The Birds (1963), dir. Alfred Hitchcock, Alfred J, Productions/Universal Pictures
Moving into the 1960's, the days of the Universal Monsters were offically over but that doesn't mean they were finished with horror.
Socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) has a meet-cute moment with lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) at a pet shop. After a lengthy bit, during which my patience was sorely pushed, Melanie buys the lovebirds Mitch was hoping to buy for his sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright)'s birthday.
Melanie takes a boat to Bodega Bay, hoping to surprise Mitch and in the least subtle bit of foreshadowing, she gets attacked by a seagull. It's only a slight injury but she's still unnerved by it.
The reunion with Mitch is chilly, as his mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy) is there and the old woman has OPINIONS on everything, especially how Mitch lives his life both professionally and personally, a fact that Mitch's old girlfriend Annie (Suzanne Pleshette) can sadly attest.
Cathy's birthday party drags on for a bit, at least until the gulls launch a frontal assault. Melanie opts to have dinner with the Brenners but sparrows break in via the chimney. Mitch insist she spend the night and head back first thing in the morning.
The next day, Lydia marches over to her neighbor as her chickens are eating like they used to; his eyeless corpse tells her of bigger problems. She worries about Cathy but Melanie insists she'll pick her up from school right now. It's a good thing too, as the army of crows that have moved into the schoolyard are looking rather easily angered.
The school gets evacuated, but tensions are mounting at the local diner where most of the locals are holding up. When the gas station gets blown up, some of the locals even blame Melanie for all the trouble. Can anyone stop...the birds?
Hit and miss. The build up can be seen as either mounting tension or an exercise in tedium. Our leads are also lacking in anything likeable and in one case, common sense. "Why am I going into the attic?"
"Because I said so"
The last half of the film, however, makes up for the first half and is genuinely some of the most terrifying things Hitchcock had done up to that point. He was no longer a director who did a few suspense things. No, from now on this and the earlier Psycho (1960) made Hitchcock a HORROR director.
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