The Birds 1963

 

Released on April Fools day in 1963, this was Hitchcock’s 2^nd Horror film in the short span of 3 years. It came on the heels of his shocking “Psycho” of 1960 and in hindsight “The Birds” was in a way a harbinger of the disaster that would hit our country and indeed the world in a few short months. This film and “Psycho” would become two of the most influential films in the history of cinema whose touch is still being felt today more than 60 years after their initial releases. At the time both films were played down and not taken seriously for their importance. “The Birds” came at us with a great publicity ad campaign, the headlines screaming “The Birds Is Coming” and it was soon bringing in big crowds around the country and indeed the world. This was Hitchcock’s end of the world movie that was based on a short story by the dependable Daphne du Maurier who had also given Hitchcock the novel “Rebecca to film and was his only film to win a best picture Oscar. Since I never read the original short story that “The Birds” was based on I can’t submit my feelings on it or how loyal Hitch was to her story. I do know changes were made and for those who want to read a good detailed take on the film I suggest the small but packed monograph by Camille Paglia published by the BFI in 1989 and is part of their terrific and large series of “film classics.”

This is another one of the directors mother films, which number in the many and range from deep and disturbing takes on motherhood to little humorous curtsies to moms including “To Catch A Thief” and “North by Northwest” with the mommies in both played by the regal and sophisticated Jessie Royce Landis. Both “Psycho” and “The Birds” are deep dish mommy horrors especially “Psycho”, and in this bird nightmare Hitchcock not only gives us a mother played by the wonderful Jessica Tandy who carries  all the jealousy and clinging of a threatened mom in jeopardy but he also gives us the biggest mother of them all, mother nature who takes center stage in the film.

She is another mother with a knife this time symbolic and not like Mrs. Bates in “Psycho” who wields a real one, and this time her vengeance is thrown across the screen and landscape with birds who kill. The story is simple:  a flashy rich young woman meets a handsome man, and instead of him pursuing her, she takes off after him. A little of 30’s screwball comedy begins the film but it is soon drown out by an unexplainable menace. The rich  young woman is played by the then newcomer Tippi Hendren in sharp hairdo and heels and stylish clothes by the always good Hitchcock collaborator Edith Head who as some urban legend bathroom graffiti of the time declared “Gives good costume”.

There is a meeting cute in a pet shop in San Francisco at the beginning of the film that sets up the conflicted romance of Tippi and the hunky Rod Taylor who wander among love birds in cages, that will play an important part later in the film along with our human love birds pecking and clawing at each other that we know will turn into a full blown romance. Tippi follows Rod the hunk to his home in Bodega Bay by sports car and motor boat where he lives part time with his angry mother and young sister played by Veronica Cartwright who will later on make a good career playing in other top notch horror flicks like “Alien” and the remake of “Invasion Of The Body Snatchers”.

The minute mommy Jessica meets Tipi the jealousy and soft hatred begins all of course on Jessica’s part. She is lonely and afraid and this will be shown more deeply and clearly once the unwanted visitors come pecking and banging at the door. Tippi also meets Rod’s once upon a time girlfriend who also lives in Bodega Bay and in a ruse Tippi claims that they went to school together or some such lie.  His ex-girlfriend played beautifully by the lovely Suzanne Pleshette gives what I consider the best supporting performance of the year. Pleshette plays the schoolmarm of the town, caring and dedicated to her pupils which will be made very clear after a devastating and memorable attack on the school by the birds. This is probably the most remembered and feared sequence among several in this very fearful film in which the birds mass ready for attack on the jungle gym outside the school as Tippi unaware of what is going on behind her sits and smokes a cigarette. This is a silent sequence except for the school children inside singing a bland childhood song which we along with Tippi hear. There is no music score in the film, a very avant garde idea for a Hollywood film, only the flapping of the birds wings and the awful sounds they make. This nerve wracking electronic score was created by remi gassmann and oskar sala with added imput from the great Bernard herrmann who composed many of Hitchcock’s films. The film was also ahead of its time in it’s use of special effects and the use of real birds along with fake ones. Another one of Hitchcock’s long time collaborator Robert Burks did the amazing cinematography and several top notch names worked on the special effects including Ub Iwerks, Robert Boyle, and Albert Whitlock.  The Blu ray transfer finally does the film and their work justice. The ending is perfect and Hitchcock leaves it open to interpretation and depression.  The best film of 1963.