"It's the end of the world..."

My introduction to Hitchcock came around middle school and the first movie of his I watched, with my parents in the room, was The Birds. I later read the short story in one of my English classes, and though the story was scary, the image of Hitch's film was what struck the most fear into me. Like Rebecca, it is based on the writing of Daphne du Maurier, though The Birds is a short story, which those of you who are interested can read here in its entirety. To this day, I cannot see large groups of birds together without wondering if they are plotting something. As you can imagine, the migration season is horrible on my nerves.

The begins in San Francisco where beautiful blonde socialite Melanie Daniels, played by Tippi Hedren, who meets the handsome Mitch Brenner, played by Rod Taylor, in a bird shop. The two grow more interested in each other all the while, the birds around them seem to be up to something. When Melanie arrives in Mitch's peaceful seaside town on the Pacific Coast, their meeting is interrupted when she is attacked by sea gulls. Melanie meets Mitch's family, consisting of his sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright) and his mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy). She also discovers Mitch's past lover affair with Cathy's school teacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette). As these relationships progress, the bird attacks become more serious and deadly until it comes to the point the birds seem to be bringing forth the apocalypse and taking over the world.

I admit, it is a little unbelievable to think of the world descending into a chaotic swarm of feathers and talons, but Hitch takes it in a way that makes it not only completely believable but downright frightening. Again, there are several Hitchcock trademarks in the film, such as the use of multiple shots from many angles to create feels of chaos and loss of control. Color is used in this film, though most people associate Hitch with more black and white films. The color green is also used prominently throughout the course of the film, including the same green suit Tippi is wearing in every shot of the film. The film also has no musical score to it.

The town of Bodega Bay has features on the filming of the movie in the town where the movie is set, which you can read here. The website filminamerica.com has great resources for you to find the locations of the film and explore them for yourself, which you can see here. Though Hitchcock enjoyed shooting in the studio more than on location, a lot of the location shots are still there and many people like to go visit them, on a sort of creepy Hitchcock/Birds Tour, if you will. The TCM blog Movie Morlocks has also

done this article on the trailers for the film.

The Birds is an essential film for any horror, suspense, thriller, Hitchcock, or just movie buff in general.