The Birds

The Birds

Release Date

1963

Director

  • Alfred Hitchcock

Cast

  • Rod Taylor
  • Tippi Hedren
  • Suzanne Pleshette

A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness.

Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 classic, about frenzied feathered flocks that terrorize a quiet community, is one of the Master of Suspense's most anxiety-inducing films. After chic socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) meets handsome lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a San Francisco bird shop, she pursues him to the small California coastal town of Bodega Bay, where he spends weekends with his possessive mother (Jessica Tandy) and younger sister. Shortly after she arrives, a seagull swoops down and pecks her on the forehead. Gradually, ordinary birds in the hundreds and then thousands alight on the town and start attacking everyone and everything with increasing aggression.



Past Programs

2011

Animal Defensive Behavior

Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA

2013

The Evolution of Birds

The Nickelodeon, Columbia, SC

2016

Bird Brains

MSP Film Society, Minneapolis, MN

2018

The society of birds

The Gem, Bethel, ME

2022

The molecular evolution of birds

Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA

2023

For the birds

Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT

2024

What's the deal with these birds?

Austin Film Society, Austin, TX