When Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" became real on set

Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" is considered an classic of the horror-thriller genre. Inspired by bird attacks in coastal towns the movie became an blockbuster. However also off-camera the horror continued.

It must have been an moment of inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock as he went through an newspaper report in 1961, reporting about several bird attacks in the coastal town of Pleasure Point. At around two o'clock in the morning, the inhabitants were torn from their sleep by screams and blows against the walls of their houses, it was said. According to the report, the residents had stepped outside the door with flashlights, and discovered their village was full of birds. Some of the animals that had crashed into cars and walls were lying injured on the ground. Many others gave the impression of panicking – they injured the inhabitants with their beaks and claws.

Crows are now not the most terrifying animals, we are pretty used to them in our daily life. But some has to imagine how terrifying it has to be seeing dozens then not hundreds of crows attacking you and your neighbors. Something Alfred Hitchcock definitely seemed to imagine clearly in his head, as he probably figured out the scenes for one of his most popular movies.

As the ideas probably filled the notebooks, Hitchcock personally called the Santa Cruz Sentinel for get further details. Hitchcock always had an eye for making all kind of scenarios to horrific entertainers. Even better, he made those things horrific we usually see as normal. Crows became better monsters then anything else, because Hitchcock had the idea.

After successful projects of the 50s such as "Vertigo" or "Over the Rooftops of Nice", the Briton had achieved an artistic and commercial mega-success with "Psycho" in 1960. It had finally catapulted him to the top of Hollywood, but as is the case with such things – Hitchcock also found it difficult to build on this. However now, all of a sudden, it seemed possible to him. And so he quickly set about implementing his idea of the wild animals that make people's lives hell, without anyone knowing why. The result was released in American cinemas in March 1963 and in German cinemas on 20 September of that year.

The rest of the plot is relatively straightforward, because it's all about the fact that strange things are going on in Bodega Bay with birds, and here especially with crows. They enter the house through the chimney, slowly gather on scaffolding, and then attack children on their way home – an truly iconic scene. Above all, however, hovers the aggression of the people, who despair of not being able to interpret the behavior of the birds. Of course, this raged much more than a beast like Tarantula, which mutated into oversize after a nuclear catastrophe, because there was at least an explanation for the monster spider.

But Hitchcock wanted no explanation, but rather he wanted full horror by leaving any explanation open for the viewer. The moment in which a local resident yells at Melanie Daniels that only since she has been here has the animals behaved badly: "They are evil!" Alfred Hitchcock had once again succeeded in deep-frying the nerve endings of his viewers – and even without a body count. Of course, the thrill came at a price for moviegoers: the set was anything but comfortable. It all started when Grace Kelly, as – let's say it – the director's favourite blonde, had opted for a moderately pleasant existence as a princess in Monaco.

That's why the Brit had to make do with model Tippi Hedren. He had noticed it in a commercial for diet drinks – and because diamonds are only created under the highest pressure, "Hitch" put so much pressure on her with his perfectionism on set that she was on the verge of capitulation. The scene with the attack under the roof alone took seven days, with a raven injuring Hedren in the face, causing her to break down crying: "That was the worst week of my life," Hedren said afterwards.

Credibility was given to these words by the fact that the new star was in the hospital from exhaustion for a week afterwards. As for the male lead, Hitchcock wanted Cary Grant and got Rod Taylor, that's all you really need to know. Unlike after "Psycho", the US press refused to celebrate the work, "Time" even wrote grandiosely about "senseless action". With a box office result of five million dollars, the work was not as successful as "Psycho", but "The Birds" still recorded considerable profits in the long run.

The master himself addressed his audience in a four-minute clip that replaced the trailer. There he philosophized about the relationship between humans and birds in general – with the sarcastic punch line that the animals had homo sapiens sapiens to thank for being locked up in cages or shot to death for amusement while hunting. Alfred Hitchcock called "The Birds" his "most terrifying film."

Compared to works like "Vertigo" or "Psycho", this is certainly in the eye of the beholder. But if you take into account how many of our contemporaries eyed our feathered friends more suspiciously than before, this certainly speaks for the thesis of the man who didn't need an elaborate story or brute force to shock his audience.