All About 'The Birds' (2000)

A wonderfully informative 80-minute documentary combining current interviews with archival materials and scenes from the film. Hitchcock's daughter Pat, production designer Robert Boyle, ... See full summary »

Director:

Laurent Bouzereau

Writer:

Laurent Bouzereau

Stars:

Alfred Hitchcock, Patricia Hitchcock, Robert F. Boyle

Cast

Cast overview:
Alfred Hitchcock	...	Himself (archive footage)
Patricia Hitchcock	...	Herself (as Pat Hitchcock O'Connell)
Robert F. Boyle	...	Himself (as Robert Boyle)
Evan Hunter	...	Himself
Bill Taylor	...	Himself
Harold Michelson	...	Himself
Hilton A. Green	...	Himself (as Hilton Green)
Tippi Hedren	...	Herself
Rod Taylor	...	Himself
Syd Dutton	...	Himself
Peter Bogdanovich	...	Himself
Robin Wood	...	Himself
Veronica Cartwright	...	Herself
Howard Smit	...	Himself
Steven Smith	...	Himself (as Steven C. Smith)

Storyline

A wonderfully informative 80-minute documentary combining current interviews with archival materials and scenes from the film. Hitchcock's daughter Pat, production designer Robert Boyle, screenwriter Evan Hunter, matte artist Albert Whitlock's colleagues Syd Dutton and Bill Taylor, storyboard artist Harold Michelson, Hitchcock collaborator Hilton Green, actors Tippi Hedren, Veronica Cartwright and Rod Taylor, filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, author Robin Wood, makeup artist Howard Smit, and composer Bernard Herrmann biographer Steven Smith all contribute valuable input to Hitch's memorable classic. A terrific documentary that matches the brilliance of "The Making of 'Psycho'."

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Plot Keywords:

making of | interview | thriller filmmaking | horror filmmaking | drama filmmaking | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Studios Home Video

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This feature-length documentary is featured on the Collectors Edition DVD for The Birds (1963).

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Connections

References To Catch a Thief (1955)

User Reviews

Good Look at the Hitchcock Film

All About The Birds (2000)

*** (out of 4)

Pretty good documentary covering the making of Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS. Pat Hitchcock, production designer Robert Boyle, screenwriter Evan Hunter, Hitchcock collaborator Hilton Green, make-up artist Howard Smit, Peter Bogdanovich, Tippi Hedren, Robert Wood, Rod Taylor and Veronica Cartwright are interviewed about their experience on the film. I've never been a major fan of THE BIRDS but I still found this documentary to be entertaining. This might upset fans but I found the opening sequence to this documentary much more entertaining than anything in the actual film. With that being said, fans of the film are really going to enjoy this as it really does give you a great idea of all the trouble they had to go through to make the movie. We get stories from the cast about how they were hired, we hear about how blue screens were used to match up the effects and then there's talk about the SPCA being on the set at all times (but this didn't prevent many birds from being injured or killed). There's a funny story from Taylor about one raven that was constantly trying to come after him and we hear about the treadmill used during the famous school yard chase. One of the more interesting items is the screen test by Hedren and it includes a couple shots with Martin Balsam who was originally planned as the lead. There's also discussion about the alternate ending as well as a comedy scene that was shot but taken out of the film. Overall, this is an entertaining look at the making of the film and we also get a brief audio interview with Hitchcock that was done with Bogdanovich.