The Birds (1963) is a 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.
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 Gassman.[1][2]
The screenplay was written by Evan Hunter, who penned the 87th Precinct novels using the pseudonym “Ed McBain”.
Plot
Beautiful and young Melanie Daniels (“Tippi” Hedren), a wealthy socialite whose father is an owner of a large newspaper, visits a San Francisco pet shop to pick up a myna bird she has ordered for her aunt. There, Melanie meets Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), a lawyer who is looking for a pair of lovebirds to give to his young sister. Mitch sees Daniels and then pretends to mistake her for a salesperson. Melanie acts out the role believing that she’s fooling Brenner until he reveals that he knew all along that she was not a salesperson of birds. Melanie, infuriated, inquires as to the reason for Brenner’s behavior and he then mentions a previous encounter that he had with her in court when he had first seen her.
Intrigued by him, she buys the lovebirds and finds the address for Mitch’s home in Bodega Bay, a small coastal village up the Pacific coast. Melanie drives to Bodega Bay and delivers the birds by sneaking across the small harbor in a motor boat to the Brenner residence. Melanie walks right into the house and leaves the birds on a foot stool with a note. As Melanie is heading back across the bay, Mitch circles around in his car to meet her. Just as she is about to pull up to the dock, a seagull swoops down and gashes her head.
Over the next few days the avian attacks continue, as Melanie’s initial relationships with Mitch, his clinging mother, Lydia (Jessica Tandy), his 11 year old sister, Cathy (Veronica Cartwright), and Cathy’s teacher (and Mitch’s former lover) Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette) further develop. The second strange bird-incident occurs when Melanie stays for the night at Hayworth’s house and a gull kills itself upon hitting the front door. Then, the attacks begin to escalate from a few birds strafing Cathy’s birthday party, to a neighboring farmer’s gruesome death, and then a mass attack on the town’s children at their school.
Melanie then calls her father in a bar. Her phone conversation with him takes the interest of others, who all listen. A fisherman tells her of how the gulls had been following his boats. An old woman insists that the birds attacking is an exaggeration, and that it is not possible for birds, let alone ones of different species, to flock together and attack, as they don’t have the intelligence. Despite this, right outside the window a motorist is attacked while filling his automobile with gasoline; the motorist gets knocked unconscious, the hose lands on the ground and the gasoline continues to pump out onto the street. The gas flows down the street to where a person lighting a cigar ignites the gas. An explosion and fire result. There are more deaths as the movie-goer is given a “bird’s-eye” view of the scene as the birds swoop in on the citizens on the town. Annie Hayworth is found dead on her doorstep from an attack by the birds.
Melanie and Mitch’s family ultimately take refuge in Mitch’s house, where Mitch saves Melanie from birds that have broken into the attic. Lydia and Mitch bandage Melanie’s wounds, but determine she must get to a hospital. In a surreal and apocalyptic scene, a sea of landed birds ripples menacingly around them as they leave the house, but do not attack. The car radio (the uncredited announcer is Ken Ackerman, longtime San Francisco radio personality) gives reports of several smaller attacks by birds in a few other communities in coastal California. The sea of birds parts as they slowly proceed toward the road and pick up speed. The film concludes with the four driving away from the farm, down the coast road and out of sight.
Awards
The film debuted at a prestigious invitational showing at the Cannes Film Festival with Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren in attendance. It was then nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Special Effects. It lost out to Cleopatra (1963). However, 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 number one of the top ten foreign films selected by the Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Awards. The Association also awarded Alfred Hitchcock the Best Director Award for the film. A third season episode of the hit French animated series Code Lyoko’s XANA attack was based off of the film, and mentioned by the character Odd Della Robbia
