The Birds (Collector's Edition)

The Birds (Collector's Edition)
Vacationing in northern California, Alfred Hitchcock was struck by a story in a Santa Cruz newspaper: "Seabird Invasion Hits Coastal Homes." From this peculiar incident, and his memory of a short story by Daphne du Maurier, the master of suspense created one of his strangest and most terrifying films. The Birds follows a chic blonde, Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), as she travels to the coastal town of Bodega Bay to hook up with a rugged fellow (Rod Taylor) she's only just met. Before long the town is attacked by marauding birds, and Hitchcock's skill at staging action is brought to the fore. Beyond the superb effects, however, The Birds is also one of Hitchcock's most psychologically complicated scenarios, a tense study of violence, loneliness, and complacency. What really gets under your skin are not the bird skirmishes but the anxiety and the eerie quiet between attacks. The director elevated an unknown model, Tippi Hedren (mother of Melanie Griffith), to being his latest cool, blond leading lady, an experience that was not always easy on the much-pecked Ms. Hedren. Still, she returned for the next Hitchcock picture, the underrated Marnie. Treated with scant attention by serious critics in 1963, The Birds has grown into a classic and--despite the sci-fi trappings--one of Hitchcock's most serious films. --Robert Horton
Customer Review: Birds of a feather...
The Birds starring Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor is my second favorite Hitchcock film, Pyscho being #1 for me. This film is scary, romantic, and intoxicating. Jessica Tandy also stars, she was such a magnetic actress back then. The birds they used in this film are so creepy and lifelike. You have to see this classic suspense before you die. I highly recommend it!
Customer Review: La cage aux folles
Probably Hitchcock's most famous movie (apart from PSYCHO), THE BIRDS is perhaps best understood as a companion piece to the director's favorite among all his films, SHADOW OF A DOUBT. Like that 1943 thriller, THE BIRDS concerns a visitor to a small town in Northern California bringing evil in his or her wake, which tests the resourcefulness and the compassion of a family that is not so happy as it imagines itself to be. The famous animated special effects (by Disney animator Ub Ewerks) now look a bit silly, but the effect of the music-free "score" by Bernard Herrmann and Hitchcock's tremendous build-up of suspense make the film one of his greatest among his later and more flawed classics. The acting is at times very unexpected (and thus unlike the flawless performances of Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten and Patricia Collinge in SHADOW OF A DOUBT), but Rod Taylor is perhaps the most virile leading man Hitchcock ever had, and Jessica Tandy does odd and memorable things with the role of Taylor's neurotic and possessive mother. As for Tippi Hedren, her performance as Melanie Daniels (the unhappy heiress who brings chaos with her to the twon of Bodega Bay, CA) is still one of the most continually debated in all Hitchcock movies, and if at times he seems to be trying to undo her with her camera work (such as the hilarious triptych of shots of her openmouthed, watching the flames head for the gas pump in the diner sequence), it is still impossible at this point to imagine anyone else in the role. Her beautiful green Edith Head coat and gloves which she wears for most of the film are among the most iconic outfits ever created for a film, and there are moments (particularly towards the end of the film, after she's been severely traumatized by a bird attack) when her affective qualities are undeniable.