The Birds [Includes Digital Copy] [4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/Blu-ray]

Director: Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock

Overview

The story begins as an innocuous romantic triangle involving wealthy, spoiled Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), handsome Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), and schoolteacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette). The human story begins in a San Francisco pet shop and culminates at the home of Mitch's mother (Jessica Tandy) at Bodega Bay, where the characters' sense of security is slowly eroded by the curious behavior of the birds in the area. At first, it's no more than a sea gull swooping down and pecking at Melanie's head. Things take a truly ugly turn when hundreds of birds converge on a children's party. There is never an explanation as to why the birds have run amok, but once the onslaught begins, there's virtually no letup.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/25/2021
UPC:	0191329162200
Original Release:	1963
Source:	Universal Studios
Language:	English
Time:	2:00:00
Format:	Blu-ray
Sales rank:	10,184

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Rod Taylor	Mitch Brenner
Tippi Hedren	Melanie Daniels
Suzanne Pleshette	Annie Hayworth
Jessica Tandy	Lydia Brenner
Veronica Cartwright	Cathy Brenner
Ethel Griffies	Mrs. Bundy
Ruth McDevitt	Mrs. MacGruder
Lonny Chapman	Deke
Charles McGraw	Sebastian Sholes
Elizabeth Wilson	Helen
Malcolm Atterbury	Deputy
Joe Mantell	Salesman
Doodles Weaver	Fisherman
Alfred Hitchcock	Man in Front of Pet Shop with White Poodles
Karl Swenson	Drunk
John McGovern	Postal Clerk
Richard Deacon	Man in Elevator
Doreen Lang	Mother in Cafe
Dal McKennon	Actor
Bill Quinn	Farm Hand
Darlene Conley	Actor
Morgan Brittany	Schoolchild
Bernard Herrmann	Composer

Technical Credits

Evan Hunter

Alfred Hitchcock	Director,Producer
Evan Hunter	Screenwriter
Ub Iwerks	Special Effects
Lawrence Hampton	Special Effects
Norman Deming	Producer
William Russell	Sound/Sound Designer
Bernard Herrmann	Sound/Sound Designer
Waldon Watson	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Arguably the last great movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, The Birds eschews customary fright-film formulas and settings to show what might happen to ordinary people in everyday settings if one species decided to suddenly wage war on another. Beautiful blonde Tippi Hedren portrays a bored playgirl who arrives in a coastal California community just as huge flocks of birds begin attacking the inhabitants for no apparent reason. She seeks temporary shelter with bachelor attorney Rod Taylor while the feathered felons continue to wreak havoc in the small town. Evan Hunter's script never offers a satisfactory explanation for the mass assault, but rationality isn't important in this film -- survival is. In fact, because there is no reason for the birds to act as they do, Hitchcock is able to precisely manipulate the atmosphere of mounting terror. It's a reflection of his genius that The Birds still keeps viewers on the edge of their seats.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

The Birds features a classic Alfred Hitchcock setup: average people placed in circumstances turned upside down. And of course, there are the requisite dark insinuations and strange psychological underpinnings. Though we're never sure why the birds are rising up, their behavior seems to be a response to humankind's complacency and arrogance. It's a frightening yet sportive vision of Judgment Day. As in Psycho, Hitchcock's previous film, the normalcy of the setting is allowed to set in before the audience is thrown into the perverse drama. When the bird violence comes, Hitchcock pulls out all the stops to make it as realistic as one could imagine. There are 371 trick shots in the film. Some have dated, but for the most part the effects are still effective. The last shots are especially memorable. And the movie features a unique soundtrack from frequent Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann: no music, only bird sounds organized as if they were music, for maximum creepy impact. The Birds stands as the end of an unprecedented period when Hitchcock could no wrong; he made only five more features, with decidedly mixed artistic and financial results.

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