Hitchcockian Horrors

March 28, 2005 10:38 AM

On this day in 1963 Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" was released into the world, causing us to forever tread lightly around pigeons. Anyone wanna lend me $18,950 so I can celebrate?
posted by shoppingforsanity (21 comments total)

Gotta love the tag line:

THE BIRDS IS COMING
posted by Pretty_Generic at 10:43 AM on March 28, 2005

SQUAK SQUAK!

peck peck peck peck
posted by Peter H at 10:48 AM on March 28, 2005

Was my least fav Hitchcock film, granted I haven't watched them all so there may well be something worse out there.
posted by edgeways at 10:56 AM on March 28, 2005

You're right edgeways: Marnie was a fucking warcrime. Mind you, I loved The Birds.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 10:58 AM on March 28, 2005

I though Marnie was OK, dislike Frenzy but (back on topic) love The Birds, though. Screenwriter Evan Hunter's Me and Hitch is a tiny book (really a bunch of long anecdotes) that Hitch fans might find interesting. Or Hunter/McBain/Lombroso fans, for that matter.

Pretty much any Hitchcock film shot wholly in color leaves me cold, but that's just me.
posted by scratch at 11:05 AM on March 28, 2005

Apparently he used an incident in Santa Cruz as inspiration.
posted by 445supermag at 11:08 AM on March 28, 2005

Frenzy was great fun!
posted by Pretty_Generic at 11:08 AM on March 28, 2005

Well, maybe, if you have a thing about neckties...
posted by scratch at 11:34 AM on March 28, 2005

I loved The Birds, but I hope I'll never have to endure another note of Que Sera Sera (The Man Who Knew Too Much remake.)
posted by maryh at 11:45 AM on March 28, 2005

I took a college course devoted to Hitchcock and have seen almost every film he made. Although The Birds is not among my favorites, it does have a scary quality about it in that the viewer doesn't understand the evil and there is really no way to dispose of it. Why are the birds attacking? What can we do about it?

On a side note, my favorite films are Rear Window, Notorious, and Vertigo.
posted by chicken nuglet at 12:35 PM on March 28, 2005

Vertigo,
yeah that's good film.

i kinda liked Spellbound as well
posted by edgeways at 12:54 PM on March 28, 2005

I love Spellbound and the cheesy Freudian psychoanalysis. WHITE LINES!
posted by chicken nuglet at 1:07 PM on March 28, 2005

Family Plot was dreadful, though not as bad as that painting in the link. Wouldn't pay 18 cents for that.
posted by QuietDesperation at 1:08 PM on March 28, 2005

NBNW. (The dining car scene. Rowr!)
The Birds. (The gas station fire. "No! Don't!" FWOOM!)
Psycho. (Overhead of Martin Balsam as Mom spikes his forehead)
Spellbound (Claude Rains as a mamalook...)
Dial 'M' (the final latchkey scene, extra points for the 3-D version)
The sculpture...ehhh...looks like Jabba the Hutt.
posted by nj_subgenius at 1:21 PM on March 28, 2005

Why are the birds attacking? What can we do about it?

That's my problem with The Birds right there.

What can we do about it?

Geez. "Hey, Bob, the birds are attacking."

"What? Big-ass dangerous extinct birds back from the grave, or regular old little birds?"

"Regular."

"Oh my God. Well, there's only one way to deal with this. We'll have to WEAR HEAVY CLOTHING! And perhaps GOGGLES OF SOME SORT AS WELL!!!"

I mean, geez. They're not diatryma or a teratorn. They're little wussy-ass hollow-boned birds that I imagine will break very satisfyingly if you step on them.

What do you do about it? You put on a couple of heavy work shirts, some leather gloves, and goggles or a helmet of some sort (a fencing mask would be ideal), then you grab a tennis racket and beat the shit out of any birds that molest you as you walk calmly to the sporting-goods store to get a damn shotgun and a whole fuckload of shells. Problem solved.

That's what Ash would do, anyway, and he's only got the one hand. And the chainsaw.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:00 PM on March 28, 2005 [2 favorites]

A vote for North by Northwest.

And yeah, Quiet, that painting is hideous.
posted by pmurray63 at 2:40 PM on March 28, 2005

ROU_Xenophobe: Dude, I would totally pay to see your version.
posted by ralphyk at 3:27 PM on March 28, 2005 [1 favorite]

Man, that'd be like...Shawn of the Birds. Awesome.
posted by graventy at 3:54 PM on March 28, 2005

er....Shaun....
posted by graventy at 3:54 PM on March 28, 2005

Have a look at birds in Hitchcock's other films. The harbinger of evil from at least Sabotage on.
(Don't remember any birds in The Lodger, but haven't seen it for a while.)
posted by Wolof at 12:55 AM on March 29, 2005

Have a look at birds in Hitchcock's other films.

Norman: "You eat like a bird"

Marion: (Looking at the stuffed birds in his den) "You'd know, of course."

Norman: "no, not really... I don't really know anything about birds. My hobby is stuffing things. You know, taxidermy. And I guess I'd rather stuff birds because I hate the look of beasts when they're stuffed. You know, foxes and chimps... Only birds look well stuffed because - well, they're passive to begin with."

Marion: It's a strange hobby. Curious.

Norman: Uncommon, too.

Marion: Oh, I imagine so!

Norman: And it's not as expensive as you might think. It's cheap, really. You know, needles, thread, sawdust. The chemicals are the only thing that costs anything.

Marion: A man should have a hobby.

Norman: It's more than a hobby...
posted by Robot Johnny at 6:48 AM on March 29, 2005