A thriller of feathery proportions

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 horror classic, ‘The Birds’, to play at Safma on Friday.

ISLAMABAD:

‘The Birds’ is a true representative of the work of producer/director Alfred Hitchcock, hardly an unknown name in the world of horror and suspense movies. When the film was first released in 1963, it created quite a stir in cinema halls, with its atmosphere of dread gripping the minds of viewers for a long time afterward. Hitchcock certainly achieved what he wanted with this movie: to terrify his audience. The film is being screened at South Asian Free Media Centre (Safma) Media Centre today.

From the outset, the director was not interested in following the text of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel from which the idea was picked. Hitchcock advised Evan Hunter, the screenplay writer, to forget about the novel because he was only interested in the abnormality of birds attacking people.

The two opted for Bodega Bay California, a place that is mysteriously invaded by birds disturbing the normal life of the small town and also causing deaths. As usual, the director does not bother to give an apparent reason for this demented behaviour of the birds. The intermittent attacks of the birds cause psychological shocks on the town people, eventually leading to diametrical changes in the roles and forms of love, hate and romance.

Hitchcock is always in a deviant mood, wishing to baffle viewers by suddenly catching them unawares. Watching this movie is like being on a roller coaster; emitting shrieks and jumping on the person sitting next to you. Fear is the road that leads toward togetherness.

In this film, the director is also in a satirical mood, as he debunks an old woman (Ethel Griffies) who is an amateur ornithologist pleading a set pattern of the birds’ behaviour. She does not believe that birds of different species can flock together to attack human populations.  In a way, he is ditching orthodoxy and pedantic attitudes as she is proved wrong in front of her eyes. Her thesis is demolished immediately when the birds suddenly attack the townspeople.

Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), daughter of a newspaper tycoon, is also dragged into the scenario when she accidently meets a young lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a San Francisco pet shop. He has come there from Bodega Bay to buy a pair of love birds for his younger sister Cathy’s birthday. Melanie is immediately struck at first glance. He mistakes her for a salesperson. The encounter triggers her to visit Bodega Bay on the excuse of presenting Cathy a pair of love birds.

The charming character of school teacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette), former beloved of Mitch, is a symbol of love, human dignity and courage which she proves in her death while saving the life of Cathy.

Tippi Herdren received the Golden Globe Award for the New Star of the Year in 1964. Rod Taylor, an Australian cum American actor of film and television, made memorable appearances in other films such as The Picture Show Man and Welcome to Woop Woop.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2011.