
.
The Birds was nominated for an Academy Award
in the category of Special Effects
. The special-effects shots of the attacking birds were done at Walt Disney Studios
by animator/technician Ub Iwerks
, who used the sodium vapor process
("yellow screen") which he had helped to develop. The SV process films the subject against a screen lit with narrow-spectrum sodium vapor lights. Unlike most compositing processes, SVP actually shoots two separate elements of the footage simultaneously using a beam-splitter. One reel is regular film stock and the other a film stock with emulsion sensitive only to the sodium vapor wavelength. This results in very precise matte shots compared to blue screen
special effects, necessary due to "fringing" of the image from the birds' rapid wing flapping.
The film's special effects did not win an Academy Award; the winner that year was Cleopatra
. Tippi Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress
in 1964, sharing it with Ursula Andress
and Elke Sommer
. She also received the Photoplay Award
as Most Promising Newcomer. The film ranked #1 of the top 10 foreign films selected by the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards
. Hitchcock also received the Association's Director Award for the film.
refers to The Birds as Hitchcock's "last unflawed film".
, was released in 1994, with different actors. The movie was a direct-to-television film and received negative reviews. The film's director, Rick Rosenthal
, removed his name from it, opting to use the Hollywood pseudonym Alan Smithee
. Hedren appeared in the film in a supporting role, but not as her original character.
reported that Naomi Watts
would star in Universal
's remake of the film. The remake would also star George Clooney
and would be directed by Casino Royale
director Martin Campbell
. The production would be a joint venture by Platinum Dunes
and Mandalay Pictures
. Later in 2007, Hedren stated her opposition to the remake, saying, "Why would you do that? Why? I mean, can’t we find new stories, new things to do?".
Development has been stalled since the 2007 announcement. On 16 June 2009, Brad Fuller
of Dimension Films
stated that no further developments had taken place, commenting, "We keep trying, but I don't know." Martin Campbell
was eventually replaced as director by Platinum Dunes
host Dennis Iliades in December 2009.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
based on the 1952 short story "The Birds
The Birds (story)
"The Birds" is a famous novelette by Daphne du Maurier, first published in her 1952 collection The Apple Tree. It is the story of a farmhand, his family, and his community, who are attacked by flocks of seabirds who have organized themselves into avian suicide warriors. The story is set in...
" by Daphne du Maurier
Daphne du Maurier
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE was a British author and playwright.Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now". The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.Her elder sister was...
. It depicts Bodega Bay, California
Bodega Bay, California
Bodega Bay is a town and census-designated place in Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 1,077 at the 2010 census. The town is on the eastern side of Bodega Harbor, an inlet of Bodega Bay on the Pacific coast....
which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few days.
The screenplay was written by Evan Hunter
Evan Hunter
Evan Hunter was an American author and screenwriter. Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952...
. Though Hunter had read Du Maurier's original short story, Hitchcock told him to disregard it as all he wished to use was the title and the idea of birds attacking people.
Plot
Melanie Daniels (Tippi HedrenTippi Hedren
Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren is an American actress and former fashion model with a career spanning six decades. She is primarily known for her roles in two Alfred Hitchcock films, The Birds and Marnie, and her extensive efforts in animal rescue at Shambala Preserve, an wildlife habitat which she...
) is a young wealthy socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
who meets a lawyer, Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), in a San Francisco pet shop. He, looking to purchase a pair of lovebirds for his sister's eleventh birthday, pretends to mistake her for a salesperson, which infuriates her and leads her to inquire as to the reason for his behavior. He mentions a previous encounter that he had with her. Intrigued by him, she finds the address of his home in Bodega Bay, California
Bodega Bay, California
Bodega Bay is a town and census-designated place in Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 1,077 at the 2010 census. The town is on the eastern side of Bodega Harbor, an inlet of Bodega Bay on the Pacific coast....
. She purchases a pair of lovebirds and drives to his house by sneaking across the small harbor in a motor boat, leaving the birds and a note. As she is heading back across the bay, a seagull swoops down and inflicts a cut on her head.
Over the next few days, the avian attacks continue, as Melanie's relationship with Mitch, his clinging mother, Lydia (Jessica Tandy
Jessica Tandy
Jessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy was an English-American stage and film actress.She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. She also worked in British films...
), his younger sister, Cathy (Veronica Cartwright
Veronica Cartwright
Veronica A. Cartwright is an English-born American actress who has worked mainly in American film and television. She is best known for her role of Lambert in Alien, for which she won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress....
), and Cathy's teacher (who is also Mitch's ex-lover) Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette
Suzanne Pleshette
Suzanne Pleshette was an American actress, on stage, screen and television.After beginning her career in theatre, she began appearing in films in the early 1960s, such as Rome Adventure and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds...
) develops. The second strange bird incident occurs when Melanie stays for the night at Annie's house as a gull swoops down and kills itself upon hitting the front door. The next attack occurs at Cathy's birthday party
Birthday party
A birthday party is a party to celebrate the anniversary of one's birth.Birthday Party may also refer to:- Theatre, film, and television :* The Birthday Party , a 1958 play by Harold Pinter...
, where the children are set upon by seagulls and attacked. The following evening, sparrows invade the Brenner home. Avian violence escalates when Lydia discovers a friend dead in his bedroom with windows smashed, his eyes pecked out and dead birds everywhere. Lydia, horrified, returns to the farm where she is comforted by Melanie. Lydia asks Melanie to check on Cathy at the school. While Melanie waits on a bench outside the school, crows slowly accumulate on the playground behind her. Becoming aware of the birds, Melanie warns Annie and the two attempt to evacuate the children safely. As Melanie, Annie and the children flee from the school, the birds attack, harming several children.
Following this attack, an argument erupts at a local restaurant over the cause and legitimacy of the claims of this strange behavior. One resident believes the attacks are a sign of the apocalypse
Apocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
, but a traveling mother chides the man and others for scaring her children. Mrs. Bundy (Ethel Griffies
Ethel Griffies
Ethel Griffies was an English actress of stage, screen, and television....
), an amateur ornithologist, insists that different bird species do not flock or attack together. Despite her words, a motorist is attacked while filling his car with gasoline; he is knocked unconscious, and the gasoline continues to pump out onto the street. Another motorist, unaware he is standing in the puddle of gasoline, disregards warnings from the people in the restaurant, and lights a cigar
Cigar
A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...
and drops the match on the ground. An explosion and fire result and Melanie is forced to take refuge in a phone booth as thousands of birds attack the townspeople. After returning to the restaurant, the hysterical mother accuses Melanie of being the cause of the attacks, noting that the birds didn't begin being violent until after her arrival in Bodega Bay. After this attack subsides, Melanie and Mitch find Annie dead on her front porch and Cathy crying at the window.
Melanie and Mitch's family take refuge in the Brenners' house, boarding up the windows. The house is attacked by the birds more viciously than ever before, and at several points they nearly manage to break in. Mitch is injured when a few birds manage to break through a window. In the evening, when everyone else is asleep, Melanie hears noises from the upper floor. Not wanting to disturb a sleeping Mitch, Melanie takes a flashlight and investigates. Entering a room at the top of the stairs, she finds that the birds have managed to break through the roof. They violently attack her, sealing her in the room until Mitch comes to her rescue. He and Lydia tend to her, but determine she must get to the hospital in her catatonic state. A sea of birds ripple menacingly around the Brenners and Melanie as they leave the house but do not attack. The radio reports several smaller bird attacks in nearby communities. The film concludes ambiguously, as the car slowly makes its way through seemingly infinite flocks of birds into the sunrise.
Cast
- Tippi HedrenTippi HedrenNathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren is an American actress and former fashion model with a career spanning six decades. She is primarily known for her roles in two Alfred Hitchcock films, The Birds and Marnie, and her extensive efforts in animal rescue at Shambala Preserve, an wildlife habitat which she...
- Melanie Daniels - Rod Taylor - Mitch Brenner
- Jessica TandyJessica TandyJessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy was an English-American stage and film actress.She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. She also worked in British films...
- Lydia Brenner - Veronica CartwrightVeronica CartwrightVeronica A. Cartwright is an English-born American actress who has worked mainly in American film and television. She is best known for her role of Lambert in Alien, for which she won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress....
- Cathy Brenner - Suzanne PleshetteSuzanne PleshetteSuzanne Pleshette was an American actress, on stage, screen and television.After beginning her career in theatre, she began appearing in films in the early 1960s, such as Rome Adventure and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds...
- Annie Hayworth - Ethel GriffiesEthel GriffiesEthel Griffies was an English actress of stage, screen, and television....
- Mrs. Bundy - Charles McGrawCharles McGrawCharles Butters , best known by his stage name Charles McGraw, was an American actor, who made his first film in 1942, albeit in a small, uncredited role. He was born in Des Moines, Iowa.-Career:...
- Sebastian Sholes - Doreen Lang - Hysterical Mother in Diner
- Ruth McDevittRuth McDevittRuth McDevitt was an American stage, film, radio and television actress.-Career:She was born Ruth Thane Shoecraft in Coldwater, Michigan. After attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she married Patrick McDevitt and decided to devote her time to her marriage. After her husband's death in...
- Mrs. MacGruder - Joe MantellJoe MantellJoe Mantell was an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as "Angie" in the 1955 film Marty, which earned the Best Picture Award....
- Travelling Salesman in Diner - Malcolm AtterburyMalcolm AtterburyMalcolm Atterbury was a stage and vaudeville actor who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is probably most well known as Bixby in Wagon Train and Lee Reinhard in Dragnet...
- Deputy Al Malone - Karl SwensonKarl SwensonKarl Swenson was an American theatre, radio, film, and television actor.-Biography:Born in Brooklyn, New York of Swedish parentage, Swenson made several appearances with Pierre-Luc Michaud on Broadway in the 1930s and 40s, including the title role in Arthur Miller's first production, The Man Who...
- Drunken Doomsayer in Diner - Elizabeth WilsonElizabeth WilsonElizabeth Welter Wilson is an American actress. She was elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2007.-Life and career:Wilson was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the daughter of Marie Ethel and Henry Dunning Wilson, who was an insurance agent...
- Helen Carter - Lonny ChapmanLonny ChapmanLonny Chapman was an American television actor best known for his numerous guest star appearances on detective dramas, including Quincy, M.E., The A-Team, Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, and NYPD Blue...
- Deke Carter - Doodles WeaverDoodles WeaverWinstead Sheffield Weaver , who used the professional name Doodles Weaver, was an American actor and comedian on radio, recordings, and television. He was the brother of NBC executive Sylvester "Pat" Weaver and the uncle of actress Sigourney Weaver.Born in Los Angeles, Weaver was given the nickname...
- Fisherman Helping With Rental Boat - John McGovernJohn McGovernJohn McGovern may refer to:*John McGovern , American football quarterback for the University of Minnesota*John McGovern , European Cup winning captain...
- Postal Clerk - Richard DeaconRichard DeaconRichard Deacon CBE is a British abstract sculptor, and a winner of the Turner Prize.-Life and work:Richard Deacon was born in Bangor, Wales and educated at Plymouth College. He then studied at the Somerset College of Art in Taunton, St Martin's School of Art in London and the Royal College of...
- Mitch's City Neighbor - Bill QuinnBill QuinnBill Quinn was an American actor.Quinn appeared in more than 150 acting roles starting in the 20's in silent films and ending in the digital age in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. He is best remembered as Archie's blind friend, Mr...
- Sam - Man in Diner - Morgan BrittanyMorgan BrittanyMorgan Brittany is an American film and television actress. She is possibly best known for her role in the 1980s primetime soap opera Dallas, where she portrayed Katherine Wentworth, the scheming younger half-sister of Pamela Ewing and Cliff Barnes.-Early career:Under her birth name, Brittany...
- Girl in Birthday Party - Darlene ConleyDarlene ConleyDarlene Conley was an American actress.Conley's career spanned fifty years, but she was best known for her performances in daytime television, and in particular, for her portrayal of larger-than-life fashion industrialist Sally Spectra on The Bold and the Beautiful. Conley played the role from...
- Waitress - Dal McKennon - Sam the Cook
- Mike Monteleone - Gas Station Attendant
- Jeannie RussellJeannie RussellJeanne K. Russell is an actress best known for playing Dennis's playmate, Margaret Wade, in the television series Dennis The Menace, which was based on the Hank Ketcham comic strip of the same name and aired from 1959 to 1963 on CBS.Russell was chosen at the suggestion of Jay North, who starred...
- School Child - Roxanne Tunis - Extra
- Alfred HitchcockAlfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
makes his signature cameo as a man walking dogs out of the pet store at the beginning of the film.
Development
On 18 August 1961, residents in the town of Capitola, CaliforniaCapitola, California
Capitola is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, on the coast of Monterey Bay. The population was 9,918 at the 2010 census.-History:...
, awoke to find sooty shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
The Sooty Shearwater is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. In New Zealand it is also known by its Māori name tītī and as "muttonbird", like its relatives the Wedge-tailed Shearwater and the Australian Short-tailed Shearwater The Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus) is...
s slamming into their rooftops, and their streets covered with dead birds. News reports suggested domoic acid poisoning (amnesic shellfish poisoning
Amnesic shellfish poisoning
Amnesic shellfish poisoning is a human illness caused by consumption of the marine biotoxin called domoic acid. This toxin is produced naturally by marine diatoms belonging to the genus Pseudo-nitzschia and the species...
) as the cause. According to a local newspaper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel
Santa Cruz Sentinel
The Santa Cruz Sentinel is a daily newspaper published in Santa Cruz, California, covering Santa Cruz County, California, and owned by MediaNews Group Inc....
, Alfred Hitchcock requested news copy in 1961 to use as "research material for his latest thriller".
Casting
Hitchcock planned to cast Cary GrantCary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
and Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
in the film's lead roles, but was unable to do so. He used Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren
Tippi Hedren
Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren is an American actress and former fashion model with a career spanning six decades. She is primarily known for her roles in two Alfred Hitchcock films, The Birds and Marnie, and her extensive efforts in animal rescue at Shambala Preserve, an wildlife habitat which she...
, both of whom he signed to personal contracts (only Hedren made subsequent films with Hitchcock, however).
Soundtrack
The Birds lacks a conventional incidental scoreFilm score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
, instead relying on sound effects and sparse source music
Source music
Source music refers to music that is part of a fictional setting, such as films or video games. It is usually either played in this setting in the background or by characters of the medium...
in counterpoint to calculated silences. Oskar Sala
Oskar Sala
Oskar Sala was a 20th century German physicist, composer and a pioneer of electronic music born in Greiz. He played an instrument called the Trautonium, a predecessor to the synthesizer.-Studies:...
and Remi Gassmann are credited with "electronic sound production and composition," and Hitchcock's previous musical collaborator Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann was an American composer noted for his work in motion pictures.An Academy Award-winner , Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo...
is credited as "sound consultant." Some of the bird sounds were created by Sala and Gassmann on the Mixtur-Trautonium
Trautonium
The trautonium is a monophonic electronic musical instrument invented about 1929 by Friedrich Trautwein in Berlin at the Musikhochschule's music and radio lab, the Rundfunkversuchstelle. Soon Oskar Sala joined him, continuing development until Sala's death in 2002. Instead of a keyboard, its manual...
. Source music includes Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
's Deux arabesques
Arabesques (Debussy)
The Two Arabesques , L. 66, is a pair of arabesques composed by Claude Debussy. They are two of Debussy's earliest works, composed between the years 1888 and 1891, when he was still in his twenties....
, which Tippi Hedren's character plays on piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, and "Risseldy Rosseldy", an Americanized
Americanization
Americanization is the influence of the United States on the popular culture, technology, business practices, or political techniques of other countries. The term has been used since at least 1907. Inside the U.S...
version of the Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
folk song
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
"Wee Cooper O'Fife
Wee Cooper O'Fife
"Wee Cooper O'Fife" is a well-known Scottish folk song about a cooper who beats his wife because she will not cook, clean, and sew. It was recorded by Burl Ives on 11 February 1941 for his debut album Okeh Presents the Wayfaring Stranger...
", which is sung by the schoolchildren.
Premiere and awards
The film debuted at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival1963 Cannes Film Festival
-Jury:*Armand Salacrou *Rouben Mamoulian *Jacqueline Audry *Wilfrid Baumgartner *François Chavane *Jean De Baroncelli *Robert Hossein...
with Hitchcock and Hedren in attendance. In March 1963, the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
hosted an invitation-only screening of The Birds as part of a 50-film retrospective of Hitchcock's film work. The MOMA series had a booklet with a monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
on Hitchcock written by Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, which included William Friedkin, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino, and Francis Ford Coppola...
.
The Birds was nominated for an Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
in the category of Special Effects
Academy Award for Visual Effects
The Academy Award for Visual Effects is an Academy Award given for the best achievement in visual effects.-History of the award:The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences first recognized the technical contributions of special effects to movies at its inaugural dinner in 1928, presenting a...
. The special-effects shots of the attacking birds were done at Walt Disney Studios
Walt Disney Studios (Burbank)
The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, United States, serve as the international headquarters for media conglomerate The Walt Disney Company. The Walt Disney Studio's house offices for each of the company's divisions along with creative spaces designed for movie production. The Walt Disney...
by animator/technician Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....
, who used the sodium vapor process
Sodium vapor process
The sodium vapor process is a technique for combining actors and background footage, allowed to be used by The Walt Disney Company as an alternative to the more common bluescreen process....
("yellow screen") which he had helped to develop. The SV process films the subject against a screen lit with narrow-spectrum sodium vapor lights. Unlike most compositing processes, SVP actually shoots two separate elements of the footage simultaneously using a beam-splitter. One reel is regular film stock and the other a film stock with emulsion sensitive only to the sodium vapor wavelength. This results in very precise matte shots compared to blue screen
Blue screen
Blue screen may refer to:*Blue Screen of Death, a fatal system error screen in Microsoft Windows*Blue white screen is an assay useful in biotechnology*Blue screen compositing, a technique for combining two still images or video frames...
special effects, necessary due to "fringing" of the image from the birds' rapid wing flapping.
The film's special effects did not win an Academy Award; the winner that year was Cleopatra
Cleopatra (1963 film)
Cleopatra is a 1963 British-American-Swiss epic drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The screenplay was adapted by Sidney Buchman, Ben Hecht, Ranald MacDougall, and Mankiewicz from a book by Carlo Maria Franzero. The film starred Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy...
. Tippi Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress
Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress
The Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress originated in 1948. Between 1954 and 1965, multiple winners were announced. The category was discontinued following the 1983 ceremonies.-Winners:*1948: Lois Maxwell*1950: Mercedes McCambridge...
in 1964, sharing it with Ursula Andress
Ursula Andress
Ursula Andress is a Swiss actress and a sex symbol of the 1960s. She is known for her roles as Bond girl Honey Ryder in Dr...
and Elke Sommer
Elke Sommer
Elke Sommer , born Baroness Elke Schletz, is a German actress, entertainer and artist.-Career:Sommer was born in Berlin to a Lutheran minister and his wife...
. She also received the Photoplay Award
Photoplay
Photoplay was one of the first American film fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded a similar magazine entitled Motion Picture Story...
as Most Promising Newcomer. The film ranked #1 of the top 10 foreign films selected by the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards
Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards
The Bengal Film Journalists' Association is the oldest Association of Film critics in India, founded in 1937, by the inspiration and determination of the handful of pioneers amongst the then thin section of scribes that were drawn to film journalism with a lofty mission to serve the developing...
. Hitchcock also received the Association's Director Award for the film.
Reception and interpretation
The eminent film critic David ThomsonDavid Thomson (film critic)
David Thomson is a film critic and historian based in the United States and the author of more than 20 books, including The New Biographical Dictionary of Film.-Career:...
refers to The Birds as Hitchcock's "last unflawed film".
Sequel
An unrelated sequel, The Birds II: Land's EndThe Birds II: Land's End
The Birds II: Land's End is the 1994 television movie sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 classic The Birds. It stars Brad Johnson, Chelsea Field, James Naughton, and Tippi Hedren, in a role different from the one she played in the original Hitchcock film. The original music score was composed by Ron...
, was released in 1994, with different actors. The movie was a direct-to-television film and received negative reviews. The film's director, Rick Rosenthal
Rick Rosenthal
Richard L. "Rick" Rosenthal, Jr. is an American film and television director. He is also a producer, actor, and writer.-Biography:...
, removed his name from it, opting to use the Hollywood pseudonym Alan Smithee
Alan Smithee
Alan Smithee was an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project, coined in 1968. Until its use was formally discontinued in 2000, it was the sole pseudonym used by members of the Directors Guild of America when a director dissatisfied with the final product proved to...
. Hedren appeared in the film in a supporting role, but not as her original character.
Remake
In 2007, VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
reported that Naomi Watts
Naomi Watts
Naomi Ellen Watts is a British actress. Watts began her career in Australian television, where she appeared in series such as Hey Dad..! , Brides of Christ , and Home and Away . Her film debut was the 1986 drama For Love Alone...
would star in Universal
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
's remake of the film. The remake would also star George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
and would be directed by Casino Royale
Casino Royale (2006 film)
Casino Royale is the twenty-first film in the James Bond film series and the first to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond...
director Martin Campbell
Martin Campbell
-Life and career:Campbell was born in Hastings, New Zealand. He directed two James Bond films, 1995's GoldenEye, starring Pierce Brosnan, and 2006's Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig, and was the first Bond director since John Glen to direct more than one film, as well as the oldest director in...
. The production would be a joint venture by Platinum Dunes
Platinum Dunes
Platinum Dunes is a production company created in 2001 by filmmakers Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form. The company specializes in horror films, particularly remakes.Their website is part of Bloody Disgusting's site....
and Mandalay Pictures
Mandalay Pictures
Mandalay Pictures is a film studio founded in 1995, part of Mandalay Entertainment Group. It teams up with Sony and Paramount Pictures for most of their films. The founder and CEO is Peter Guber. From 1997 until 2002, Lionsgate Entertainment owned a stake in Mandalay Pictures...
. Later in 2007, Hedren stated her opposition to the remake, saying, "Why would you do that? Why? I mean, can’t we find new stories, new things to do?".
Development has been stalled since the 2007 announcement. On 16 June 2009, Brad Fuller
Brad Fuller
Brad Fuller is a former Australian rules footballer, who played in the Australian Football League.-Overview:Fuller made his debut in 1997 for Collingwood after being picked up late in the 1996 AFL Draft, at number 87 overall....
of Dimension Films
Dimension Films
Dimension Films is a motion picture unit currently a part of The Weinstein Company. It was formerly used as Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax Films, to produce and release genre films...
stated that no further developments had taken place, commenting, "We keep trying, but I don't know." Martin Campbell
Martin Campbell
-Life and career:Campbell was born in Hastings, New Zealand. He directed two James Bond films, 1995's GoldenEye, starring Pierce Brosnan, and 2006's Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig, and was the first Bond director since John Glen to direct more than one film, as well as the oldest director in...
was eventually replaced as director by Platinum Dunes
Platinum Dunes
Platinum Dunes is a production company created in 2001 by filmmakers Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form. The company specializes in horror films, particularly remakes.Their website is part of Bloody Disgusting's site....
host Dennis Iliades in December 2009.
External links
- "The Day of the Claw" (monograph on The Birds) at Senses of CinemaSenses of CinemaSenses of Cinema is a quarterly online film magazine founded in 1999 by filmmaker Bill Mousoulis. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Senses of Cinema publishes work by film critics from all over the world, including critical essays, career overviews of the works of key directors, and coverage of many...
- The Birds Screenshot Gallery at Alfred Hitchcock Fans Online
- Excellent analytical summary by Tim Dirks at AMC Filmsite
- Complete script of the film
- Video Essay on "Why Do the Birds Attack?"