Skip to content
The Birds

File:The_Birds_original_poster.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ110043· pop 60· linked from 463 articles

Also known as Birds

1963 film by Alfred Hitchcock

OverviewAI-generated

The Birds is a 1963 American film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. The cast includes Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, and Suzanne Pleshette. Evan Hunter and Daphne du Maurier served as screenwriters, with Bernard Herrmann composing the music. Robert Burks was the director of photography, and George Tomasini edited the film. The production was handled by Universal Pictures, which also distributed the movie.

Set in San Francisco, California, the narrative follows thousands of birds that flock into a seaside town to terrorize residents. The film was shot in San Francisco and Bodega. It is classified as an adventure, horror, mystery, and thriller film. The runtime is 119 minutes, and the original language is English.

The film received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. It has a TMDb vote average of 7.5 based on 4,464 votes and an IMDb rating of 7.6 from 220,530 votes. The production budget was 2,500,000, with a revenue of 11,500,000.

Synthesized by Vinony from 40 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Film · TMDB

7.5

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

Released: 1963-03-28119 minDir: Alfred HitchcockHorror, ThrillerBudget: $2.5MBox office: $11.5MPart of: The Birds Collection

Cast

  • Tippi Hedren as Melanie Daniels
  • Rod Taylor as Mitch Brenner
  • Jessica Tandy as Lydia Brenner
  • Suzanne Pleshette as Annie Hayworth
  • Veronica Cartwright as Cathy Brenner
  • Ethel Griffies as Mrs. Bundy

Themes

  • pet shop
  • seclusion
  • playground
  • fireplace
  • seagull
  • bird attack
  • socialite
  • based on short story
  • practical joke
  • schoolteacher

This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.

Ratings

IMDb

7.6/10

220,530 votes

Year
1963
Runtime
119 min
Genres
Drama, Horror, Mystery

via IMDb

~31 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The Birds is a 1963 American natural horror film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, released by Universal Pictures and starring Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, and introducing Tippi Hedren in her film debut. Loosely based on the 1952 short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, it focuses on a series of sudden and unexplained violent bird attacks on the people of Bodega Bay, California, over the course of a few days. The screenplay is by Evan Hunter, who was told by Hitchcock to develop new characters and a more elaborate plot while keeping du Maurier's title and concept of unexplained bird attacks.

While it initially received mixed reviews when originally released, its reputation improved over time and it has since been considered to be one of the greatest horror films of all time. At the 36th Academy Awards, Ub Iwerks was nominated for Best Special Effects for his work on the film. The award, however, went to the only other nominee, Emil Kosa Jr., for Cleopatra. Hedren won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress for her role in the film. In 2016, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in its National Film Registry.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Birds” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (8)