The Birds

"...and remember, the next scream you hear may be your own!"

1963 1h 59m EN

🙌

7.5

BANGER

🔥

95%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.6

IMDB

★7.5TMDB · 4,598🍅95%Rotten Tomatoes●90Metacritic★7.6IMDB · 218,791

HorrorThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Thousands of birds flock into a seaside town and terrorize the residents in a series of deadly attacks.

“...and remember, the next scream you hear may be your own!”

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Cast

Tippi Hedren
Melanie Daniels
Rod Taylor
Mitch Brenner
Jessica Tandy
Lydia Brenner
Suzanne Pleshette
Annie Hayworth
Veronica Cartwright
Cathy Brenner
Ethel Griffies
Mrs. Bundy
Charles McGraw
Sebastian Sholes
Ruth McDevitt
Mrs. MacGruder

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: Evan Hunter, Daphne du Maurier
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $2.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 4.6× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

63 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Birds Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, shot by Robert Burks. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor George Tomasini shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor and Jessica Tandy carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "...and remember, the next scream you hear may be your own!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Alfred Hitchcock directs. Robert Burks behind the camera. George Tomasini cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $2.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Made its money back 4.6× over at the box office.
363 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Part of the "The Birds Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, shot by Robert Burks. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Editor George Tomasini shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor and Jessica Tandy carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "...and remember, the next scream you hear may be your own!".
9IMDB entry: tt0056869 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 16 themes, including "pet shop", "seclusion", "playground", "fireplace".

The technical file

Cinematography: Robert Burks
Editing: George Tomasini
Production design: Robert F. Boyle
Costume design: Edith Head
Makeup / hair: Virginia Darcy
Runtime: 119 min · 1h 59m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $2,500,000
Box office: $11,500,000
Return: 460% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: The Birds (1963)
Rotten Tomatoes: 95% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 90/100
IMDB rating: 7.6/10 · 218,791 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

Nominated for 1 Oscar. 5 wins & 7 nominations total

Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

The Birds Collection

Also by

Alfred Hitchcock

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2018-12-09
★ 8/10
Birds of a different feather do indeed flock together. The Birds is directed by Alfred Hitchcock and adapted to screenplay by Evan Hunter from the story of the same name written by Daphne du Maurier. It stars Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette, Jessica Tandy, Veronica Cartwright and Ethel Griffies. Cinematography is by Robert Burks and editing by George Tomasini. Mother's love? Better to be ditched or loved? When animals attack! The only outright horror movie that Alfred Hitchcock ever directed, The Birds sees the great man get the utmost terror from something so amiable in our lives - Birds! Modern day critics can hark on about it being dated all they like, it still doesn't detract from what a frenzied experience "The Birds" can still be - let alone what it did for cinema goers in 1963! Admittedly upon small screen ventures too much is missed or under enhanced, which is a crying shame. But it isn't dark Annie! It's a full moon. Plotting is simple in trajectory terms. Hip socialite Melanie Daniels (Hedren) has a friendly vocal joust in a pet shop with handsome Mitch Brenner (Taylor), the result of which sees Melanie, on a mischievous whim, buy a couple of lovebirds and set off for Mitch's weekend retreat out in Bodega Bay to deliver them as a show of devilish womanhood. Upon arrival in Bodega Bay, though, Melanie seems to be the spark for the birds in the area to start attacking humans, and pretty soon the attacks escalate and intensify... Hitchcock and Hunter offer up no reasons or answers for what occurs in Bodega Bay (to keep it murky we learn late on via radio that other towns become affected), and famously the ending is open ended as well, forcing the audience to unravel ideas themselves. There's no musical score in the film, thus Hitchcock gets the terror and tension out of editing, bird effects and unholy sounds. The pacing is also a key area, it's a good hour before things go decidedly nasty, the wait keeps the viewer on edge, we seriously get to know the principal characters (the actors worked well by Hitch) and then the terror is unleashed. Perfect. Hitchcock's skill at staging a memorable scene is well evident here. The climbing frame that sees one crow arrive, cutaway as Melanie smokes on a bench, back to the frame and now it's four crows, cutaway, back, and five crows – eight – then a "murder of crows". The birds first attack at the birthday party, the telephone kiosk, gas station mayhem, the birds swooping into view above the school roof and the POV viewpoint as we join a bird hovering above a town under siege, all great scenes, as is the crowning glory that is the eerie silence that accompanies the edge of your seat finale. Motifs are plentiful, from Mothers to sexuality, from broken crockery - to glass - to abandonment fears, Hitch has fun, especially with the human interactions, or lack of in certain scenes. It's a film that cries out for analysis, such is the director's want, in turn it's a riveting horror picture and a crafty enigma. It sounded daft as a basic idea for a film, and some must have thought Hitchcock had missed the boat of the creature feature boom of the 50s. Yet "The Birds" stands tall and proud as a damn fine piece of film from a true maestro of his craft, one of his last true classics and still today, over 50 years after its release, the film provokes theory discussion and visual terror in equal measure. 9/10
JPV8522020-09-12
★ 6/10
Certainly has some creepy imagery and the acting was mostly passable, and I guess it works as a B-movie horror-thriller, but I never really found the birds all that terrifying. Probably the lower end of the Hitchcock movies I've seen. 3.25/5
RetroSpyGadget2021-05-16
Terrific horror film! Terrific film! But my impression is that The Birds is not really about the birds. To me this movie is all about the characters, their stories and finding something they didn't expect to find in each others. They felt real to me, they evolved and changed alongside their relationship with each others. In the end, even though they are going through hell, they managed to find some closure.