Hitchcock in Colour

THE BIRDS

• Director: Alfred Hitchcock
• USA / 1963 / DCP / Colour / 119’ / English; Turkish s.t.

• Screenplay: Evan Hunter
• Original Work: Daphne Du Maurier
• Director of Photography: Robert Burks
• Editing: George Tomasini
• Cast: Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, Veronica Cartwright
• Producer: Alfred Hitchcock
• Production Co.: Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions
• World Sales: Park Circus

1964 Golden Globe Most Promising Newcomer–Female (T. Hedren)

The third Daphne du Maurier adaptation following Jamaica Inn and Rebecca, displays clearly why Hitchcock was crowned with the title ‘master of suspense.’ In her first collaboration with the director, Tippi Hedren plays the socialite daughter of a rich newspaper owner. The film starts off as an ordinary romance, but as soon as its heroine arrives at a coastal town called Bodega Bay, it calmly but firmly evolves into a nightmare where people are the targets of coordinated and escalating bird attacks. The scenes where the birds convene before and after the attacks are significantly memorable as the creepiest scenes in Hitchcock films. Conspicuously, Hitchcock refrains from using any non-diegetic music at all, as opposed to many other films where music is a vital element, but instead uses several sounds, especially bird sounds, musically.

This film was a Meetings on the Bridge participant.