The scene where Melanie is sitting on the bench when the birds gather and the children are singing is a masterclass of building suspense and is so eerie.
The ending is perfect. No explanation for why the birds were attacking, and it's left up to our imagination what will happen next. That's the best kind of horror, the fear of the unknown...
there is a great analysis of Hitchcock on showing a planting of a bomb on a car and then it drives around and the audience never knows when it will blow up and kill the passengers or after they leave the car.
In an interview Tippi Hendron gave, she said that she asked Alfred Hitchcock why her character would go upstairs to investigate strange noises. His response to her: "Because I told you to."
Alfred had a serious infatuation with Tippi and he made advances. And the bird handles threw birds at her for hours and they were trained to peck at her.
When she walks into the pet store at the beginning, that's Alfred Hitchcock walking out with the two dogs. It became a tradition for him to have a cameo in his movies near the beginning.
This film is based on a short story by Daphne Du Maurier (she wrote the novel "Rebecca"). She didn't give a reason why the birds started attacking or why they stopped. That's what makes this movie so good. Hitchcock also directed a movie of Rebecca as well.
Hitchcock’s first Daphne Du Maurier film was Jamaica Inn, immediately before Rebecca. Unfortunately, the star Charles Laughton had bought and now owned the rights, and both Hitchcock and Du Maurier hated how he wanted it done. Rebecca is as much as possible scene for scene a depiction of the novel, whereas The Birds retains only the title and the idea of an unexplained attack by flocks of coastal birds, the American location and all the characters and their storyline were created for the movie.
well, when this happened, there was no reason it was only recently that they learned why the birds were attacking around California it took 60 years to figure it out! that's crazy!
One of the things we are so used to in movies is the musical score. This movie has so much to make it eerie and suspenseful, but the best trick Hitchcock used was to have no music at all. That absence created it's own kind of tension subconsciously. Absolutely brilliant.
Carly has some great insights and questions about Hitchcock's intentions in making this film. The first is that Hitchcock deliberately made this start like a rom-com only to turn it into a biblically apocalyptic film. Second, he wanted the film to be like something mythological, but in a modern setting. The sudden ending puts the result of all the turmoil into the consciousness of the audience in a What would you do? way. The resolution of the film is not so much about birds, but about Melanie finding a mother she can trust. The birds are symbolic about her actual mother abandoning her and about Melanie and Mitch's mother's finding resolve in that fear.
An insightful analysis. Your point about Melanie finding a mother points to how one should watch this film: not so much as a simple suspense film, but rather as a kind of myth (as you say) that exists in a place of otherness, if that makes any sense.
I like your interpretation of how Hitchcock saw the film. Read the short story by Daphne du Maurier which is quite different. She wrote a lot of great stories.
I believe that in this particular film, Hitchcock wanted to emphasize the fact that often there is no answer to the question why, especially when it comes to the subject of death. We always want a resolution and the ambiguity here is used to excellent effect. When a loved one dies, no matter the reason, we the living must eventually accept what’s happened, whether we can find a reason or not. Even when we know the reason, the foreign and unknown realm of death doesn’t seem to make sense. Hitchcock was, by the way, sort of a funny guy. His famous christmas card showed a beautiful alphabet on the front missing just the letter L. (There was no L. Get it?)
I love how this was filmed. No musical score, therefore, no typical foreshadowing. Just before chaos ensues, that brief, eerie moment of silence feels like a lifetime. Similar to the smell of ozone before a storm. Less is undoubtedly more.
The crows gathering on the playground is a classic move for Hitchcock. He built suspense by showing the audience the peril while keeping the character ignorant of the danger.
When Tippi Hedron walks up the stairs, it’s the quintessential horror movie trope with the audience screaming “don’t go up the stairs! Don’t open that door!” 😁
You two are the perfect audience! You were completely engulfed in the plot, even the long stretch with a rather eventless romantic story (until the first gull attack) which modern audiences would probably be expected to find boring. Hitchcock would have loved to see your reactions!
That was a great, fun reaction to this film. Originally there was an ending planned to show the birds beginning to attack San Francisco, but it was scrapped. Hitchcock is definitely known for his abrupt endings, and this one is no exception. My feeling after several viewings of the film is that the story really isn't about the birds, but about the human relationships -- and that part was resolved. The mother found peace and strength in caring for her new "daughter", and Melanie found a mother figure. If they do get out of there alive, this little family group will be closer than ever. Or at least that's my interpretation.
Excellent summary for the movie David. As you may know this short story is by Daphne du Maurier. The same women also wrote Rebecca, another film by Hitchcock. The short story is really bleak, REALLY bleak! There is no resolution in the short story either.
The birds would not have been attacking San Francisco. The car with Melanie and the family would have come around the corner to see the Golden Gate Bridge entirely covered with birds.
Wow, I didn't realize until the end the older lady providing comfort in the car is Jessica Tandy. She was an actress into her 80's. Driving Mrs. Daisy, Cocoon, Batteries Not Included, Fried Green Tomatoes; she was wonderful.
Tippi Hedron is Melanie Griffith's mother. His mother is played by Jessica Tandy, the woman telling the story in "Fried Green Tomatoes" and she is Miss Daisy, "Driving Miss Daisy".
You are right. Many people HAVE stopped asking questions, having conversations and learning because they think they can 'google' it. People learn less now because they think they 'know' everything because they have the internet so they have stopped learning altogether.
Hitchcock’s ending is brilliant. It builds to absolute suspense and then abruptly ends with no resolution, leaving the audience feeling freaked out after the film is over. Imagine people leaving the theater after watching this and seeing birds, which until now where just part of the everyday scenery, all around.
Yes, I think this ending works well. Originally, Hitchcock had a different ending planned - one that was more ambitious. Apparently, there were going to birds gathering around the Golden Gate Bridge. But he didn't have the budget for that so he had to go with an alternative ending.
Feels like the zombie movie ending where they are sailing off to some island, except in those you always see them die in the credits. Hearing of other bird attacks on other towns you never know if they survived or if humanity survives at that.
this was actually inspired by a real life event. 2 years prior to this film hoardes of seagulls suddenly rammed themselves into houses in the Monterey Bay area. The believed connection was a type of algae that releases specific toxins that cause major disorientation among other things.
If you watch the trailer/introduction of this movie done by Hitchcock, he illuded to the ways people mistreated birds. Using them as food and in less than flattering sayings, etc. Perhaps the birds just got tired of all the crap we gave them.
As a Vietnamese/Cambodian person, we have to give a huge thanks to Tippi Hendren. She is the reason there's a Vietnamese Nail Salon Empire. She was a humanitarian. In 1975, she met Tuan Le who complimented Tippi on her nails, so Tippi got her in beauty school and helped so many of us female refugees after the Vietnam War immigrating here helping them get into beauty school. The very first one was called Mantrap in South LA. There's a documentary about it called "Nailed It" (NOT TO BE CONFUSED with the Netflix show).
The biggest laugh of the day was hearing you two saying how this was going to be only mildly scary prior to watching it. My aunt still lists this as the scariest film she has ever seen. There is a very good reason why Hitchcock is listed as one of the greatest directors of horror.
This didn't even show the scariest part of the movie. Where the old man sat in the house dead with his eyes pecked out. They cut that part out of this reaction video. I wanted to watch them jump or scream. LOL
Fun Fact: Alfred Hitchcock revealed on The Dick Cavett Show (1968) that 3,200 birds were trained for the movie. He said the ravens were the cleverest and the seagulls were the most vicious. Alfred Hitchcock also wanted to give the impression of unending terror, so he did not add the usual "The End" to the film. Also, Cathy is played by Veronica Cartwright, who played Lambert in Alien (1979). She was also in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978).
One of Hitchcock's thoughts was that he liked not saying what the spies were trying to get, or in this case, the reason the birds were acting crazy. He was more interested in the people reacting to the situation. Honestly, the unresolved ending leaves you room to continue imagining after the movie ends. I wouldn't want all movies to be like that, but it's kind of cool every now and then.
The tender look and parent/child embrace between Melanie and the mother in the car at the film's end, is the emotional call-back and resolution to an earlier scene in the film where Melanie speaks bitterly about being abandoned by her own mother in childhood.
I feel like Jessica Tandy's character was very much a Hitchcock "McGuffin" in that we're initially led to believe she's going to be some kind of "Mrs. Bates" style antagonist who is out to get Melanie for being a romantic interest to her son. Same thing with Annie whom we're initially led to believe is going to be some kind of rival for Mitch's affections. Then the entire plot does a complete 360 when the birds start attacking and shows Annie to be selfless in giving her life to save Cathy and allows Lydia to be the mother figure to Melanie that she never had.
This film came out in 1963...there were no "graphics" at that time at all. The birds were either real or were puppets for some close ups. For some of the wide shots, birds were photographed in groups and then moved to a new spot and photographed again, with all the separate pieces printed together to create the illusion of hundreds of birds. Hitchcock was on the bleeding edge of special effects for his day.
Regarding the ending, I saw Alfred Hitchcock being interviewed on a talk show about 40 years ago....maybe 45. I can't remember which talk show it was. Anyway, he said in response to people upset with the ending of The Birds, that he wanted the ending to do three things: 1) Leave the audience hanging so that when they left the movie theater (in 1963), he wanted the birds to follow them home (in their minds, in the open outdoors), so they would race home and close all their windows and doors. This was back during a time when doors and windows could be left open/unlocked while going to the movie house. Since we don't really know why the birds did what they did, the danger did not end by leaving the movie house. 2) He didn't want questions to be answered at the end....he thought it was more uncomfortable for the audience (in their minds) to question why and how did this happen.....with no answers provided.....the danger was left unchecked. 3) He wanted the abrupt ending to stun the audience, which made it more disturbing and uneven. I read the short story the movie was based on. The original story is not that many pages long. Mr. Hitchcock expanded many things to make a 2+ hour movie.....and it worked. The book (short story) ended with an empty package of cigarettes being thrown into the blazing fireplace, as the family waited for the next wave of attacks to come. The Bodega Bay school house is still standing and is now privately owned. You can drive by it but you can't trespass onto the grounds. Also....it is not in Bodega Bay, but in the town of Bodega, which is several miles inland and not in view of the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Hitchcock used some Hollywood magic of his day to make the school appear just up the hill from the town of Bodega Bay, which in real life it does not. The Tides restaurant featured in the movie was a real on-location restaurant in Bodega Bay at the time. It burned down in 1968 but was rebuilt (and expanded) at the same location. The restaurant is open for business and is usually busy with locals and travelers from around the world. Here is a link to the restaurant: www.innatthetides.com/tides-wharf-restaurant .
I read somewhere that his appearances were initially further into his movies, but people were so busy watching for him that they were missing the movie; so, he started appearing at the beginning (like in this movie). Fun stuff.
The heavy set man walking out of the store with dogs in the beginning of the film, he is the film director Alfred Hitchcock. In almost all of his films, he appeared incognito either as unknown character walking with the crowd, a photo of his somewhere… that was his films signature ✋🏻
The entire movie had no music in it. No music in the opening credits, no music in the bird attacks. The children sang a song in the school house, but they didn't sing to music. You don't notice there was no music until it's pointed out to you.
Rod Taylor was the voice of Pongo in "101 Dalmatians". Another movie he starred in that I recommend is "The Time Machine". And Suzanne Pleshette, who played the school teacher, starred on the Bob Newhart Show. Her distinctive husky voice also made her the perfect choice to voice villains, like Yubaba in "Spirited Away".
A few little informational tidbits: Melanie was played by Tippi Hedron who is Melanie Griffin's mother, Mitch's mother was Jessica Tandy from Driving Miss Daisy , Cathy was Veronica Cartwright who was in Alien, and Annie was Suzanne Pleshette from the old Bob Newhart Show. Great reaction, girls.
The male lead (Mitch) was played by Rod Taylor who was in the best adaptation of 'The Time Machine', which is a film I *highly* recommend for the channel.
His line as he gains confidence and speeds up the machine is a favorite of mine: "It's Intoxicating". It's telling how his scientific mind is overwhelmed and was like a school boy.
Birds have a noble history and only two important things happen in this cinematic account. The mother finally accepting Melanie, and therefore the birds cease their attack. Love conquers all. Thank you for sharing.
Did you notice Hitchcock himself coming out of the door to the pet store? He was the man walking the dogs. Hitchcock liked to make brief cameos in his movies, most of them anyway. Tippi really did have something of a breakdown due to that scene where the birds were attacking her upstairs. They shot that scene over and over again and while some of the birds were stuffed, some were real and rather angry about the situation. So she had a rough time of it and it took its toll.
Much like the actors from The Conjuring and the original Poltergeist. Several suffered trauma and PTSD due to the filming. You can see how deeply it affected Tippi. Just check out her autograph.
When people realized that Hitchcock would make cameo appearances in his movies, it became a game to find him. The most interesting cameo was in his movie "Lifeboat". It was the story of a group of survivors from a boat that was sunk by a German U-boat during WWII. The whole movie takes place on that lifeboat. How could Hitchcock make a cameo appearance in a boat will only a few inhabitants? His solution was quite unique. Watch the movie and see if you can find him.
Edith Head was the costume designer for Tippi Hedren in The Birds. Edith Head (October 28, 1897 - October 24, 1981) was an American costume designer who won a record eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design between 1949 and 1973, making her the most awarded woman in the Academy's history. Head is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential costume designers in film history. She designed for over 500 movies in her career.
@@chiefscheider Here's something that you can't find on Wiki; I have a Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds Tippi Hedren 2008 Black Label Barbie Doll. I love the movie "The Birds" and spent a day in Bodega Bay chasing down camera shots that Alfted Hitchcock used. Edith Head is my favorite costume designer and I will always point out her work given the chance.
Edith Head was Hitchcock's favourite costume designer, she also designed the stunning costumes for Grace Kelly in Rear Window and To Catch a Thief and for Kim Novak in Vertigo.
@@coyotefever105 Only loosely. I always thought the birds were angry to see the love birds in the cage, and that caused them to launch a crazy rescue mission to free the love birds that ultimately turned into a full on bird assault on Bodega Bay. So Melanie started everything when she brought the caged love birds to town.
@@coyotefever105 But Daphne Du Maurier's inspiration for the story was seeing a farmer being attacked by a bird, and I don't remember the short story attributing the attacks to any food source. But high school English was a long time ago so I may be wrong.
First saw this film as a teenager with friends. It was our introduction to Hitchcock. Our mothers thought it would be fun to show us a horror film from their childhood. What I recall most was my friends laughing and teasing how they didn't find it scary. Yet for weeks after anytime we were outside they would look towards telephone wires and get a bit nervous seeing birds sitting there.
Great reaction to this classic movie!! The young actress who played Cathy was Veronica Cartwright. As an adult she was a crew member in "Alien" in 1979!!
Hedren asked Hitchcock why she would go up to the attic to investigate bird noises after everything that had occurred up to that point. Hitchcock thought for a moment, then said, "Because I tell you to."
@@coyotefever105 Indeed. I love the flick, grew up with it, and it's a real bummer to know that he was being shitty to her behind the scenes (although I understand he wasn't sexually harassing her until later, on "Marnie"-- which is not an excuse, just context).
@@JamesWVanFleet yeah it is. I don’t personally think Hitchcock himself was a serial harasser like Weinstein was (certainly I haven’t heard of any other accusations to the level Weinstein had). I don’t know if any other times he was accused of such. I think many film lovers hold Hitchcock and his films in high regard to this day despite this controversy
My parents put this on for my sister and I when we were around 8-10. Then we went and got fast food and drove to the beach. My stepdad threw some fries on the windshield, seagulls mobbed the hood, and my sister lost her shit. It was hilarious.
You should have seen me as a kid after watching this, we lived out in the country at the time surrounded by empty fields. Black birds LOVE empty fields so anytime we were driving and hundreds of black birds would take off from a field I would flip out.
My grandma showed me this when I was 2. She thought it was hilarious that I'd run like hell everywhere outside for months afterwards. Looking back, Granny was pretty evil. 🕊🦅🕊🦅
@Clevelandcbi oh honey, I'm so sorry that happened to you. That's a horrible thing to expose a little childs mind to. She was very wrong to do that to you AND there's no excuse for her behavior. I'm sorry she scared you when you were such a small child. XOXO ❤️ #NYGenXBikerLady
The Birds are a manifestation of Mitch's mom's internal rage and jealousy of Melanie. Mitch's mother doesn't want to lose him, so as to not be left alone, and by the end, when they are in the car, there is a bonding moment between her and Melanie, this is symbolic of her acceptance of Melanie.
27:35 For anyone who does not know, the hysterical little girl is played by Veronica Cartwright. Lambert from Alien. Hysterical seems to be her thing from the get go. LOL
From what I’ve gathered over the years, Hitchcock was just genuinely curious about the idea that such a common animal we live with and pay no mind to, could suddenly decide to turn on us and attack us in great numbers, even for no real understandable reason whatsoever. It’s a pretty terrifying thought. I think he wanted to end it with the idea that we’ll never know why, and just as quickly as it began, it could suddenly end. What’s even scarier, is that once it stops, who knows if or when they’ll decide to attack again!
Sorry but you are wrong. The point of the movie was the Love Birds were trapped in a cage. The free birds banded together because the humans had them caged up and not set free. (See my full comment above for the whole story)
@@thedragonreborn9856 - Of course. At the end of any movie... you get to use your imagination and decide what happens. My point was the Hitchcock intended you to think the birds got upset because of the two caged love birds. It all started when the first one attacked her as she dropped off the caged love birds. That was the motivation for all the attacks on humans in the rest of the movie. If she would have let them go and fly away the other birds might have stopped attacking.
@@josephwallace202-- FYI...MY comments ARE accurate. The short story was not the same as the film. I watched an interview with Hitchcock where he talked about the movie and what inspired him. He combined the real event with the other story and chose that location while visiting Bodega Bay. It's too bad that 90% of people don't get the significance of the love birds in the cage.
There was a time back in the day where ambiguous endings were very popular. It's more disturbing because it isn't wrapped up in a nice bow at the end. In real life, you don't always get to know the whys; and sometimes, there is not logical why. Much more creepy.
This movie builds tension and suspense without using words... Not just a bunch of Jump scares. So well shot and it's pretty scary here and there... I like how the ending is left up to your imagination
I saw this as a kid and I still cannot stand to see a crows/seagulls gathered together...it freaks me out completely. This is the first time I've been able to watch it since it first came out. The best scary movie EVER!
i read or heard long ago the the birds were upset seeing the two love birds being kept in a cage! that's why all the shots showing the love birds. food for thought.....
For the month of October, based on the suggestion of someone in the pre-Birds chat, I second the vote for Arsenic and Old Lace. Very funny screwball comedy with a hint of menace and some great character actors, to go along with one of the greatest leading men in film history, Cary Grant.
I used to work in a school as a teaching assistant. Once afternoon I passed by a class that was singing Risselty Rosselty, just like in The Birds. If you're very familiar with the movie, hearing kids singing this has the creepiest vibe. I half expected to see hundreds of birds massing for attack outside! 😆🐦🐦🐦
This film is based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier, by the same title. When I read it for the first time, I thought it was better than the film. You can find it online. The "why" is never stated. It's meant to be that way; think about it. 😊And if you were listening to the car radio at the end, the birds were already moving on to other towns; Bodega Bay was just the first. I think M. Night Shyamalan has said that this film was one of those on his mind while making "The Happening." If you've seen that one, you can see the connection.
I had forgotten that Suzanne Pleshett was in this movie. the inspiration to Hitchcock for this film was the real-life bird attacks in the seaside town of Capitola, California in August 1961 although the screenplay was partially based on a 1952 short story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier
My mum is kinda fascinated with this movie. She's watched it several times, once or twice with me. Classic movies can be very fascinating sometimes. The fact they had to film with hundreds of real birds in absence of any sophisticated special effects is a pretty immense filmmaking achievement.
Considering when the movie came out and what it would take to make it hundreds of birds attack people the special effects are phenomenal. They're better than some effects that came much later.
This was based on a short story (which don’t seem to be as common these days?) and more often than not the aim of these stories was not to give you a full back story, a full explanation or even a satisfying ending. It was an outlet for an author to share an idea without having to go too deeply into it. When it came to horror short stories, these sometimes had the most impact because you were left feeling very uneasy and so uncertain. It’s almost scarier to not get an answer? Obviously there are plenty of great modern horror stories but I think we’re so used to being fed every little detail or reasoning, that it can be really unsettling to watch a movie like this.
If you haven't already done so, take a look at Ray Bradbury's short stories. He wrote a ton of short horror/sci-fi stories that are so good and definitely stay with you. Some great collections to start with would be The October Country and The Illustrated Man.
Yes, they grew up in a time of Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey. The longer, the better. And you need a flow chart to figure out the hundreds of characters with all their back stories.
@@sidecardog5244 But Game of Thrones leaves a lot unexplained which causes fanboys heads to explode if they don't have endless lore and backstory to make into 'canon'. I like long stories better than short ones, but I still don't want everything explained to me.
You mean short stories are not published as much today as in those times? Or that films are not commonly based on short stories as they were in those times XD? In the second case, that's not quite true: as already mentioned, there has been some recent films that have been adapted from short stories (although, in many cases, that fact is lost to the general audience for different reasons; either the reference is buried in the credits and nobody noticed it, or studios completely remove any mention for commercial reasons). If you check some of the sci-fi films or thrillers of the last decade, you will find several surprising examples. But if you mean the first case (that short stories seem not to be that much around anymore)... that's partially true: short stories are still published in the form of books, but back in those days (when steady tv content was not that prevalent and films devoted to other more commercial topics like romance, history, the war and the wild west) there were magazines devoted entirely to publish short fiction stories of almost every kind (horror, sci-fi, crime, sword and sandal, adventure...), forcing in turn authors to be clever and decide wether they wanted to deliver an explanation in less than 10 pages or just set the story and make the reader make sense of it (with the available clues). That art has been partially lost since those magazines are no longer around and people ask for full lenght novels or entire sagas that build a universe from scratch, rather than a short glimpse that takes you by surprise, with no further context or explanation (the short story aims to offer you a view, not an entire trip; having some things unexplained is an unavoidable part of its challenge and charm).
What a cast! I don't think I knew this before today, but the little girl whose mom was a victim of the birds, the actor who played her is Veronica Cartwright. You know her from lots of things, but you can probably picture her in your head when she was the character in Alien, the blonde woman, who has a very good "I'm so petrified I'm losing my shit right now" scream. And at the time that I watched this as a kid, all of the roles I would know Jessica Tandy from would have yet to be played.
Imagine for a moment that you were watching this in a theatre filled with people and the movie ends as it does with a fade to black. In cinemas where my parents lived there was no logo, no 'the end', literally nothing after that moment... the screen just went black and the lights came on in the theatre, leaving people to shuffle outside with the unsettling feeling that any bird they saw might just be waiting for that one moment to attack... lol The ending was not only deliberate... it was genius.
Basically, Hitchcock set out to make the most purely scary movie he could. Everything was in service of the terror the birds bring to the town. So the fact that, at the end, you don't know the "why" or "what happened next" had people leaving the theater and looking around for birds in the sky; in other words, it kept the scare going even after the movie ended. I love the ambiguity at the end, though it bothered me the first time I saw it, just like it did these two.
@Adam Place I love Hitchcock as well he was a staple in my household for movies in the evening ! it is such a masterclass in suspense it begins like it's going to be a romantic comedy and then wallops you with THESE BLOODY BIRDS 😵😦 is it a MURDER OF CROWS then ? mu ha ha ha !! keep classic movies coming enjoy the spooky season CHEERS.😎
The DuMaurier story it’s based on is much the same, there are speculations about the cause but no answer, the protagonist ends listening to it spreading everywhere and then he’s alone , using a wireless radio and can find no one alive anywhere!
@@catofthecastle1681 very interesting! I think we're so used to the "radioactive spider bites the geeky teenager" scene, in today's films, that this level of ambiguity really is confusing the first time. It was for me. But it's SO much more ominous without it - a "why" gives the audience a sense of control, that there's a way to "fix" things, but without it we're helpless.
@@adamplace1414 You've hit on it. Explanations make us feel that somehow the situation can be fixed. With no explanation we can only hope our avatars, the actors, can survive.
The ambiguity, the not knot knowing what might happen next was very effective in the original Halloween. The disappearance of Michael Myers after having been stabbed, shot, and falling off the second-story balcony left the story open-ended and terrifying.
At first I thought these reactions are for morons with no life.. but I was wrong. It's like rewatching your fav movie, but saving time. I rewatch old movies FAR less than I used to. I just watch a reaction to it now... it's kind of blashbemy but I've seen them so many times anyways.... The reaction is a bonus. Plus they aren't annoying like most reactors. I especially like Carly actually. Their vidoes are well edited, and the essential scenes are 90% there. So you can follow the plot, even if you didn't quite remember everything about it
Here's my take on The Birds: HItchcock was immersed in Freudian theory. A son's relationship to his mother is something that comes up a number of times in his films, such as Strangers On A Train, North By Northwest, and most explosively in Psycho. He was also mesmerized by the idea of "the double" in many of his films.. We see this use of the psychological doubling in, once again, Strangers On A Train with Robert Walker as Farley Granger's dark double; In The Wrong Man with doppelganger humanity is a constant motif
As Roger Ebert put it, Hitchcock apparently had no agenda or propaganda in his films, and his only wish was to scare the living daylights out of the audience and play with their emotions as though they were a musical instrument - always hitting the right notes at the right time. Great reaction!
You might recognize the actress who plays Cathy (Veronica Cartwright) as she played Lambert in _Alien_ 16 years later. Also, playing Mitch's mother is Jessica Tandy, who in 1989 won an Oscar for her role in _Driving Miss Daisy._
@@DetectiveAlley I think you are confusing her with her little sister "Angela Cartwright" who was in "Lost in Space" & "The Sound of Music" There is a a strong resemblance though.
"Arsenic And Old Lace" (1944, in black and white) directed by the great director Frank Capra ("It's A Wonderful Life" and "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington"), gets a solid additional recommendation from me. The original stage play had nice long runs on both Broadway and in London back in the early 1940's. And it has been a favorite over the ensuing decades with college and community theatre groups; you should get to know this play and movie. --- And your viewers also know their Hitchcock, by the way---
This is a masterpiece that is not taken very seriously even by Hitchcock scholars (and fans). I cannot think why. This reaction proves its continuing relevance. It certainly invented (well, mostly) the whole man v. nature genre in cinema. No "Jaws" without "Birds". No "Night of the Living Dead" either, re: the house boarded up against an unfathomable enemy. I've always loved it.
I think the beginning setup is so dense that when at the end it's just oh the birds went nuts for a day, it seems like a bit of a simple payoff. I do like it though. I can see a clear influence on Stephen King.
Are you seriously arguing that this movie has been under-discussed in the last 60 years? It’s great and all - but that’s a weird take. It’s like saying The Beatles weren’t given their due.
Fun Fact: I’ve been up to Bodega Bay several times. There was a small candy shop on Hwy 1. The owner was there when they filmed the movie there. The scene where Annie Hayworth was killed, a local girl was walking home, saw the actress and fainted. Alfred Hitchcock halted filming. When the girl came to, he wanted her to see that it was make believe. They took off the makeup then reapplied it so she could see it wasn’t real. Hitchcock didn’t want the girl to have nightmares.
Carly's reactions were GOLDEN throughout the whole movie. She gradually went from watching a RomCom to watching a horror movie. LOL!! THEN, she correctly exaggerated that there was gonna be 100 crows on the school playground. 21:28 🤣 She was also joking when she said "the end" when, in fact, it was the end...much to her surprise. 36:00 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Great reaction, ladies. 😅👍🏻
The ending was genius. It makes you want to rewatch over and over again to try and figure it out. Hitchcock was no dummy. Also, love that LOTR Middle Earth blanket Cassie has.
A great reaction to a Hitchcock masterpiece. It's based on a book by the British author Daphne Du Maurier, the reason the end was left open was because it was about the characters and their story, once they drove away safely their experience ended. You should check out other, Hitchcock films post Halloween, 'North By Northwest', 'Vertigo', 'Strangers On a Train', there are many more great films but these are good ones to continue with.
@@kevinjones4559 Yes, another great Hitchcock film with Robert Donat from 1935, I like quite a lot of his earlier ones, 'Sabotage', 'The Lady Vanishes', 'Rebecca', some of his ones from the '40s are great too, my favourites are, 'Spellbound', 'Shadow of a Doubt', Saboteur'.
@@KevyNova Yes, another great film. Cassie, has done a reaction to 'Rear Window' already, have a look through her reactions on here and you will find it, she has done 'Psycho' too on this channel.
This is one of my favorite movies. I saw it by myself in the theater (my sister worked in the theater and used to let me in for free) and during the scene where Melanie Daniels was being attacked in the upstairs room, I found myself waving my arms trying to fend off the birds. About the ending, I think it's brilliant. During the movie the characters are trying to figure out why the birds are attacking and no one is coming up with an answer - because there is no answer. No one knows, and there's no way to know. How can you possibly understand the mind of a bird? So....if there's no explanation, then how can you have an ending that would satisfy the viewer? No ending is best. One other thing - before the movie came out, there was an ad campaign where it was just big signs - billboards etc - that said "The Birds Is Coming." An everyone was saying, "shouldn't it be 'the birds are coming'?" But, of course, it meant 'The Birds (movie) Is Coming" This was the first Hitchcock movie after "Psycho" so Hitch was hot and everyone was anticipating something special. Well, in my estimation, they got it.
To add to the pile of Hitchcock recommendations, I absolutely adore the film "Rope". So tense, creatively shot and well put together - and I can't find a single proper reaction to it on UA-cam.
This is your third Hitchcock reaction (Psycho, Rear Window). Personally, would rank it in the bottom half of his filmography. - North by Northwest - Vertigo - To Catch a Thief - Dial M for Murder - Frenzy - Shadow of a Doubt - Strangers on a Train - Notorious - The Lady Vanishes - Rope - Suspicion - The Wrong Man - Foreign Correspondent - Lifeboat that’s 14. There are more, but knocking off this list will turn you into a big fan.
I love the ambiguous ending! People always want an explanation or look for a culprit (even shown in the diner scene with the ladies). But what if there just is no explanation?
The ending of the real story of this film, the human story, the story of a woman and her son, and her inability to accept any other woman in his life was very emphatically and satisfyingly resolved right before your unseeing eyes. In the final scene in the car, we see Mitch's mother tenderly holding the badly injured Melonie and we realize from their brief but deeply affectionate interaction that Mother has finally found it in herself to overcome her fear of abandonment and is finally able to extend herself in a deeply caring way to another woman with whom she can happily share her love for her son.
also a funny thing that Hitchcock did in "Lifeboat", as he always had a cameo in every film... how can he be there when the whole movie is in that lifeboat??? he appears on a newspaper they have. Hitchcock was just a genius
The Birds is a fantastic film. Can't go wrong with anything Hitchcock imo. For October, I'd like to recommend Creature From The Black Lagoon. I'd love to see you both react to it.
I've always loved this movie. Something about Hitchcock films are just special. He can make some random, normal things go from quirky or innocent into something terrifying. In 'Psycho' something as relaxing and pleasant as taking a shower suddenly became terrifyingly vulnerable and creepy. In this movie he made some birds suddenly rise up and just attack. The best thing he did was give no real cause. It just...happened. I love that because there's no explanation -- no cheesy reason for it happening. It just happens and I think there being no reason for it makes it even scarier. Such a well done movie.
When I was a little boy, my parents took us to Universal Studios and the bird trainer from the movie was there, with at least 100 birds… they did a couple tricks including landing on peoples shoulders and one landed on top of a bald man’s head. I’ll never forget that day! They did train a ton of birds for this movie. There were some special effects during the attacks, enough to scare the hell out of people! My mom used to watch this when it came on late at night, and she would send me and my little sister to bed. I remember sneaking out of my room and hiding in the kitchen and watching it and my mom didn’t know I was there. The last attack on Melanie always creeps me out..
Fun Fact: it seems that ALFRED HITCHCOCK makes cameo appearances in his movies…. In this movie… he walks out of the pet store 😆and the actress TIPPI HENDREN( Melanie), is real life mother to actress Melanie Griffin.👍and Mitch ( Rod Taylor), is in another movie called TIME MACHINE, A must watch movie ♥️
As a kid this movie scared the crap out of me. BTW, Rod Taylor also stars in the original 60's movie called "The Time Machine" which is one of my all time favorites. If you haven't seen that movie, I think you would like it. I'd love to see a reaction video on it if you get the chance.
That's not just a great movie, it's incredibly profound and politically relevant for our times. I call the Democrats here in the States "Demorlocks," because of their "Great Society" programs and the welfare state. They supply the food, and the Eloi vote for them, but ultimately, the programs have caused all sorts of crippling sociological problems, much like the Reservation system for Native Americans.
Hitchcock is a master of film. He makes you scared by playing on your mind not by making you nauseous (unless of course you're scared of heights and then Vertigo might be rough 😉😳). You'll appreciate his craft after the fact.
Seeing Rod Taylor starring in this movie I like to make another recommendation: The Time Machine (George Pal, USA 1960). It's another must-see and has inspired pretty much every film that has any form of time travel involved, be it Terminator or Back to the Future. As classic as science fiction can be.
Did U notice Alfred Hitchcock strolling out of the Bird Shop? The guy who lives in Mitch's apartment was Richard Deacon (Mel Cooley ..Dick van Dyke show). Melanie drives an Aston Martin DB2/4.....James Bond drove a DB5. In the Diner the Cook called out '3 Fried Chickens ready' The Birds were listening...They were Not Pleased...=)
Certain types of movies, like horror or thrillers, it is best to leave the ending ambiguous because that can be much more powerful. It’s the audience’s imagination that makes it more terrifying. In this case, it’s best not to overthink things and just enjoy the ride .
This was the first scary movie to give me a nightmare after I saw it as a child. I've been embarassed to admit that as an adult but, after re-watching it with you, I realize I've got nothing to be ashamed of. That really was a scary movie!!!
The scene where Melanie is sitting on the bench when the birds gather and the children are singing is a masterclass of building suspense and is so eerie.
And the song choice is so haunting!
easily one of the best horror scenes ever made.
@@mattn6591 Life is so much more enjoyable if you enjoy things for what they are instead of focusing on ways to tear them down.
@@mattn6591 if you're mistaking special effects for the art of filmmaking, you have a LOT to learn.
Funny you said Melanie. Tippi Hedren is Melanie Griffiths mom!
The ending is perfect. No explanation for why the birds were attacking, and it's left up to our imagination what will happen next. That's the best kind of horror, the fear of the unknown...
These two would hate "a color out of space".
I agree totally.
Agreed. Why did it happen? Will it happen again?
If that's the one with Nicholas Cage I'm still traumatized over the mother and son merging if this is a spoiler sorry but that movie was effed up
100% agree.
Cassie: "We're starting low. Scary but not too scary."
Me: Y'all ain't ready for this.
For 1963 this movie is absolute insanity, I love how it starts off pleasant and nice, then just goes full tilt chaos and doesn’t stop.
I need to watch this for myself.
Yeah Hitchcock made the birds the backdrop of the movie for about the first half of the movie which was kind of unheard of for back then
The last shot of _The Birds_ with the gray skyline, hundreds of birds, and rays of sunshine peeking through the clouds is unreal.
Hitchcock has a nice quote about suspense.
“There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.”
there is a great analysis of Hitchcock on showing a planting of a bomb on a car and then it drives around and the audience never knows when it will blow up and kill the passengers or after they leave the car.
In an interview Tippi Hendron gave, she said that she asked Alfred Hitchcock why her character would go upstairs to investigate strange noises. His response to her: "Because I told you to."
Alfred had a serious infatuation with Tippi and he made advances. And the bird handles threw birds at her for hours and they were trained to peck at her.
When she walks into the pet store at the beginning, that's Alfred Hitchcock walking out with the two dogs. It became a tradition for him to have a cameo in his movies near the beginning.
This film is based on a short story by Daphne Du Maurier (she wrote the novel "Rebecca"). She didn't give a reason why the birds started attacking or why they stopped. That's what makes this movie so good. Hitchcock also directed a movie of Rebecca as well.
Rebecca is an excellent movie. DuMaurier knew how to set a scene and Hitchcock was a master at bringing the atmosphere of her writing to life.
Hitchcock’s first Daphne Du Maurier film was Jamaica Inn, immediately before Rebecca. Unfortunately, the star Charles Laughton had bought and now owned the rights, and both Hitchcock and Du Maurier hated how he wanted it done. Rebecca is as much as possible scene for scene a depiction of the novel, whereas The Birds retains only the title and the idea of an unexplained attack by flocks of coastal birds, the American location and all the characters and their storyline were created for the movie.
well, when this happened, there was no reason
it was only recently that they learned why the birds were attacking around California
it took 60 years to figure it out!
that's crazy!
Most reviewers agree that DeMaurier's short story "The Birds" is a metaphor for The Bombing of Britain by the Germans during WWII.
One of the things we are so used to in movies is the musical score.
This movie has so much to make it eerie and suspenseful, but the best trick Hitchcock used was to have no music at all. That absence created it's own kind of tension subconsciously. Absolutely brilliant.
Carly has some great insights and questions about Hitchcock's intentions in making this film. The first is that Hitchcock deliberately made this start like a rom-com only to turn it into a biblically apocalyptic film. Second, he wanted the film to be like something mythological, but in a modern setting. The sudden ending puts the result of all the turmoil into the consciousness of the audience in a What would you do? way. The resolution of the film is not so much about birds, but about Melanie finding a mother she can trust. The birds are symbolic about her actual mother abandoning her and about Melanie and Mitch's mother's finding resolve in that fear.
An insightful analysis. Your point about Melanie finding a mother points to how one should watch this film: not so much as a simple suspense film, but rather as a kind of myth (as you say) that exists in a place of otherness, if that makes any sense.
I like your interpretation of how Hitchcock saw the film. Read the short story by Daphne du Maurier which is quite different. She wrote a lot of great stories.
What would I do? Let the cats loose on them!
Hitchcock definitely was on a Mother kick for a while. Psycho, and then this.
I believe that in this particular film, Hitchcock wanted to emphasize the fact that often there is no answer to the question why, especially when it comes to the subject of death.
We always want a resolution and the ambiguity here is used to excellent effect.
When a loved one dies, no matter the reason, we the living must eventually accept what’s happened, whether we can find a reason or not. Even when we know the reason, the foreign and unknown realm of death doesn’t seem to make sense.
Hitchcock was, by the way, sort of a funny guy. His famous christmas card showed a beautiful alphabet on the front missing just the letter L. (There was no L. Get it?)
I love how this was filmed. No musical score, therefore, no typical foreshadowing. Just before chaos ensues, that brief, eerie moment of silence feels like a lifetime. Similar to the smell of ozone before a storm. Less is undoubtedly more.
The crows gathering on the playground is a classic move for Hitchcock. He built suspense by showing the audience the peril while keeping the character ignorant of the danger.
True. Like the ticking bomb hidden beneath the table where two guys are sat talking about baseball.
This is called Dramatic Irony.
@@speakstheobvious5769 and life is filled with it
When Tippi Hedron walks up the stairs, it’s the quintessential horror movie trope with the audience screaming “don’t go up the stairs! Don’t open that door!” 😁
You two are the perfect audience! You were completely engulfed in the plot, even the long stretch with a rather eventless romantic story (until the first gull attack) which modern audiences would probably be expected to find boring. Hitchcock would have loved to see your reactions!
See, Alfred is the master of suspense!
He left us all in suspense.
This was the jaws of it's time.
Could've been called "Beak"
There was a proposed end when them arrive San Francisco and all the Golden Gate was covered with birds but why to ruin a mistery with a simple fact?
@@saturninojosesuarezquintan7476 😊
Far superior to Jaws.
Birds are government drones...open your eyes folks the truth is out there
That was a great, fun reaction to this film. Originally there was an ending planned to show the birds beginning to attack San Francisco, but it was scrapped. Hitchcock is definitely known for his abrupt endings, and this one is no exception. My feeling after several viewings of the film is that the story really isn't about the birds, but about the human relationships -- and that part was resolved. The mother found peace and strength in caring for her new "daughter", and Melanie found a mother figure. If they do get out of there alive, this little family group will be closer than ever. Or at least that's my interpretation.
Yes. The brittle, stylized, egotistical, characters are reduced by common adversity to basic humanity by the end . Such a great movie.
Nah, it was about the killer birds lol
@@jonathans8760 good one
Excellent summary for the movie David. As you may know this short story is by Daphne du Maurier. The same women also wrote Rebecca, another film by Hitchcock. The short story is really bleak, REALLY bleak! There is no resolution in the short story either.
The birds would not have been attacking San Francisco. The car with Melanie and the family would have come around the corner to see the Golden Gate Bridge entirely covered with birds.
Wow, I didn't realize until the end the older lady providing comfort in the car is Jessica Tandy. She was an actress into her 80's. Driving Mrs. Daisy, Cocoon, Batteries Not Included, Fried Green Tomatoes; she was wonderful.
Also the main actress is the mother of Kathy Griffith and the little girl is played by Veronica Cartwright, the same actress from Alien.
@@Eric-wo8cz
Tippi Hedren is Melanie Griffiths mom, not Kathy.
Tippi Hedron is Melanie Griffith's mother. His mother is played by Jessica Tandy, the woman telling the story in "Fried Green Tomatoes" and she is Miss Daisy, "Driving Miss Daisy".
Bird photographer: Crows are really smart, but blue jays are meaner. It is a murder of crows.
who goes, "Oh, there's a couple of birds together. Let's call them a murder!"
You are right. Many people HAVE stopped asking questions, having conversations and learning because they think they can 'google' it. People learn less now because they think they 'know' everything because they have the internet so they have stopped learning altogether.
I like the ending because it’s more eerie, creepy, and mysterious not knowing why the birds did what they did.
It was just The Happening?
They kinda reveal why the birds become feral
@@beannathrach2417 Dear God no…
not knowing a real reason is scarier than showing one
Global warming
Hitchcock’s ending is brilliant. It builds to absolute suspense and then abruptly ends with no resolution, leaving the audience feeling freaked out after the film is over. Imagine people leaving the theater after watching this and seeing birds, which until now where just part of the everyday scenery, all around.
Yes, I think this ending works well. Originally, Hitchcock had a different ending planned - one that was more ambitious. Apparently, there were going to birds gathering around the Golden Gate Bridge. But he didn't have the budget for that so he had to go with an alternative ending.
Feels like the zombie movie ending where they are sailing off to some island, except in those you always see them die in the credits. Hearing of other bird attacks on other towns you never know if they survived or if humanity survives at that.
this was actually inspired by a real life event. 2 years prior to this film hoardes of seagulls suddenly rammed themselves into houses in the Monterey Bay area. The believed connection was a type of algae that releases specific toxins that cause major disorientation among other things.
Ha, I like the way Hitchcock's mind works.
If you watch the trailer/introduction of this movie done by Hitchcock, he illuded to the ways people mistreated birds. Using them as food and in less than flattering sayings, etc. Perhaps the birds just got tired of all the crap we gave them.
As a Vietnamese/Cambodian person, we have to give a huge thanks to Tippi Hendren. She is the reason there's a Vietnamese Nail Salon Empire. She was a humanitarian. In 1975, she met Tuan Le who complimented Tippi on her nails, so Tippi got her in beauty school and helped so many of us female refugees after the Vietnam War immigrating here helping them get into beauty school. The very first one was called Mantrap in South LA. There's a documentary about it called "Nailed It" (NOT TO BE CONFUSED with the Netflix show).
An Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece! It leaves us to figure out why the birds attacked. Great movie made in 1963.
The biggest laugh of the day was hearing you two saying how this was going to be only mildly scary prior to watching it. My aunt still lists this as the scariest film she has ever seen. There is a very good reason why Hitchcock is listed as one of the greatest directors of horror.
This didn't even show the scariest part of the movie. Where the old man sat in the house dead with his eyes pecked out. They cut that part out of this reaction video. I wanted to watch them jump or scream. LOL
suspense and horror
his non horror films are classics as well. north by northwest and rear window especially
@@tc-tm1my Rear Window is my favorite. Just watched "Rebecca" for the first time and wow. The Popcorn Ladies would love it.
Actually, a nice double bill for Popcorn would be "Strangers on the Train" and "Throw Momma from the Train."
Fun Fact: Alfred Hitchcock revealed on The Dick Cavett Show (1968) that 3,200 birds were trained for the movie. He said the ravens were the cleverest and the seagulls were the most vicious.
Alfred Hitchcock also wanted to give the impression of unending terror, so he did not add the usual "The End" to the film.
Also, Cathy is played by Veronica Cartwright, who played Lambert in Alien (1979). She was also in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978).
And Psycho was the first American movie to show a toilet.
And her sister was in Lost in Space and The Sound of Music.
And the "lost in Space" series
@@clevelandcbi a toilet flushing right?
One of Hitchcock's thoughts was that he liked not saying what the spies were trying to get, or in this case, the reason the birds were acting crazy. He was more interested in the people reacting to the situation. Honestly, the unresolved ending leaves you room to continue imagining after the movie ends. I wouldn't want all movies to be like that, but it's kind of cool every now and then.
The tender look and parent/child embrace between Melanie and the mother in the car at the film's end, is the emotional call-back and resolution to an earlier scene in the film where Melanie speaks bitterly about being abandoned by her own mother in childhood.
yeah
I feel like Jessica Tandy's character was very much a Hitchcock "McGuffin" in that we're initially led to believe she's going to be some kind of "Mrs. Bates" style antagonist who is out to get Melanie for being a romantic interest to her son. Same thing with Annie whom we're initially led to believe is going to be some kind of rival for Mitch's affections. Then the entire plot does a complete 360 when the birds start attacking and shows Annie to be selfless in giving her life to save Cathy and allows Lydia to be the mother figure to Melanie that she never had.
@@jamestyler7697 True. The attacks makes a slight mockery of any worries and tensions the characters had, as they face a very real threat.
@@jamestyler7697 No, the birds are the "McGuffin". Jessica Tandy and Annie are "red herrings" =)
This film came out in 1963...there were no "graphics" at that time at all. The birds were either real or were puppets for some close ups. For some of the wide shots, birds were photographed in groups and then moved to a new spot and photographed again, with all the separate pieces printed together to create the illusion of hundreds of birds. Hitchcock was on the bleeding edge of special effects for his day.
Regarding the ending, I saw Alfred Hitchcock being interviewed on a talk show about 40 years ago....maybe 45. I can't remember which talk show it was. Anyway, he said in response to people upset with the ending of The Birds, that he wanted the ending to do three things: 1) Leave the audience hanging so that when they left the movie theater (in 1963), he wanted the birds to follow them home (in their minds, in the open outdoors), so they would race home and close all their windows and doors. This was back during a time when doors and windows could be left open/unlocked while going to the movie house. Since we don't really know why the birds did what they did, the danger did not end by leaving the movie house. 2) He didn't want questions to be answered at the end....he thought it was more uncomfortable for the audience (in their minds) to question why and how did this happen.....with no answers provided.....the danger was left unchecked. 3) He wanted the abrupt ending to stun the audience, which made it more disturbing and uneven.
I read the short story the movie was based on. The original story is not that many pages long. Mr. Hitchcock expanded many things to make a 2+ hour movie.....and it worked. The book (short story) ended with an empty package of cigarettes being thrown into the blazing fireplace, as the family waited for the next wave of attacks to come.
The Bodega Bay school house is still standing and is now privately owned. You can drive by it but you can't trespass onto the grounds. Also....it is not in Bodega Bay, but in the town of Bodega, which is several miles inland and not in view of the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Hitchcock used some Hollywood magic of his day to make the school appear just up the hill from the town of Bodega Bay, which in real life it does not.
The Tides restaurant featured in the movie was a real on-location restaurant in Bodega Bay at the time. It burned down in 1968 but was rebuilt (and expanded) at the same location. The restaurant is open for business and is usually busy with locals and travelers from around the world. Here is a link to the restaurant: www.innatthetides.com/tides-wharf-restaurant .
Alfred Hitchcock loved to do cameos in his movies.
You missed him leaving the pet shop with his doggies, when Tippi Hedren entered.
I read somewhere that his appearances were initially further into his movies, but people were so busy watching for him that they were missing the movie; so, he started appearing at the beginning (like in this movie). Fun stuff.
Finally, I thought I was the only one who spotted him and his bulldog face which made him famous.
Now you can finally see Mel Brooks' "High Anxiety" and get the bird joke. But Hitchcock's "Vertigo" is another prerequisite for other jokes.
One of the best endings to a thriller - no idea why they suddenly turned vicious, and as suddenly as they started, they simply stopped.
Global warming
The heavy set man walking out of the store with dogs in the beginning of the film, he is the film director Alfred Hitchcock. In almost all of his films, he appeared incognito either as unknown character walking with the crowd, a photo of his somewhere… that was his films signature ✋🏻
So does M. Night Shyamalan.
The entire movie had no music in it. No music in the opening credits, no music in the bird attacks. The children sang a song in the school house, but they didn't sing to music. You don't notice there was no music until it's pointed out to you.
I believe the movie "Fail Safe" also had no theme or backround music. I haven't watched in a long time.
Rod Taylor was the voice of Pongo in "101 Dalmatians". Another movie he starred in that I recommend is "The Time Machine".
And Suzanne Pleshette, who played the school teacher, starred on the Bob Newhart Show. Her distinctive husky voice also made her the perfect choice to voice villains, like Yubaba in "Spirited Away".
And the sister (Cathy Brenner) was played by a very young Veronica Cartwright, who played the navigator (Lambert) in Alien.
He was unrecognisable as Churchill in 'Inglorious Basterds'!
Suzzane Pleshette also voiced Zira( Scar's wife) in the movie The lion king 2 Simba's pride
@@ajivins1 one of
Quntion Taratinos favorite actors
A legit tough aussie
A few little informational tidbits: Melanie was played by Tippi Hedron who is Melanie Griffin's mother, Mitch's mother was Jessica Tandy from Driving Miss Daisy , Cathy was Veronica Cartwright who was in Alien, and Annie was Suzanne Pleshette from the old Bob Newhart Show. Great reaction, girls.
I think these two can relate more to the fact that Tippi Hedren is Dakota Johnson’s grandmother.
Mitch’s mom is Miss Daisy!
Love your comment!!
@@jsharp3165 So true!
Uh, it's Melanie Griffith ..... Not, Melanie Griffin.
The male lead (Mitch) was played by Rod Taylor who was in the best adaptation of 'The Time Machine', which is a film I *highly* recommend for the channel.
His line as he gains confidence and speeds up the machine is a favorite of mine: "It's Intoxicating". It's telling how his scientific mind is overwhelmed and was like a school boy.
@@terrylandess6072 He really was *perfect* for the role.
Yes! The Time Machine is excellent!
Time Machine is a classic. With one of the best endings in cinema. The recent remake, even with all the CGI, pales in comparison.
One of my favorite news years day movie!
Birds have a noble history and only two important things happen in this cinematic account. The mother finally accepting Melanie, and therefore the birds cease their attack. Love conquers all. Thank you for sharing.
When you answer the why, it is no longer terrifying.
Open endings, an acquired taste but I like them...
Did you notice Hitchcock himself coming out of the door to the pet store? He was the man walking the dogs. Hitchcock liked to make brief cameos in his movies, most of them anyway.
Tippi really did have something of a breakdown due to that scene where the birds were attacking her upstairs. They shot that scene over and over again and while some of the birds were stuffed, some were real and rather angry about the situation. So she had a rough time of it and it took its toll.
Much like the actors from The Conjuring and the original Poltergeist. Several suffered trauma and PTSD due to the filming.
You can see how deeply it affected Tippi. Just check out her autograph.
Not to mention Hitchcock ruining her career.
When people realized that Hitchcock would make cameo appearances in his movies, it became a game to find him. The most interesting cameo was in his movie "Lifeboat". It was the story of a group of survivors from a boat that was sunk by a German U-boat during WWII. The whole movie takes place on that lifeboat. How could Hitchcock make a cameo appearance in a boat will only a few inhabitants? His solution was quite unique. Watch the movie and see if you can find him.
@@ronaldjohnson7855 he was on the newspaper 📰
@@forgingbridges2737 At first I thought you meant "autobiography," then I went and check out her autograph. Wow!
Edith Head was the costume designer for Tippi Hedren in The Birds. Edith Head (October 28, 1897 - October 24, 1981) was an American costume designer who won a record eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design between 1949 and 1973, making her the most awarded woman in the Academy's history. Head is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential costume designers in film history. She designed for over 500 movies in her career.
Ladies and gentlemen, Kathy "Wikipedia" K ^
And Bonus: She's an inspiration for the character Edna Mode.
@@toxicginger9936 I was going to add that! I love both Edith and Edna.
@@chiefscheider Here's something that you can't find on Wiki; I have a Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds Tippi Hedren 2008 Black Label Barbie Doll. I love the movie "The Birds" and spent a day in Bodega Bay chasing down camera shots that Alfted Hitchcock used. Edith Head is my favorite costume designer and I will always point out her work given the chance.
Edith Head was Hitchcock's favourite costume designer, she also designed the stunning costumes for Grace Kelly in Rear Window and To Catch a Thief and for Kim Novak in Vertigo.
This is hands down my favorite Hitchcock movie. Tippi Hedren is an icon, and I love the atmosphere so much.
It’s also my favorite!
Do you think Tippi is somewhat responsible for the Birds being crazy?
@@coyotefever105 Only loosely. I always thought the birds were angry to see the love birds in the cage, and that caused them to launch a crazy rescue mission to free the love birds that ultimately turned into a full on bird assault on Bodega Bay. So Melanie started everything when she brought the caged love birds to town.
@@michelle6337 Hmm. Interesting theory. I buy the one where it was something they ate like the real life inspiration
@@coyotefever105 But Daphne Du Maurier's inspiration for the story was seeing a farmer being attacked by a bird, and I don't remember the short story attributing the attacks to any food source. But high school English was a long time ago so I may be wrong.
First saw this film as a teenager with friends. It was our introduction to Hitchcock. Our mothers thought it would be fun to show us a horror film from their childhood. What I recall most was my friends laughing and teasing how they didn't find it scary. Yet for weeks after anytime we were outside they would look towards telephone wires and get a bit nervous seeing birds sitting there.
Great reaction to this classic movie!! The young actress who played Cathy was Veronica Cartwright. As an adult she was a crew member in "Alien" in 1979!!
Hedren asked Hitchcock why she would go up to the attic to investigate bird noises after everything that had occurred up to that point. Hitchcock thought for a moment, then said, "Because I tell you to."
That comment didn’t age so well. I’m familiar with the stories. It’s unfortunate.
@@coyotefever105 Indeed. I love the flick, grew up with it, and it's a real bummer to know that he was being shitty to her behind the scenes (although I understand he wasn't sexually harassing her until later, on "Marnie"-- which is not an excuse, just context).
Hitchcock was a notorious jerk who had little patience for actors. Great director still.
@@JamesWVanFleet yeah it is. I don’t personally think Hitchcock himself was a serial harasser like Weinstein was (certainly I haven’t heard of any other accusations to the level Weinstein had). I don’t know if any other times he was accused of such. I think many film lovers hold Hitchcock and his films in high regard to this day despite this controversy
Yes, women are not that stupid!
My parents put this on for my sister and I when we were around 8-10. Then we went and got fast food and drove to the beach. My stepdad threw some fries on the windshield, seagulls mobbed the hood, and my sister lost her shit. It was hilarious.
Classic!
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Excellent story lol
You should have seen me as a kid after watching this, we lived out in the country at the time surrounded by empty fields. Black birds LOVE empty fields so anytime we were driving and hundreds of black birds would take off from a field I would flip out.
"My sister lost her shit. It was hilarious." Like a true sibling hahahhaha
My grandma showed me this when I was 2. She thought it was hilarious that I'd run like hell everywhere outside for months afterwards. Looking back, Granny was pretty evil. 🕊🦅🕊🦅
Granny was wicked, indeed.
@@tedcole9936 I absolutely agree.
But imagine the joy it brought her!
Evil? You mean awesome...
@Clevelandcbi oh honey, I'm so sorry that happened to you. That's a horrible thing to expose a little childs mind to. She was very wrong to do that to you AND there's no excuse for her behavior. I'm sorry she scared you when you were such a small child. XOXO ❤️ #NYGenXBikerLady
The Birds are a manifestation of Mitch's mom's internal rage and jealousy of Melanie. Mitch's mother doesn't want to lose him, so as to not be left alone, and by the end, when they are in the car, there is a bonding moment between her and Melanie, this is symbolic of her acceptance of Melanie.
27:35 For anyone who does not know, the hysterical little girl is played by Veronica Cartwright. Lambert from Alien. Hysterical seems to be her thing from the get go. LOL
From what I’ve gathered over the years, Hitchcock was just genuinely curious about the idea that such a common animal we live with and pay no mind to, could suddenly decide to turn on us and attack us in great numbers, even for no real understandable reason whatsoever. It’s a pretty terrifying thought. I think he wanted to end it with the idea that we’ll never know why, and just as quickly as it began, it could suddenly end. What’s even scarier, is that once it stops, who knows if or when they’ll decide to attack again!
Or if they continue attacking and that guy is right and it’s the end of humanity
ITS THE END OF THE WORLD!!!
Sorry but you are wrong. The point of the movie was the Love Birds were trapped in a cage. The free birds banded together because the humans had them caged up and not set free. (See my full comment above for the whole story)
@@MegaSkills9
The whole point of the end of the movie is that we decide what happens next right??
@@thedragonreborn9856 - Of course. At the end of any movie... you get to use your imagination and decide what happens. My point was the Hitchcock intended you to think the birds got upset because of the two caged love birds. It all started when the first one attacked her as she dropped off the caged love birds. That was the motivation for all the attacks on humans in the rest of the movie. If she would have let them go and fly away the other birds might have stopped attacking.
@@josephwallace202-- FYI...MY comments ARE accurate. The short story was not the same as the film. I watched an interview with Hitchcock where he talked about the movie and what inspired him. He combined the real event with the other story and chose that location while visiting Bodega Bay. It's too bad that 90% of people don't get the significance of the love birds in the cage.
There was a time back in the day where ambiguous endings were very popular. It's more disturbing because it isn't wrapped up in a nice bow at the end. In real life, you don't always get to know the whys; and sometimes, there is not logical why. Much more creepy.
This movie builds tension and suspense without using words... Not just a bunch of Jump scares. So well shot and it's pretty scary here and there... I like how the ending is left up to your imagination
I saw this as a kid and I still cannot stand to see a crows/seagulls gathered together...it freaks me out completely. This is the first time I've been able to watch it since it first came out. The best scary movie EVER!
i read or heard long ago the the birds were upset seeing the two love birds being kept in a cage! that's why all the shots showing the love birds. food for thought.....
It's a great ending. The no explanation makes even scarier. I love when you guys react to the classics, thanks.
My 80+ year old grandmother to this day talks about how she saw this movie when it came out and how traumatizing it was
For the month of October, based on the suggestion of someone in the pre-Birds chat, I second the vote for Arsenic and Old Lace. Very funny screwball comedy with a hint of menace and some great character actors, to go along with one of the greatest leading men in film history, Cary Grant.
Me too! Arsenic and old Lace is a GREAT movie on ever level!
Yes, I agree too. " There is just not enough arsenic to go around. "
Great suggestion
Oh Cassie would love Arsenic and Old Lace. It’s such a good movie.
@@p-51d95 " Hoo-ray for B6 - Y Glamorous Glennis II ! "
I used to work in a school as a teaching assistant. Once afternoon I passed by a class that was singing Risselty Rosselty, just like in The Birds.
If you're very familiar with the movie, hearing kids singing this has the creepiest vibe. I half expected to see hundreds of birds massing for attack outside! 😆🐦🐦🐦
This film is based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier, by the same title. When I read it for the first time, I thought it was better than the film. You can find it online.
The "why" is never stated. It's meant to be that way; think about it. 😊And if you were listening to the car radio at the end, the birds were already moving on to other towns; Bodega Bay was just the first.
I think M. Night Shyamalan has said that this film was one of those on his mind while making "The Happening." If you've seen that one, you can see the connection.
I had forgotten that Suzanne Pleshett was in this movie.
the inspiration to Hitchcock for this film was the real-life bird attacks in the seaside town of Capitola, California in August 1961 although the screenplay was partially based on a 1952 short story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier
My mum is kinda fascinated with this movie. She's watched it several times, once or twice with me. Classic movies can be very fascinating sometimes.
The fact they had to film with hundreds of real birds in absence of any sophisticated special effects is a pretty immense filmmaking achievement.
Considering when the movie came out and what it would take to make it hundreds of birds attack people the special effects are phenomenal. They're better than some effects that came much later.
A lot of the birds were stuffed taxidermied birds
and the extent of SFX included some rear-screen projection in some of those scenes.
This was based on a short story (which don’t seem to be as common these days?) and more often than not the aim of these stories was not to give you a full back story, a full explanation or even a satisfying ending. It was an outlet for an author to share an idea without having to go too deeply into it. When it came to horror short stories, these sometimes had the most impact because you were left feeling very uneasy and so uncertain. It’s almost scarier to not get an answer? Obviously there are plenty of great modern horror stories but I think we’re so used to being fed every little detail or reasoning, that it can be really unsettling to watch a movie like this.
The Black Phone was a horror movie that came out recently that was based on a short story!
If you haven't already done so, take a look at Ray Bradbury's short stories. He wrote a ton of short horror/sci-fi stories that are so good and definitely stay with you. Some great collections to start with would be The October Country and The Illustrated Man.
Yes, they grew up in a time of Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey. The longer, the better. And you need a flow chart to figure out the hundreds of characters with all their back stories.
@@sidecardog5244 But Game of Thrones leaves a lot unexplained which causes fanboys heads to explode if they don't have endless lore and backstory to make into 'canon'. I like long stories better than short ones, but I still don't want everything explained to me.
You mean short stories are not published as much today as in those times? Or that films are not commonly based on short stories as they were in those times XD?
In the second case, that's not quite true: as already mentioned, there has been some recent films that have been adapted from short stories (although, in many cases, that fact is lost to the general audience for different reasons; either the reference is buried in the credits and nobody noticed it, or studios completely remove any mention for commercial reasons). If you check some of the sci-fi films or thrillers of the last decade, you will find several surprising examples.
But if you mean the first case (that short stories seem not to be that much around anymore)... that's partially true: short stories are still published in the form of books, but back in those days (when steady tv content was not that prevalent and films devoted to other more commercial topics like romance, history, the war and the wild west) there were magazines devoted entirely to publish short fiction stories of almost every kind (horror, sci-fi, crime, sword and sandal, adventure...), forcing in turn authors to be clever and decide wether they wanted to deliver an explanation in less than 10 pages or just set the story and make the reader make sense of it (with the available clues). That art has been partially lost since those magazines are no longer around and people ask for full lenght novels or entire sagas that build a universe from scratch, rather than a short glimpse that takes you by surprise, with no further context or explanation (the short story aims to offer you a view, not an entire trip; having some things unexplained is an unavoidable part of its challenge and charm).
What a cast! I don't think I knew this before today, but the little girl whose mom was a victim of the birds, the actor who played her is Veronica Cartwright. You know her from lots of things, but you can probably picture her in your head when she was the character in Alien, the blonde woman, who has a very good "I'm so petrified I'm losing my shit right now" scream. And at the time that I watched this as a kid, all of the roles I would know Jessica Tandy from would have yet to be played.
She was also the mom in Flight of the Navigator. And is the sister of Angela Cartright, from The Sound of Music and Lost in Space tv series.
Imagine for a moment that you were watching this in a theatre filled with people and the movie ends as it does with a fade to black. In cinemas where my parents lived there was no logo, no 'the end', literally nothing after that moment... the screen just went black and the lights came on in the theatre, leaving people to shuffle outside with the unsettling feeling that any bird they saw might just be waiting for that one moment to attack... lol The ending was not only deliberate... it was genius.
I love that Cassie repeated her "GET THE PRESIDENT!" line from Jaws at 26:03. That's her solution in all these animal attack movies.
Theyneed to make a t-shirt!
Basically, Hitchcock set out to make the most purely scary movie he could. Everything was in service of the terror the birds bring to the town. So the fact that, at the end, you don't know the "why" or "what happened next" had people leaving the theater and looking around for birds in the sky; in other words, it kept the scare going even after the movie ended. I love the ambiguity at the end, though it bothered me the first time I saw it, just like it did these two.
@Adam Place I love Hitchcock as well he was a staple in my household for movies in the evening !
it is such a masterclass in suspense it begins like it's going to be a romantic comedy and then wallops you with THESE BLOODY BIRDS 😵😦 is it a MURDER OF CROWS then ? mu ha ha ha !!
keep classic movies coming enjoy the spooky season
CHEERS.😎
The DuMaurier story it’s based on is much the same, there are speculations about the cause but no answer, the protagonist ends listening to it spreading everywhere and then he’s alone , using a wireless radio and can find no one alive anywhere!
@@catofthecastle1681 very interesting! I think we're so used to the "radioactive spider bites the geeky teenager" scene, in today's films, that this level of ambiguity really is confusing the first time. It was for me. But it's SO much more ominous without it - a "why" gives the audience a sense of control, that there's a way to "fix" things, but without it we're helpless.
@@adamplace1414 You've hit on it. Explanations make us feel that somehow the situation can be fixed. With no explanation we can only hope our avatars, the actors, can survive.
The ambiguity, the not knot knowing what might happen next was very effective in the original Halloween. The disappearance of Michael Myers after having been stabbed, shot, and falling off the second-story balcony left the story open-ended and terrifying.
I just love re-watching movies through new eyes. Cassie, you're the best, and Carly is, too! 💛💛
I agree,these two Ladies are such sweethearts and I'm always happy when they get together and do a movie reaction.
At first I thought these reactions are for morons with no life.. but I was wrong. It's like rewatching your fav movie, but saving time. I rewatch old movies FAR less than I used to. I just watch a reaction to it now... it's kind of blashbemy but I've seen them so many times anyways.... The reaction is a bonus. Plus they aren't annoying like most reactors. I especially like Carly actually. Their vidoes are well edited, and the essential scenes are 90% there. So you can follow the plot, even if you didn't quite remember everything about it
Here's my take on The Birds:
HItchcock was immersed in Freudian theory. A son's relationship to his mother is something that comes up
a number of times in his films, such as Strangers On A Train, North By Northwest, and most explosively in
Psycho. He was also mesmerized by the idea of "the double" in many of his films.. We see this use of the psychological doubling in, once again, Strangers On A Train with Robert Walker as Farley Granger's dark double; In The Wrong Man with
doppelganger
humanity is a constant motif
As Roger Ebert put it, Hitchcock apparently had no agenda or propaganda in his films, and his only wish was to scare the living daylights out of the audience and play with their emotions as though they were a musical instrument - always hitting the right notes at the right time. Great reaction!
You might recognize the actress who plays Cathy (Veronica Cartwright) as she played Lambert in _Alien_ 16 years later. Also, playing Mitch's mother is Jessica Tandy, who in 1989 won an Oscar for her role in _Driving Miss Daisy._
And she starred in two remakes of "Invasion of The Body Snatchers" in 1978 and 2007.
Also, “Melanie”
Dude, that's really cool info. I never knew either of those things. Thanks.
Veronica Cartwright was in a ton of TV series in the '60s. Make Room for Daddy and Lost in Space come to mind.
@@DetectiveAlley I think you are confusing her with her little sister "Angela Cartwright" who was in "Lost in Space" & "The Sound of Music" There is a a strong resemblance though.
"Arsenic And Old Lace" (1944, in black and white) directed by the great director Frank Capra ("It's A Wonderful Life" and "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington"), gets a solid additional recommendation from me. The original stage play had nice long runs on both Broadway and in London back in the early 1940's. And it has been a favorite over the ensuing decades with college and community theatre groups; you should get to know this play and movie. --- And your viewers also know their Hitchcock, by the way---
This is a masterpiece that is not taken very seriously even by Hitchcock scholars (and fans). I cannot think why. This reaction proves its continuing relevance. It certainly invented (well, mostly) the whole man v. nature genre in cinema. No "Jaws" without "Birds". No "Night of the Living Dead" either, re: the house boarded up against an unfathomable enemy. I've always loved it.
Yeah on the blu ray they compare the scene between Melanie in the phone booth and Hooper in the cage. There are definitely some similarities
I think the beginning setup is so dense that when at the end it's just oh the birds went nuts for a day, it seems like a bit of a simple payoff. I do like it though. I can see a clear influence on Stephen King.
Are you seriously arguing that this movie has been under-discussed in the last 60 years?
It’s great and all - but that’s a weird take.
It’s like saying The Beatles weren’t given their due.
Fun Fact: I’ve been up to Bodega Bay several times. There was a small candy shop on Hwy 1. The owner was there when they filmed the movie there. The scene where Annie Hayworth was killed, a local girl was walking home, saw the actress and fainted. Alfred Hitchcock halted filming. When the girl came to, he wanted her to see that it was make believe. They took off the makeup then reapplied it so she could see it wasn’t real. Hitchcock didn’t want the girl to have nightmares.
Carly's reactions were GOLDEN throughout the whole movie. She gradually went from watching a RomCom to watching a horror movie. LOL!! THEN, she correctly exaggerated that there was gonna be 100 crows on the school playground. 21:28 🤣
She was also joking when she said "the end" when, in fact, it was the end...much to her surprise. 36:00 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Great reaction, ladies.
😅👍🏻
The ending was genius. It makes you want to rewatch over and over again to try and figure it out. Hitchcock was no dummy. Also, love that LOTR Middle Earth blanket Cassie has.
A great reaction to a Hitchcock masterpiece. It's based on a book by the British author Daphne Du Maurier, the reason the end was left open was because it was about the characters and their story, once they drove away safely their experience ended. You should check out other, Hitchcock films post Halloween, 'North By Northwest', 'Vertigo', 'Strangers On a Train', there are many more great films but these are good ones to continue with.
All these recommendations are excellent! I second them!
The 39 Steps is a great early Hitchcovk. He appears as a passenger on a bus.
@@kevinjones4559 Yes, another great Hitchcock film with Robert Donat from 1935, I like quite a lot of his earlier ones, 'Sabotage', 'The Lady Vanishes', 'Rebecca', some of his ones from the '40s are great too, my favourites are, 'Spellbound', 'Shadow of a Doubt', Saboteur'.
And Rear Window! They are all great but Vertigo messed me up for like a week after watching it.
@@KevyNova Yes, another great film. Cassie, has done a reaction to 'Rear Window' already, have a look through her reactions on here and you will find it, she has done 'Psycho' too on this channel.
Melanie Daniel is portrayed by Tippi Hadren who is Melanie Griffith’s mom and Dakota Johnson’s grandmother. Many generations of actors.
And Paris Hilton's doppelganger.
This is one of my favorite movies. I saw it by myself in the theater (my sister worked in the theater and used to let me in for free) and during the scene where Melanie Daniels was being attacked in the upstairs room, I found myself waving my arms trying to fend off the birds. About the ending, I think it's brilliant. During the movie the characters are trying to figure out why the birds are attacking and no one is coming up with an answer - because there is no answer. No one knows, and there's no way to know. How can you possibly understand the mind of a bird? So....if there's no explanation, then how can you have an ending that would satisfy the viewer? No ending is best.
One other thing - before the movie came out, there was an ad campaign where it was just big signs - billboards etc - that said "The Birds Is Coming." An everyone was saying, "shouldn't it be 'the birds are coming'?" But, of course, it meant 'The Birds (movie) Is Coming" This was the first Hitchcock movie after "Psycho" so Hitch was hot and everyone was anticipating something special. Well, in my estimation, they got it.
To add to the pile of Hitchcock recommendations, I absolutely adore the film "Rope". So tense, creatively shot and well put together - and I can't find a single proper reaction to it on UA-cam.
If you want some “tame” horror movies you can’t go wrong with the classic Universal monster movies.
This is your third Hitchcock reaction (Psycho, Rear Window). Personally, would rank it in the bottom half of his filmography.
- North by Northwest
- Vertigo
- To Catch a Thief
- Dial M for Murder
- Frenzy
- Shadow of a Doubt
- Strangers on a Train
- Notorious
- The Lady Vanishes
- Rope
- Suspicion
- The Wrong Man
- Foreign Correspondent
- Lifeboat
that’s 14. There are more, but knocking off this list will turn you into a big fan.
I'd save Frenzy.
Autumn is The Trouble With Harry weather
@@BubbaCoop Good observation. I’m cool with that.
Like so many others were saying in the chat, you really should react to Arsenic and Old Lace. You'll love it.
It was on TCM last night!
I love the ambiguous ending! People always want an explanation or look for a culprit (even shown in the diner scene with the ladies). But what if there just is no explanation?
The ending of the real story of this film, the human story, the story of a woman and her son, and her inability to accept any other woman in his life was very emphatically and satisfyingly resolved right before your unseeing eyes. In the final scene in the car, we see Mitch's mother tenderly holding the badly injured Melonie and we realize from their brief but deeply affectionate interaction that Mother has finally found it in herself to overcome her fear of abandonment and is finally able to extend herself in a deeply caring way to another woman with whom she can happily share her love for her son.
They did mention that bonding moment
Yes, the sisters "mentioned" the bonding moment, but they completely failed to understand its significance..too bad.@@ammaleslie509
One of my favorite Hitchcock films is the very under rated "Lifeboat"
Very suspenseful! The whole movie takes place in....you guessed it! A Lifeboat.
Not to many know of that film, but it is excellent. I second your recommendation!
also a funny thing that Hitchcock did in "Lifeboat", as he always had a cameo in every film... how can he be there when the whole movie is in that lifeboat??? he appears on a newspaper they have.
Hitchcock was just a genius
The Birds is a fantastic film. Can't go wrong with anything Hitchcock imo. For October, I'd like to recommend Creature From The Black Lagoon. I'd love to see you both react to it.
Yessssss, Creature from the Black Lagoon is amazing!
Agreed. I love that film. She should definitely watch that
I've always loved this movie. Something about Hitchcock films are just special. He can make some random, normal things go from quirky or innocent into something terrifying. In 'Psycho' something as relaxing and pleasant as taking a shower suddenly became terrifyingly vulnerable and creepy. In this movie he made some birds suddenly rise up and just attack. The best thing he did was give no real cause. It just...happened. I love that because there's no explanation -- no cheesy reason for it happening. It just happens and I think there being no reason for it makes it even scarier. Such a well done movie.
When I was a little boy, my parents took us to Universal Studios and the bird trainer from the movie was there, with at least 100 birds… they did a couple tricks including landing on peoples shoulders and one landed on top of a bald man’s head. I’ll never forget that day! They did train a ton of birds for this movie. There were some special effects during the attacks, enough to scare the hell out of people! My mom used to watch this when it came on late at night, and she would send me and my little sister to bed. I remember sneaking out of my room and hiding in the kitchen and watching it and my mom didn’t know I was there. The last attack on Melanie always creeps me out..
Fun Fact: it seems that ALFRED HITCHCOCK makes cameo appearances in his movies…. In this movie… he walks out of the pet store 😆and the actress TIPPI HENDREN( Melanie), is real life mother to actress Melanie Griffin.👍and Mitch ( Rod Taylor), is in another movie called TIME MACHINE, A must watch movie ♥️
As a kid this movie scared the crap out of me. BTW, Rod Taylor also stars in the original 60's movie called "The Time Machine" which is one of my all time favorites. If you haven't seen that movie, I think you would like it. I'd love to see a reaction video on it if you get the chance.
That's not just a great movie, it's incredibly profound and politically relevant for our times. I call the Democrats here in the States "Demorlocks," because of their "Great Society" programs and the welfare state. They supply the food, and the Eloi vote for them, but ultimately, the programs have caused all sorts of crippling sociological problems, much like the Reservation system for Native Americans.
That would be excellent. A compare-and-contrast with the remake would be interesting too.
I agree
Rod Taylor is a legit tough guy awesome underated actor
Hitchcock is a master of film. He makes you scared by playing on your mind not by making you nauseous (unless of course you're scared of heights and then Vertigo might be rough 😉😳). You'll appreciate his craft after the fact.
Seeing Rod Taylor starring in this movie I like to make another recommendation:
The Time Machine (George Pal, USA 1960).
It's another must-see and has inspired pretty much every film that has any form of time travel involved, be it Terminator or Back to the Future. As classic as science fiction can be.
Did U notice Alfred Hitchcock strolling out of the Bird Shop?
The guy who lives in Mitch's apartment was Richard Deacon (Mel Cooley ..Dick van Dyke show).
Melanie drives an Aston Martin DB2/4.....James Bond drove a DB5.
In the Diner the Cook called out '3 Fried Chickens ready' The Birds were listening...They were Not Pleased...=)
In 1963 this movie was HUGE! Audiences had never seen anything like it. The highlights were the school yard and gas station scenes.
Certain types of movies, like horror or thrillers, it is best to leave the ending ambiguous because that can be much more powerful. It’s the audience’s imagination that makes it more terrifying. In this case, it’s best not to overthink things and just enjoy the ride .
I find it quite common that modern audiences seem to need detailed closure. There is no 'truth' to be found.
Rod Taylor was an Australian actor who's last role was in Quinton Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards, playing Sir Winston Churchill.
didn't know he was Australian, good to know
Wow, had no idea!
@@rockero1313 he was an Australian who was known for pulling off so many good accents
I love how Carly was defending her head from an invisible bird attack 32:49 😂🤣
This was the first scary movie to give me a nightmare after I saw it as a child. I've been embarassed to admit that as an adult but, after re-watching it with you, I realize I've got nothing to be ashamed of. That really was a scary movie!!!
Same. This terrified me as a four year old.
“So the birds just become the new owners of Bodega Bay?”
😂😂😂 I never thought of it that way before.
This was such a great reaction. ❤
Bodega Bay is a real place on the California coast. I have been there twice and it is always home to a ton of of birds.