Yes, the attack at the Brenner house was more effective than some of the earlier attacks, because it was indeed silent and lacking those awful fake bird sounds.
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Well, I am speaking to the attack that has a LOT of sounds -- that was the idea. We barely see any birds at all -- just the gull that breaks through and attacks Taylor's hand. All of the rest of it is the noise of the fake bird sounds, with the Brenners and Melanie running around and hiding in corners from "nothing to see." (Hitchcock had drummers positioned around the soundstage to give the actors "sound cues" to run from here to there.)
There IS a humming silence to Melanie's ascent up the stairs, and then the birds attack in "semi-silence"(just he the flutter of feathers.) And the long final sequence of Mitch tip-toeing to the convertible is "humming silence," too.
It occurs to me that there are FOUR bird attacks at the Brenner house in the movie. Three inside -- the sparrows down the chimney; the mass attack via sound-only; and the upstairs room attack on Melanie -- and one outside (the birthday party.) Only three attacks away from the Brenner home - the school, downtown at the Tides, and the one little peck on Melanie's forehead in the motorboat that starts it all.
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Same for the ravens and seagulls massing in the playground, the creepiest moments are when the birds are silent.
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They are like a motor revving on a car, humming away until the attacks suddenly begin. Part of the suspense in The Birds is wondering WHEN they will stop just sitting around and suddenly go murderous. I also like the idea that the bird attacks are likened to other events in nature: storms. Notice how storms begin with a clear sky, then clouds gathering, then heavy, dark clouds -- then the storm unleashes. And ends. And it all builds up again. Just like the birds -- which are here at once linked to other events in "nature" and, perhaps, to the force of God.
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ecarle (14979)
7 years ago
And he could have done a lot with real bird sounds there, BTW. The crows and ravens of northern California make some very strange sounds - rattles and croaks and clacks and gurgles, in addition to the kawing and shrieking. Imagine a few subtle sounds like that during the playground scenes...
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That would be great -- and I'm not familiar with the real sounds of those Northern California birds as you are, but they certainly sound like they would be different. I guess all I can say is that The Birds was a MASSIVELY difficult production for Hitchcock to mount VISUALLY -- getting all those birds to do all those things(whether real birds, puppet birds, or animation birds) and he probably decided to use that one machine to produce stylized bird sounds that he could control right there at the studio.
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