(Time to invest in sling-shots and BB Guns, people of Bodega Bay…)
CAST: Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Veronica Cartwright, Ethel Griffies, Malcolm Atterbury, Elizabeth Wilson.
DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and too many birds pinging like, well, birds on crack…
In my review for REAR WINDOW (review # 121), I mentioned that whoever hooked-up Alfred Hitchcock with leading lady Grace Kelly should be rewarded with a cut of the Master’s inheritance, since that union between director and star resulted in some of the very best films in his stellar body of work. Now, I also think that whoever hooked-up Hitch with Daphne DuMaurier should also get a chunk of his estate.
Daphne DuMaurier was a British writer and novelist whose works include the novels JAMAICA INN and REBECCA, as well as the short stories THE BIRDS and DON’T LOOK NOW. Alfred Hitchcock’s cinematic association with her started when he adapted JAMAICA INN in 1939. The results and ensuing reception were merely lukewarm. Indeed, JAMAICA INN is considered to be one of Hitch’s weaker efforts. Still interesting, just not on a par with his usual output.
Lady Luck would smile on their next union: it was a year later in 1940 when Hitchcock’s second adaptation of a DuMaurier novel was released - and it became a worldwide sensation. The novel and film were titled REBECCA, and went to garner accolades from all quarters, including Oscar nominations for leads Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, as well as for Hitch himself as Best Director. Even though the only Oscar REBECCA ultimately won was for Best Cinematography, its triumphant overall success made up for the disappointing JAMAICA INN.
In 1963, the third Hitchcock-DuMaurier cinematic union was released - and it was just as much a hit as REBECCA was, if not more. Titled THE BIRDS, the short story that the film of the same title is based on was about small farm on the Cornish coast in England that suddenly finds itself under attack from… birds. The narrative focused mostly on a farmer and his family, and their attempts to survive the suddenly murderous onslaught of their former feathered friends.
The film is still limited in its scope, but broadens it somewhat to encompass the entire town this time. It also switches the setting from rural England to rural California. And instead of a humble farmer at the center of the tale, we have a rich, restless, swinger of a playgirl named Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) who leaves San Francisco for an impulsive weekend jaunt to sleepy Bodega Bay - but gets more than she bargained for.
We first meet Melanie as she crosses a busy street in Frisco. In the sky above her, hundreds of seagulls are swirling like someone laced their drinking water with espresso. Melanie takes note of this - before walking right into a… bird shop. Evidently, she’s ordered a Mynah bird for someone as is there to pick it up.
Unfortunately, Melanie is told by the shopkeeper that the bird hasn’t arrived yet. While the lady goes in the back to check on the status of the order, Melanie hangs by the counter - already bored out of her skull. Fortunately, another customer arrives to break the boredom - and he’s a hottie. Named Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), our hottie is trying to find a pair of lovebirds as a gift for his younger sister - and he mistakes Melanie for the shopkeeper.
Now, a normal person would have replied, “I’m sorry, sir. You have me mistaken for the shopkeeper. I’m afraid she’s in the back right now, checking on my order. But I’m sure she’ll be able to help you in just a second.” However, as we’ve already established, Melanie is a bored playgirl, so she instead responds: “Well, HELLO! What can I help you with, you red-hot piece of ass, you!”
So Melanie spends the next few minutes showing Mitch the various birds in the shop, and talking about them as if she knows two shits about the difference between a Canary and a Strawberry Finch. Which she doesn’t. Soon, her mischievousness catches up to her when she accidentally releases one bird from its cage - and it goes predictably ape-shit around the room.
After the real shopkeeper captures the escapee bird and returns it to the cage, Mitch drops the following bombshells on Melanie: (1) he not only knew she wasn’t really the shopkeeper the second he laid eyes on her, (2) but he also knew she was Melanie Daniels because (3) her exploits as a rich and rambunctious heiress have been splashed all over the papers as if she were a 60’s version of Paris Hilton, and (4) she shouldn’t quit her day job (whatever the hell that may be) for a career as a bird shop owner because (5) what she knows about birds couldn’t fill a thimble.
With those declarations, our hottie Mitch Brenner does an about-face and marches out of the store. Leaving our playgirl Melanie to stand there like someone just spanked her verbally on the ass. Which, I guess, Mitch actually did. Obviously, Melanie is used to having hottie guys wrapped around her pinkie, and not being dissed by them. In other words: Mitch is now to her, what crack is to a crack whore.
In even other words: the chase in on, baby…
This leads to Melanie doing several things: (1) she buys a pair of lovebirds, (2) traces Mitch’s license plate number to find out who he is, (3) finds out from one of his neighbors that he left Frisco for the weekend and went up north to his hometown Bodega Bay, (4) drives all the way to Bodega Bay with the lovebirds, (5) finds out from the local post office where Mitch lives, (6) hires a boat to sneak across the bay to his seaside house, (7) sneaks into the house, (8) leaves the lovebirds with a note in the middle of the living room, and (9) tries to sneak back across the bay on the boat without Mitch spotting her.
Fortunately, Mitch does spot her - and hightails it in his car back to town. He beats her to the docks, and stands there waiting as she approaches in her boat. Before they can resume where their argument left off in San Francisco, a seagull swoops down and takes a chunk out of Melanie’s scalp. Mitch helps her out of the boat and treats her wound - while interrogating her as to what the fuck she’s doing in Bodega Bay.
Melanie feeds him some pap about how she’s visiting Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette), whom Melanie just met that day while asking for directions to the Brenner house. Mitch, being Annie’s good friend, sees this as the same Grade-A Bullshit that Melanie’s “Bird-Shop-Owner-Helps-Hot-Customer” was back in Frisco. Yet, again, he plays along. Their cozy little reunion is interrupted by the arrival if Lydia (Jessica Tandy), Mitch’s mom. It is suddenly clear to the audience where Mitch got his “quick study” tendencies, because Lydia takes one look at Melanie and wrinkles her nose like she just walked into a gas station restroom that hasn't seen the business end of a toilet brush in seven years.
Melanie, you’ve got an uphill battle, sweetheart.
So you’re probably wondering where the hell the birds are in all of this. I mean, the movie is called THE BIRDS, for fuck’s sake. Well, slowly but surely, our feathered friends gradually make their presence known. To wit, in addition to the seagull’s attack on Melanie, the following fun stuff also occurs: (1) another gull smashes into Annie’s front door one night and kills itself, despite a full moon making it impossible for the bird not to see where it was going; (2) a pack of gulls attacks Mitch’s sister Cathy’s (Veronica Cartwright) party, scaring the little brats away from the precious cake; (3) Lydia visits a nearby farmer to investigate why his chickens - like hers - are suddenly not eating, only to discover birds have apparently broken through all the windows of his house - and pecked his eyes out; (4) the schoolhouse is surrounded by a pack of crows who then (5) attack Annie, Melanie, and the kids when they try to make a run for town; (6) and all species of birds finally attack the town full-force with everyone having to barricade themselves in their homes.
What in the name of Kentucky Fried Chicken is going on? Why did the bird attacks start with Melanie’s arrival in town? Has nature gone crazy? Or are the birds attacking to show the bickering humans of Bodega Bay that they have absolutely nothing to worry about? Or are they simply tired of being the target of spitballs and slingshots? Or is it truly the end of the world - as the drunken bastard in the diner scene keeps bellowing? And the most important question of all: did Melanie bring anything with her to wear from San Francisco besides that green suit? Maybe the birds are attacking because she hasn’t changed her clothes in three days. Hey, someone has to ask the hard questions...
I’ll just say this: the best way to repel a bird invasion is to round up all the stray cats in the country - and outfit them with body armor and helmets. Then declare war on the feathered fuckers…
BUT, SERIOUSLY: One of Hitchcock’s trademarks are mysteries that are neatly wrapped up by the end. Hitch often goes out of his way to do this. Remember the psychiatrist explaining Norman Bates’ (Anthony Perkins) psychosis at the end of PSYCHO? What about Scotty Ferguson (James Stewart) and Judy Barton’s (Kim Novak) confrontation in the mission bell tower at the end of VERTIGO? Or the rooftop battle between John Robie (Cary Grant) and the real cat burglar at the end of TO CATCH A THIEF?
All these sequences were designed to be both exciting climaxes - but also instruments intended to answer any lingering questions that the audience might have. This is not to say that ambiguity doesn’t exist in the Hitchcock universe, because it does. Just not, however, when it comes to his endings.
Which is what makes THE BIRDS an intriguing entry into the Master of Suspense’s canon. Suffice it to say, even though Hitchcock plants some suggestions as to why the birds of Bodega Bay (And the world?) have begun attacking humans, we are never told explicitly why. Is it the wrath of God to punish us for our pettiness, as evidenced by the conflict between Lydia and Melanie, and Melanie and Mitch? Or is there a scientific reason? Hitchcock never gives us a direct answer, which is one of the reasons THE BIRDS lingers as long as it does in the memory. It’s scarier when you just don’t know why.
As he did with PSYCHO and pretty much all his strongest films, Hitchcock spends the first act building the various character relationships and following Melanie as she embarks on what starts out as a light-hearted act of playful revenge against Mitch. We get pulled in even more when Mitch catches on to her - and they actually strike sparks together. Just as we followed Marion Crane’s (Janet Leigh) escape from a bad situation into an unforeseen worse one in PSYCHO, we also follow Melanie’s journey from San Francisco to Bodega Bay, unaware of the threat waiting for her there.
While Melanie gets to know not just Mitch, but also Lydia, Annie, and Cathy, Hitchcock gradually brings the threat of the birds to the foreground. As with REAR WINDOW and SHADOW OF A DOUBT, he slowly turns up the heat by adding drop by drop of unease until it all escalates into full-blown panic in the third act of the film: (1) the initial attack on Melanie on the boat, (2) the unsettling scene where Annie and Melanie discover the dead gull on the porch, (3) the attack on the kids at the party, (4) the attack on the schoolchildren as they try to flee for safety, (5) the first full-blown attack on the town that results in the gas station explosion, and (6) the scene where Mitch, Lydia, Melanie, and Cathy hole up in their house - with the birds pecking away at the wood shutters and making serious progress.
These are terrifying setpieces made even more scary by Hitchcock’s masterful use of space and silence to convey building terror. What’s even more remarkable about THE BIRDS is that Hitchcock uses no musical score here - at all. Just the cawing, flapping, shrieking, and screaming of birds. The fact that the film is absolutely frightening even without the support of any kind of atmospheric musical score - which is often what saves a lot of thriller or horror films - is nothing shot of phenomenal. That is the true mark of Hitch’s genius.
Another reason THE BIRDS stands tall in its genre of suspense/horror is Hitchcock’s refusal to let the characters take backstage to the central horror. Another director might have emphasized the bird attacks and made the people tangential to that. Instead, Hitchcock carefully develops his characters and their connections to one another. This attention to humanity and its foibles gives THE BIRDS an added layer of meaning, as we see that the seemingly-important conflicts between these people are rendered trivial when the balance of power man and nature is cruelly upset.
Tippi Hedren is terrific as Melanie Daniels. Touted as the “new Grace Kelly,” Hedren (who is also Melanie Griffith’s mother) brings the same blend of cool beauty, playful intelligence, and surprising sensitivity that Kelly brought to her roles - but with a slightly warmer aura. While Grace Kelly will always be the quintessential "Hitchock Blonde," Hedren is a close second. She humanizes the archetype, and is in full control of the character, showing us Melanie’s journey from carefree, rich heiress to heroic and caring savior - and making it very satisfying. Hedren would go on to star in another Hitchcock film, MARNIE, the following year with a certain actor named Sean Connery.
Rod Taylor is equally good as the object of Melanie’s affection. Mitch Brenner clearly does not intend to march to Melanie’s tune - and that’s what makes him so irresistible to her. Hedren and Taylor have a nice rapport that goes from combative to tender to playful, and its their connection that pulls us in and distract us from the growing threat of the birds in the first act.
Jessica Tandy is no slouch herself as Lydia, the enigmatic mother who regards any woman in Mitch’s orbit with deep suspicion. Her growing respect for Melanie, whom she’d written off as an irresponsible party girl, gives the narrative some added emotional heft as the story turns grim and frightening. Suzanne Pleshette is also refreshing as Annie Hayworth, another one of Mitch’s exes who didn’t survive the “Lydia Gauntlet.” Annie and Melanie’s budding friendship, as well as their frank conversations about Mitch, are probably the best aspects of the film, clearly showing that rivals for the affections of a man need not be enemies.
Finally, Veronica Cartwright as Cathy Brenner shows her talent even as a child. In her hands, Cathy is believably sweet, stubborn, and smart. In short, she plays her as a real kid - and not a writer’s construct. Cartwright would grow up to become a prominent part of the horror/thriller genre with her roles in INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) and ALIEN (1979).
Long story short: THE BIRDS is a classic film that could have easily been a schlocky creature-feature even with its pedigreed source. The wrong director could have cheapened the whole affair. Thank goodness that the best thing that could’ve happened, actually happened: Alfred Hitchcock directed the film - and made it into something special.
Another director could’ve ended up making THE BIRDS a movie for, well, the birds.
