Post by Z451 on Jun 17, 2014 1:44:31 GMT
The Birds
Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), a young socialite, meets Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a San Francisco pet shop.
Mitch wants to purchase a pair of lovebirds for his sister's eleventh birthday, but the shop has none.
He recognizes Melanie from a previous encounter, but she does not remember him, so he plays a prank by pretending to mistake her for a salesperson.
She is infuriated when she realizes this, even though she also likes to play practical jokes.
Intrigued, Melanie finds out that Mitch lives in Bodega Bay, purchases a pair of lovebirds, and takes the long drive to the bay.
She secretly deposits the bird cage inside Mitch's mother's house, with a note.
Mitch spots her on the water during her retreat, and manages to talk to her after she is attacked and injured by a seagull.
Mitch invites her to dinner, and she hesitantly agrees.
Melanie develops a relationship with Mitch, his widowed mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy) and his younger sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright).
She also befriends local school teacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette), who is Mitch's ex-lover.
When Melanie stays for the night at Annie's house, they are startled by a loud thud; a gull has killed itself by flying into the front door.
At Cathy's birthday party the next day, the children are set upon by seagulls.
The following evening, sparrows invade the Brenner home through the chimney.
The next morning Lydia goes to visit a neighboring farmer Dan Fawcett who has had trouble with his chickens like Lydia.
She discovers his carcass, with his eyes pecked out when the birds assaulted his house.
She flees the scene in terror.
After being comforted by Melanie and Mitch, Lydia is concerned about Cathy's safety at school.
Melanie drives there and waits for class to end, initially unaware that a huge number of crows are massing nearby.
Horrified when she sees the playground engulfed by them, she warns Annie, and they evacuate the children.
However, the motion of the children evacuating the schoolhouse stirs the crows, and the birds attack, injuring several children.
Melanie meets Mitch at a local restaurant. Several patrons describe their own encounters with strange bird behaviour.
A drunk believes the attacks are a sign of the Apocalypse, and a traveling salesman suggests exterminating them all.
An expert ornithologist dismisses the reports of attacks as fanciful and argues about it with Melanie.
A young mother becomes increasingly distressed by the conversation and chides them all for frightening her children.
Suddenly the birds begin to attack the people outside of the restaurant.
At a nearby gas station, a motorist is attacked by the birds while filling his car with gasoline; he is knocked unconscious and the gasoline pours out onto the street.
The salesman from the restaurant, unaware that he is standing in a puddle of the gasoline, lights a cigar and drops the lit match.
The gasoline ignites, killing him.
The birds attack in greater numbers as people pour from the diner to survey the damage; Melanie is forced to take refuge in a phone booth as the birds create chaos outside, stabbing and pecking people and causing traffic accidents and many severe injures.
Mitch rescues her and they return to the restaurant, where the hysterical mother accuses Melanie of being "evil" and causing the attacks, and the ornithologist sits in silence.
Melanie and Mitch return to Annie's house and find that Annie has been killed by birds while pushing Cathy indoors to safety.
Melanie and the Brenners barricade themselves inside the Brenner home.
The house is attacked by waves of birds, which several times nearly break in through the sealed doors and windows.
During a nighttime lull between attacks, Melanie hears noises from the upper floor.
Not wanting to disturb the others' sleep, Melanie enters Cathy's abandoned bedroom and finds that the birds have broken through the roof.
They violently attack her, trapping her in the room until Mitch comes to her rescue.
She is badly injured and nearly catatonic; Mitch insists they must get her to a hospital.
A sea of birds ripple menacingly around the Brenner farm as Mitch prepares Melanie's car for their escape.
The radio reports the spread of bird attacks to nearby communities, and suggests that the National Guard may be required because civil authorities are unable to combat the inexplicable attacks.
The film concludes ambiguously, as the car carrying Melanie, the Brenners and the lovebirds slowly makes its way through a landscape where tens of thousands of birds are perched.
For the moment, they are not attacking.
Links
The Hitchcock Zone
AMC Filmsite
Copyright Owner
Universal Pictures
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