Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) is a bored socialite and practical joker shopping in a San Francisco pet shop in Union Square. She meets lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) who is buying lovebirds for his sister. They flirt and she decides to surprise him with lovebirds. Melanie drives her Aston Martin DB2 up to his family home in the coastal town of Bodega Bay.
At the home of schoolteacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette) she learns the name of Mitch's sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright). Melanie crosses the bay to Brenner's place and puts the lovebirds in the front room. Mitch sees her and drives his truck to the dock. A seagull suddenly swoops down and gashes Melanie's forehead. They go to the Tides Cafe and she meets Mitch's mother Lydia Brenner (Jessica Tandy) who is not friendly and Mitch teases her about her lifestyle.
Mitch: "You're just a poor, innocent victim of circumstances, huh?"
Melanie: "Well I'm neither poor nor innocent, but the truth of that particular..."
Mitch: "Truth is you were running around with a pretty wild crowd, isn't it?"
Melanie: "Well yes, that's the truth, but I was pushed into that fountain, and that's the truth, too."
Mitch: "Uh huh. Do you really know Annie Hayworth?"
Melanie: "No. At least I didn't till I came up here."
Mitch: "So you didn't go to school together?"
Melanie: "No."
Mitch: "And you didn't come up here to see her."
Melanie: "No."
Mitch: "You were lying."
Melanie: "Yes, I was lying."
Melanie leaves in a huff and rents a room in Annie's house. The next day she attends Cathy's birthday party and learns Annie and Mitch were involved. Cathy says, "He has a client who shot his wife in the head six times. Six times! Can you imagine it? I mean, even twice would be overdoing it, don't you think?" They find a dead seagull on the porch. Mitch and Melanie climb a hill to view the bay and when they return a gull gashes Cathy on the ear. Melanie spends the night.
Around the film's halfway point Melanie is attacked by flocks of deadly birds, which begin attacking others in the town. Lydia visits her neighbour Dan, but the house has been destroyed and he is dead on the floor with his eyes pecked out. Mitch and Melanie are forced into an uneasy relationship because of the killer birds. Strangely, they are ordinary birds, not birds of prey. There are 370 effects shots. The special effects are excellent and won THE BIRDS an Academy Award. Mrs. Bundy (Ethel Griffies) the ornithologist says, "I have never known birds of different species to flock together. The very concept is unimaginable. Why, if that happened, we wouldn't stand a chance! How could we possibly hope to fight them?"
Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, directed this gripping drama/horror/thriller, loosely based on Daphne du Maurier's short story. It begins as an offbeat comedy and ends as an apocalyptic allegory. Actually, there is no "The End", because Hitchock wanted to give the impression of unending horror. Federico Fellini called it, "An apocalytical poem", and a film critic described the ending as "self-consciously European in its lack of resolution". Some reviewers analyze the symbolic, Freudian and allegorial meanings, but their speculation seems nonsensical.
THE BIRDS is ambiguous and probably more brutal than PSYCHO (1960). There is no point to the movie, except to entertain, tease, shock, and horrify. No reason is given for the birds' horrible behavior. A long discussion in Tides Restaurant concludes there is no rational reason. A mother in the diner (Doreen Lang) asks, "Why are they doing this? They said when you got here, the whole thing started. Who are You? What are you? Where did you come from? I think you're the cause of all this. I think you're evil. EVIL!"
Others in the cast include: Charles McGraw (Sebastian Sholes), Ruth McDevitt (Mrs. MacGruder), Lonny Chapman (Deke Carter), Joe Mantell (salesman), Doodles Weaver (fisherman), Malcolm Atterbury (Al Malone), John McGovern (postal clerk), Elizabeth Wilson (Helen Carter), Karl Swenson, Richard Deacon, Bill Quinn, Morgan Brittany, Darlene Conley, and Mike Moneleone. The non-existent music score is replaced with an electronic and sound effects soundtrack by Oskar Sala with Bernard Hermann as sound consultant. The script is by novelist Evan Hunter (better known as Ed McBain) based on the 1952 collection of short stories by Daphhne du Maurier. Her story takes place in Britain. This is the third Hitchcock film based on the author's works.
Hitchcock makes his customary cameo appearance two minutes into the film outside the pet shop, walking his own two Sealyham terrier dogs, Geoffrey and Stanley. He spotted Tippi Hedren in a diet drink ad. Joseph Stefano, who scripted PSYCHO, turned down THE BIRDS. The seagulls were fed wheat soaked in whisky to make them sit still. Hundreds of birds (gulls, ravens, crows, swifts) were trained for specific scenes, and mechanical birds and animations were also used.
There is too much green in the movie, and Melanie wears the same green suit throughout the film. Tippie Hedren was actually cut in the face by a bird. Some birds were attached to her clothes by nylon threads so they could not escape. The scene where Melanie is trapped in a room with the birds took a week to film, and sent Hedren to the hospital with exhaustion.
In 1994 a sequel to the BIRDS was produced for cable TV with the title THE BIRDS II: LANDS END, starring Brad Johnson and Chelsea Field. Tippi Hedren appears in a supporting role. The plot is similar to the original with a biology teacher and his wife and kids moving to an island home. Flocks of birds start attacking people for no apparent reason. This film is generally regarded as a travesty.
