Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Eight Facts You Didn't Know About Hitchcock's "The Birds"

With Universal's 100th anniversary in full swing, and a one-night big screen showing on Wednesday, September 19th, Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds is attracting attention again.  HBO will soon premiere The Girl, a look at the relationship between the director and the star Tippi Hedren.  The Master's 1963 thriller still produces shudders among grownups (myself included), and like any great film, there are quite a few stories behind it:

1.  The movie is adapted from a story by Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca), but is also based on fact.  Hitchcock noticed a 1961 newspaper story about a group of disoriented seabirds attacking people in California's Monterey Bay.  (Their behavior was attributed to eating poisoned plankton and squid.)  Hitch thought it would make a good idea for a movie.

2.  It wasn't supposed to be Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren starring.  Hitch had the screenplay written with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant in mind.


3.  When Grace Kelly turned the Master down, Hitch cast a wide net looking for a newcomer to star.  He saw Tippi Hedren in a soda commercial, and rushed her to the Universal set for three days of screen tests at a cost of $25,000.  During the actual six month shoot, Hedren was needed on the set every day; she appeared in nearly every major scene.

4.  Hitchcock's customary cameo appearance catches him leaving Davidson's Pet Shop as Hedren enters. Hitch is being dragged out the door by two dogs--his own terriers, Geoffrey and Stanley.

5.   The Birds used hundred of real trained birds, as well as a few mechanical ones and some animation.  Effects wizard Ub Iwerks was nominated for an Oscar for Best Special Effects--but lost that year to Cleopatra!  (I'm still working on this one: aside from Elizabeth Taylor's  eye makeup, what special effects were there in Cleopatra?)  Iwerks worked for Walt Disney since the early 1920s. He had to ask Walt's permission to work with Hitchcock.


6.  Bird trainer Ray Berwick was brought in when it became apparent that the mechanical birds simply didn't look real. The ideal situation would have been to train baby birds as they were growing up, but there wasn't time for that.  The film desperately needed grown ravens and crows.  Professional trappers were called with a promise to pay $10 per bird captured. "Not one trapper came up with a single bird!" Berwick said; he and his assistant later tracked and captured part of a 20,000 flock of crows.

7.  The birds weren't antagonistic towards the actors at first, although it certainly looked that way.  The birds had motivation: before film takes the actors' hands were smeared with shrimp, anchovies, and ground meat to attract the feathered foes.  As shooting progressed, bird bites became more common; one day alone 12 crew members were nipped.  And yes, the American Humane Society was on the set to make sure that no birds were harmed during filming.  (You'd think they would have been more worried about Tippi Hedren...)

8.   One very vocal critic of the film was the screenwriter, Evan Hunter, best known for writing the The Blackboard Jungle and the Ed McBain 89th Precinct mysteries. "I don't think Hitchcock was fair to my screenplay," Hunter lamented. Later he added, "I think Hitch is putting the world on when he pretends there is anything meaningful about The Birds. We were just trying to scare the hell out of people. Period."

For more information about the nationwide September 19th showing of The Birds:
http://www.fathomevents.com/classics/event/tcmbirds.aspx

To purchase The Birds on DVD, click on the pic: