"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.

Life Through the Camera Lens

On the screen today is another Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart collaboration. Rear Window is perhaps one of Hitchcock's most celebrated, best made, and most thematically rich films. It begins with a wide sweeping view of the daily activities of all of the neighbors in a small apartment complex during a sweltering summer in the city. This is a movie that needs to be watched in widescreen for certain since, especially since it is a Hitchcock film, the small details are very important.

Jimmy Stewart plays L.B. Jeffries, a world traveling photographer who lives an exciting life but is forced to stay cooped up in his apartment for seven weeks after his leg is broken. Instead of getting to continue with his globe trekking activities, Jeffries has grown bored watching the antics of his neighbors out of his window. His only visitors are his lovely, fashionable girlfriend Lisa Carol Freemont, played by the beautiful Grace Kelly, and his personal therapist and nurse Stella, played by the funny the smart, sassy Thelma Ritter. At first, the act of spying on his fellow residents is harmless, perhaps a little creepy. The audience sees all of the neighbors through Jeffries' eyes, as if for the first time since Jeffries seems to be rarely in his home. Through watching this small neighborhood and all of the eccentricity and ordinary life that takes place in it, the audience becomes more and more attached to the people in it, all of whom have descriptive pseudonyms created by Jeffries. Everything in this small slice of Americana seems to be going perfectly and Jeffries seems to think nothing ever happens in his little neighborhood. Then things start to become more tense when Jeffires sees something that startles him when spying on his neighbors and begins to suspect that one of his neighbors has committed a murder. Jeffries must continue his spying and use some quick thinking to prove that his suspicions are correct.

Perhaps the most intense moments ever in a Hitchcock film come in the final twenty minutes of this one when all of the ends of the movie are slowly tied back together. The film was nominated for four Oscars but tragically won none of them. Music plays a major role in the creation of suspense in this film and the activities of the composer living in a studio apartment near Jeffries also helps propel the plot as well as create music in the neighborhood. Though the dialogue is chiefly among Stewart, Kelly, and Ritter, the acting is supberb among not only the three main characters but all of the supporting cast playing the neighbors. Gestures, actions, and music play major roles in making this film so wonderful.

Themes are very prominent in this movie. The idea of photography, cameras, windows, reflections, and sight are interwoven throughout the film on so many levels. Because he is confined to his wheelchair, Jeffries is forced to be only an observer of what is around him and it makes him take a closer look at his surroundings, a dark closer look. I could do an entire blog on different analyses of Rear Window and I'm sure that if you look, there is one out there. Rich in symbolism, theme, and suspense, Rear Window works on so many levels and there is definitely something for everyone to get out of it.