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The Birds (1963)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
28 March 1963 (USA)
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Tagline:
Suspense and shock beyond anything you have seen or imagined! more
Plot:
A wealthy San Francisco playgirl pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness. full summary | full synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar.
Another 2 wins
&
3 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(85 articles)
Despite Being a Bad Idea, The Birds Remake Moves Forward
(From FilmSchoolRejects. 4 December 2009, 3:19 PM, PST)
'The Birds' Remake Hires New Director
(From Get The Big Picture. 4 December 2009, 12:13 PM, PST)
(From FilmSchoolRejects. 4 December 2009, 3:19 PM, PST)
'The Birds' Remake Hires New Director
(From Get The Big Picture. 4 December 2009, 12:13 PM, PST)
User Comments:
A true puzzle without an answer; brilliant
more (340 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Rod Taylor | ... | Mitch Brenner | |
| Jessica Tandy | ... | Lydia Brenner | |
| Suzanne Pleshette | ... | Annie Hayworth | |
| Tippi Hedren | ... | Melanie Daniels (as 'Tippi' Hedren) | |
| Veronica Cartwright | ... | Cathy Brenner | |
| Ethel Griffies | ... | Mrs. Bundy, elderly ornithologist | |
| Charles McGraw | ... | Sebastian Sholes, fisherman in diner | |
| Ruth McDevitt | ... | Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk | |
| Lonny Chapman | ... | Deke Carter, cook in diner | |
| Joe Mantell | ... | Traveling salesman at diner's bar | |
| Doodles Weaver | ... | Fisherman helping with rental boat | |
| Malcolm Atterbury | ... | Deputy Al Malone | |
| John McGovern | ... | Postal clerk | |
| Karl Swenson | ... | Doomsayer in diner | |
| Richard Deacon | ... | Mitch's city neighbor |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (UK) (complete title)
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Parents Guide:
Runtime:
119 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
Australia:M (TV rating) |
Finland:K-16 (cut) (1963) |
UK:15 (1987) |
UK:X (1963) |
Canada:13+ (Quebec) |
Canada:PG (Manitoba) |
Spain:T |
Portugal:M/12 |
Finland:K-15 (uncut) (2002) (DVD) |
South Korea:15 |
Brazil:14 |
Argentina:13 |
Australia:PG |
Chile:14 |
France:-12 |
Netherlands:12 |
Norway:16 (1976) |
Norway:18 |
Peru:14 |
Sweden:15 |
USA:Approved (certificate #20385) (original rating) |
USA:PG-13 (new rating) (1984) |
West Germany:16 |
Singapore:PG |
Iceland:16
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Tippi Hedren's character plays "Deux Arabesques" from Claude Debussy's (1888) while at the Brenner house for dinner.
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Goofs:
Continuity: Annie and Melanie open the door to Annie's house when a seagull hits it. As the door opens houses are clearly visible across the road, after they look up again from the dead bird the view is now the bay with no houses at all.
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Quotes:
[first lines]
Melanie Daniels: Hello there, Mrs. MacGruder.
Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk: Oh, hello, Miss Daniels.
Melanie Daniels: Have you ever seen so many gulls? What do you suppose it is?
Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk: Well, there must be a storm at sea, that can drive them inland, you know. I was hoping you'd be a little late because he hadn't arrived yet.
Melanie Daniels: Oh, but you'd said three o'clock...
Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk: Oh I know, I know. I've been calling all morning. Oh, Miss Daniels you have no idea. They are so difficult to get, really they are. We have to get them from India, when they're just baby chicks, and then we have...
Melanie Daniels: But this one won't be a chick, will he?
Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk: Certainly not. Oh no, certainly not. This will be a full grown mynah bird, full grown.
Melanie Daniels: And he'll talk?
[...]
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Melanie Daniels: Hello there, Mrs. MacGruder.
Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk: Oh, hello, Miss Daniels.
Melanie Daniels: Have you ever seen so many gulls? What do you suppose it is?
Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk: Well, there must be a storm at sea, that can drive them inland, you know. I was hoping you'd be a little late because he hadn't arrived yet.
Melanie Daniels: Oh, but you'd said three o'clock...
Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk: Oh I know, I know. I've been calling all morning. Oh, Miss Daniels you have no idea. They are so difficult to get, really they are. We have to get them from India, when they're just baby chicks, and then we have...
Melanie Daniels: But this one won't be a chick, will he?
Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk: Certainly not. Oh no, certainly not. This will be a full grown mynah bird, full grown.
Melanie Daniels: And he'll talk?
[...]
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Movie Connections:
Featured in "TV Land Confidential: Movies (#2.2)" (2007)
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Soundtrack:
Risseldy, Rosseldy
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FAQ
Why was Melanie looking for a mynah in the bird shop?Is "The Birds" based on a book?
Was Melanie responsible for causing the birds to attack?
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more (340 total)
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One of Hitchcock's most enigmatic and fascinating films, a true puzzle without an answer. Hitchcock chucks away all but the barest conceit of DuMaurier's story, and instead constructs an elegant little comedy of manners so dry it'll sting your lips. Tippi Hedren's spoiled rich girl makes a trip to a west-coast fishing town to play a joke on a smartass lawyer who still lives with his mum, and things get complicated. In the movie's first half, the director layers on the sexual tensions and the bitchy wit until you're at the screaming point--and then unleashes a cataclysmic natural horror so unspeakable it could be something out of the Bible.
All technical elements are superb. Hitchcock, so well known for his use of music, shows here how terrifying silence can be, and 'The Birds' remains an intensely quiet picture, even punctuated, as it is, by sudden noisy violence. The set pieces, like the fireplace scene, the playground scene, and the visit with Dan Fawcett, are studies in perfection. The cast is smooth down to the tiniest roles, with the proto-Altman ensemble scene in the diner being one of the most memorable segments in a film chock-full of them.
And it is literally impossible to imagine better-cast actors in the leads. Hedren is perfect as Melanie Daniels, the party girl who, while not nearly as clever as she thinks she is, may just be telling the truth when she says she's looking for something more meaningful in her life. Rod Taylor is charming and somewhat inscrutable as the local-boy-made-good who thinks he knows what he wants. Suzanne Pleschette is smoldering as the cynical (and perhaps sexually ambiguous) schoolteacher who takes Melanie in.
And perhaps most important, Jessica Tandy is a searing, twitchily hypnotic presence as Lydia Brenner, surely one of greatest supporting characters in the Hitchcock pantheon.
As the movie runs on, the director gleefully ignores one loose end after another, leaving the viewer with an epic catalogue of unanswered questions at the climax (the most important of which is articulated by the diner's birdwatching crone: Why?). And if you're the kind of moviegoer who likes having everything neatly explained, you'd best try something else. But if you like ambiguity (and a healthy dose of existential nightmarishness), it doesn't get any better than this. 10 out of 10.