Alfred Hitchcock became known for his suspenseful movies like North by Northwest and Psycho.  I have seen several, but not all, of his movies and I have enjoyed them all.  I recently watched The Birds again.

Young socialite Melanie Daniels was in a pet store to get a bird for her aunt when Mitch Brenner came in the store.  He asked her for help, and she decided to play along like she worked in the store.  She was not happy when Mitch shared that he knew that Melanie didn't work in the store because he'd seen her in court.  After he left the store, Melanie decided to buy the love birds he was looking for.  It ended up taking her a lot longer because he had gone to Bodega Bay for the weekend.  

Once in Bodega Bay, Melanie managed to get the love birds to Mitch's home.  It wasn't long before Melanie was attacked by a gull.  Mitch talked Melanie into staying to have dinner at his home where she met his mother Lydia and his younger sister Cathy.  Melanie ended up staying in town with Annie Hayworth, the school teacher who was also in love with Mitch.  During Cathy's birthday party there was another bird attack.  Over the next day or two there were more bird attacks, including at Mitch's home and at the school in town.

The Birds was based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier.  I haven't read the story, but from what I learned while watching one of the extras, the story was completely changed for the movie.  The plot was fairly simple, but I still thought that it was entertaining and interesting.  It did start of fairly slowly while introducing Melanie and Mitch and setting up the situation.  The movie did have a slower pace overall that may bore some people.  I didn't mind the slower pace since that was helping to build the tension, though I can see why some people would feel differently.

There was a bit of mystery in The Birds connected to exactly why the birds started attacking.  At first it seemed like maybe one or two birds were just acting kind of odd, like when the gull attacked Melanie.  It wasn't long before the attacks were involving more birds and more people became aware that something was going on.  I did think the mystery surrounding why the birds were doing those things worked well even though there was never an explanation provided.  Not knowing why the birds were attacking did make things a bit scarier in my opinion even though I didn't think the movie was overly scary.  People hoping for a really scary movie may end up disappointed by the movie.  I felt like several scenes had a decent amount of suspense as well.  The movie wasn't one of Hitchcock's scarier movies despite the suspenseful scenes.  The fact that the movie wasn't scarier will probably disappoint some viewers.

The violence that turned up in different scenes of The Birds was tied to the bird attacks.  At first, Melanie was the only person attacked, and she only received a minor injury.  As the movie progressed, there were more attacks and several people ended up being injured.  The violence of the attacks escalated as the movie continued.  The attacks were a bit disturbing to see, especially when the birds went after children.  Even with that I didn't think the violence that was graphic or gory overall.  There were a couple of things shown that I did think were slightly gory.  The movie was rated PG, but I don't think it would be a good choice for children.  

The way that Melanie and Mitch met at the beginning of The Birds was a bit silly, but it did serve the purpose to get her intrigued enough about him so that she would be willing to track him down and then travel to Bodega Bay to deliver the love birds to him.  They only talked a few minutes in the pet store and then she decided she was going to a fair amount of trouble to deliver birds to him.  That did seem to be a bit of a stretch, but it got her to the island.  Once she was on the island, their relationship did further develop and they seemed to get close fairly quick.  Their relationship developed very quickly and wasn't the most believable, but it worked overall with what was going on.  Melanie also bonded quickly with Cathy to the point where Cathy was turning to Melanie for comfort instead of her mother at times.  I thought that was slightly odd as well.

Melanie was a young woman who didn't seem to have much direction in her life.  From what was said, it seemed like she sort of drifted around doing different things that sometimes got her in some sort of trouble.  Her father owned a newspaper and she contacted him about what was going on with the birds at one point.  It seemed like Melanie had a history of tricking people or playing jokes on them, but she did seem to be a nice person overall.  Tippi Hedren was good in the part.

Mitch was a lawyer who knew about Melanie's history of playing jokes and wasn't amused.  He went home to see his mother and young sister every weekend.  He saw Melanie attacked and had to deal with attacks at his home more than once.  Rod Taylor was fine in the part.  Lydia was Mitch's mother.  She did seem to sort of cling to him and try to discourage his relationships.  Evidently she caused at least one of Mitch's previous relationships to fail.  Lydia could be manipulative at times, but she did love her children.  I think she was so attached to Mitch because her husband had died and she depended on her son for several things.  Jessica Tandy was good in the part.

Cathy was Mitch's little sister.  Even though there were many years between them, she and Mitch seemed to have a good relationship.  Cathy was a nice girl who quickly accepted Melanie.  Veronica Cartwright was fine in the part and didn't make Cathy an annoying character.  Annie Hayworth was the teacher in Bodega Bay.  She and Melanie ended up becoming friends even though Annie had her own feelings for Mitch.  Annie made it clear that Lydia had played a part in that potential relationship not working.  Annie seemed a bit bitter about that, but she was a nice woman overall.  Susan Pleshette handled the part well.  The other people from Bodega Bay who were shown were really just in the background and not developed at all.

Main Cast

Veronica Cartwright - Cathy
Tippi Hedren - Melanie
Susan Pleshette - Annie Hayworth
Jessica Tandy - Lydia
Rod Taylor - Mitch

Alfred Hitchcock - Director

DVD Information

I picked up The Birds on DVD a few years ago.  My copy has the widescreen version of the movie.  All About The Birds was a featurette that had several people involved in the making of the movie talking about it.  Tippi Hedren discussed how she got the part and how she ended up in the hospital after filming one sequence because it exhausted her so much.  It was also mentioned how Hitchcock had a few different ideas for ending the movie.  The way that certain scenes were filmed involving the attacking birds was also shared.  The movie used something similar to blue screen - which I hadn't know was being used at that point - that used a yellow screen instead.  The movie had a lot of effects shots involving the birds that worked well considering when the movie was made.  I thought the featurette was very interesting.  

The extras also included a deleted scene that consisted of showing the script pages and some pictures that had been taking during the filming.  That is all that remains of the scene.  The original ending was shared in a similar way with storyboards instead of pictures. Another storyboard sequence, Hedren's screen test, a Universal newsreel about the release of the movie, another newsreel featuring Hitchcock, production photographs, information on the cast and crew and the theatrical trailer.   

The Birds was a very entertaining, suspenseful movie by Alfred Hitchcock.  People that have liked some of his other movies should give this one a chance.

This review is part of CaptainD's 2008 Good Movie Write Off  . 

Alfred Hitchcock Movie Reviews
Dial M for Murder ~ Family Plot ~ Lifeboat ~ The Lodger ~ The Man Who Knew Too Much ~ North by Northwest  ~ Notorious ~ The Paradine Case ~ Psycho ~ Rear Window ~ Rebecca ~ Rope ~ Sabotage ~ Strangers on a Train ~ Suspicion ~ To Catch a Thief ~  Vertigo ~

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD