Continuing the theme of birds of occurring in Alfred Hitchcock films. In this blog the films that will be discussing will be Suspicion, Spellbound, and Jamaican Inn. All three of these films starting in 1939 (Jamaican Inn) Suspicion (1941) and Spellbound (1945). All three of these are around the same time era, and similar in certain ways.
First of all, Spellbound. About half way through the film when Dr. Edwards, and Dr. Petersen get to Rome Georgia, and go to their room to sleep for the night. The two have an intense talk, and then kiss. During this scene there are birds in the background of the room. This indicates some sort of chaos is going to occur. Dr. Edwards who seems to be crazy as it is, gets out of bed and goes to the bathroom. He comes out with a razor blade and has that crazy look in his eye, you know the one that crazy people have. He walks passed a sleeping Dr. Petersen and goes downstairs. He ends up not killing anyone, but rather he gets a glass of milk. This particular scene is interesting by Hitchcock because in the past, birds always meant something bad would happen, but in this particular case, it showed the self control of not killing.
Now to Jamaican Inn. From the very beginning of the film, you see that it is stormy, and crazy. From the opening scene you see birds being tossed into the wind, and them the scene transitions into a ship being wreck in the ocean during this storm. Whenever a Hitchcock movies begins with birds you can already get in your head that is is going to be a crazy, and most likely chaotic one, just like in Jamaican Inn.
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