Wonkette Movie Night: The Birds

A murder on the playground!

A large flock of birds perched in one place tends to creep people out. I have noticed this with pigeons in my Washington Heights neighborhood and my first thought is always The Birds. Many of us watched this ornithological opus when we were too young to be viewing something so frightening and intense. And I doubt I am not the only one it scared shitless while at the same time helping to foster a love for scary movies. Sorry, I egret the use of fowl language.

Photo credit: Sketchy Pigeons by ziggywiggy.

The Birds is based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier, from her 1952 compilation The Apple Tree. The original story was set after WWII and centered around a farm worker, his family, and community being assailed by birds on the Cornish coast.

Director Alfred Hitchcock changed the story’s focus from the struggles of those after the war fighting more than nature to the tale of some wealthy people battling birds on the California coast. Hitchcock may have been influenced by a real life event in the town of Capitola, CA, on August 18, 1961, when hundreds of seabirds dubbed Sooty Shearwaters smashed into homes and attacked residents for several hours. The culprit causing the bad behavior was a neurotoxin called domoic acid produced by Pseudo-nitzschia, a type of phytoplankton. The toxin worked its way up the food chain to the birds, poisoning their brains.

So the next time you see a host of sparrows, a scream of swifts, a murder of crows, or a scold of jays you might want to run and not walk away. Because to quote Mrs. Bundy the ornithologist,

Because there are 8,650 species of birds in the world today, Mr. Carter. It is estimated that 5,750,000,000 birds live in the United States alone. The five continents of the world probably contain more than 100,000,000,000 birds!

I have never known birds of different species to flock together. The very concept is unimaginable. Why, if that happened, we wouldn't stand a chance! How could we possibly hope to fight them?

Hey, we could use that different species flocking together idea to vote the Yellow Crested Orange Faced Cock into extinction.

Now I understand what A Flock of Seagulls was singing about!

The Birds stars Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Veronica Cartwright, and Suzanne Pleshette. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

The Birds is available for free on the Internet Archive. $3.99 in the usual places.

To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules, go to WonkMovie.

Tonight’s cartoon is an animated short created by Pixar in 2000, For The Birds.

Join me tomorrow on ziggy’s stack for Series Sundays, watching Firefly episode 5.