- published: 01 Feb 2016
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The Birds is a 1963 suspense/horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the 1952 story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier. It depicts Bodega Bay, California which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few days.
The film was billed as 'introducing' Tippi Hedren. It also starred Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette and a young Veronica Cartwright.
The screenplay was written by Evan Hunter. Hitchcock told him to develop new characters and a more elaborate plot, keeping Du Maurier's title and concept of unexplained bird attacks.
Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) is a young, wealthy socialite who meets Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), a lawyer, in a San Francisco pet shop. Brenner wants to purchase a pair of lovebirds for his sister's eleventh birthday, and pretends to mistake Daniels for a salesperson, which infuriates her and leads her to inquire as to the reason for his behavior. He mentions a previous encounter that he had with her. Intrigued by him, she finds the address of his home in Bodega Bay, California. She purchases a pair of lovebirds and reaches his house by sneaking across the small harbor in a motor boat, leaving the birds and a note. As she is heading back across the bay, a seagull swoops down and inflicts a cut on her head.
Actors: Michael Ripper (actor), Oswald Hafenrichter (editor), Max Rosenberg (producer), John Harvey (actor), Milton Subotsky (producer), Ron Wood (actor), Frank Finlay (actor), Frank Forsyth (actor), Pamela Davies (miscellaneous crew), Freddie Francis (director), Wilfred Josephs (composer), James Cossins (actor), Guy Doleman (actor), Robert Bloch (writer), Michael Gwynn (actor),
Plot: Pop singer Vicki Robbins collapses from exhaustion while shooting the 1960's equivalent of a music video, and her physician prescribes a respite on Seagull Island with colleague and bee-keeper, Ralph Hargrove. Vicki finds the Hargroves' bitter marital strife oddly relaxing. But when a mysterious swarm of specially bred attack bees starts killing island residents, Vicki fights for her survival, setting fire to nearly half the structures on the island in her escape.
Keywords: adrenaline, animal-attack, apiary, based-on-novel, bathroom, bee, bee-attack, bee-sting, beekeeper, book