The Man Who Knew Too Much,Vertigo,Psycho

In 1934 Alfred Hitchcock released “The Man Who Knew Too Much”, however over twenty year later in 1956 a re-creation of the film came out to the same title.  Staring Jimmy Steward as Dr. Ben McKenna, and Doris Day as his wife Josephine McKenna.  Following the same plot as the original having a family traveling, and having their son get kidnapped.  As suspicion from being watch rises in the beginning of the movie finally Hitchcock releases the dinner scene.  The waiter brings the couple, and the other creepy couple food.  This food is some sort of bird.  Chicken is the first thing that I thought of.  Once this happens as the viewer you just know that something in the plot is going to happen, which is does as the rest of the movie goes on.

Next in the 1958 film “Vertigo” Hitchcock displays a darker side of his personality, and of course shows it off before it happens with birds.  The first time birds are seen in the film is the scene under the Golden Gate Bridge when Madeleine pushes herself into the bay.  When Scotty jumps in after her and rescues her, a bird flies over the top of the screen.  When I first saw this I was expected something to happen right after that.  I was disappointed that nothing happened after that until later in the movie.  I think what Hitchcock’s intention was that this was the first time Scotty and Madeleine was together, and it was foreshadowing the chaos that would occur with the two of them together.

Later in the film, Madeleine is wearing a humming bird pin in the scene where her death is faked.  This entire scene changed the entire films plot.  All of this was set-up because she was wearing a humming bird pin.

Finally in 1960, Hitchcock released possibly one of his most popular film in “Psycho”.  By no means did Hitchcock plan on hiding the fact that birds would lead to chaos in the film.  First off, the film starts off in the city of Phoenix Arizona.  A phoenix is a mythological bird.  Another example is the one of the main characters is Marion Crane.  Crane is the name of a bird normally found around a lake or other wetlands.  Once at the motel, and we meet Norman Bates, we find that he find the hobby of taxidermy fascinating and makes the time pass by quickly.  Bates takes Marion into his back room and the room is absolutely covered with the birds that he has stuffed from the past. 

While the two of them are in the Bates back room having a little dinner, Bates makes the comment that “You eat like a bird”.

Finally, right outside of the bathroom in which Marion was murdered, there is a painting of a bird. These are only some of the more popular examples that are displayed in this Hitchcockian masterpiece.  After seeing this film, it not only is in my Hitchcock top five films, but it is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Spellbound, Shadow of Doubt, Saboteur

In 1942 Alfred Hitchcock released the film “Saboteur”.  This World War Two film begins by having a huge fire that occurs in the in an airplane hangar.  When watching this film, and since all of these blog are about birds, I did not notice any occurrences of birds by any means.  It truly made me sit and think for a solid minute, or why Hitchcock would have such an intense fire scene, and show the death of a person without having anything with birds to do with it.  So after re-watching it multiple times I came up with the idea of, Hitchcock was trying to tie together airplanes with birds.  For one, this entire scene takes place in an airplane hangar.  Secondly right before it shows the huge fire, and all the smoke it has a shot 0f the hangar with all the airplanes stored in it.  (As shown below)

  Also, for this film being released during World War Two, airplanes could easily be called birds, just depending on the person.  I find this extremely interesting that Hitchcock would tuck this into this film without actually going out and showing a real bird.

Next, in the 1943 Hitchcockian film Spellbound.  Although this film was released during World War Two, Hitchcock decided to go an alternate route and not base it off of war like recently talked about Saboteur.  There is a scene during “Spellbound” when Dr. Edwards awakes from slumber and makes his way downstairs carrying a blade used to shave.  His intensions were to kill Dr. Alexander.  However Alexander was an old man and says that is the reason he cannot sleep.  So instead he give Dr. Edwards milk and crackers, and Dr. Edwards passes out on the couch.  That next morning when both men wakes up Dr. Alexander asked Dr. Edwards to explain about his dream he had, no matter what it consisted of.  When Dr. Edwards described his dream, it was absolutely creepy and disturbing to say the least.  He gets to a part where he said he was being chased by a pair of wings above him.  This makes me believe Hitchcock put this in as the bird theme to show how Dr. Edwards is a psychotic killer and complete and utter chaos.

Last, also in the year of 1943 “Shadow of Doubt” was released.  During this flick, their are two characters named Charlie.  One is Uncle Charlie, and the other is young female who’s given name is Charlotte, but she goes by Charlie after he Uncle, Charlie.  We find out that Uncle Charlie had committed a murder, and is running away from the authority.  On arrival he find that Charlie is similar to the woman he murdered so he attempts to murder her.  However through clues from the newspaper Charlie starts to piece together that Uncle Charlie is actually a murderer.  There is a scene when it is all coming together, and Charlie has to rush to the library to look at old newspapers.  During this scene she is wearing metal pins of birds flying on her left shoulder.  This is interesting to have Hitchcock show physical birds in this film.  The other two films discussed in this blog did not have them, making me think that maybe it had something to do with the time era.  However Hitchcock was not hiding anything for this movie.

Rebecca, The Lady Vanishes, Foreign Corespondent

In 1938 the film “The Lady Vanishes” was released.  Personally this was one of my favorite Hitchcock films ever.  Anyways, in the “The Lady Vanishes” there is a scene when characters Iris Henderson played by Margaret Lockwood, and Gilbert Redman played by Micheal Redgrave venture to the back of the train looking for the disappeared woman.  Ironically enough there were magicians on the train, and in the back of the train is where they kept all of their gear.  However as Iris and Micheal start to look for the lady, some of the bad guy or henchman for lack of a better term come to stop, and even kill them.  As the man and Micheal begin to fight they run into a box and white birds start flying everywhere.  I find this funny because white birds are a stereotype for magicians.  Also the fight involved a knife, but that is all for another time.  

Moving on, in 1940 the Alfred Hitchcock film of “Rebecca” was realeased.  This monster of a film would take to long to give a brief synopsis of, so I will just tell you the scenes of the birds occurring and the significance of it.  Before the viewer finds out about the whole story of Rebecca, there is a small cut scene lasting only a few seconds that shows giant waves from the ocean crashing against a huge cliff.  As the chaotic waves crash against the cliff a group of birds fly across the screen only preparing the audience that something is in store for the rest of the film.  Another explain is down in the boat cottage on the beach.  During this scene the whole plot is reviled on what really happened.  However for this film lies were told and during this scene you “thin” you know what really happened, however as the viewer you later find out that what was told was later to find out as a lie.  During this scene there is a bird cage that is hidden in the back.  I find this hidden and extreme brilliant at the same time.

Finally, in the 1940 film of “Foreign Correspondent” has probably one of the most unique and odd form of birds that is in a Hitchcock film.  Rather than a physical bird, or characteristics of birds like we have seen before, like a cage, we just have a character talking about birds constantly, and always bringing them up. And then there’s the elements and bits of Hitchcock that play and have played through all his films. Religious imagery, and innocent people thrust into danger. McCrea searches for proof that he really saw the old Van Meer, just as Margaret Lockwood sought to prove she saw the elderly miss Froy. Van Meer talks about birds constantly.  I find this extremely interesting in the sense that Hitchcock goes completely untraditional even for himself in this film.  However we should not be to surprised, because Hitchcock always has a purpose for what he is doing.  Nothing is just mistakenly done.  I guess this is why Hitchcock is one of the greatest of all time.

Dial M For Murder, The Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief.

For this blog, birds make another appearance, however they are not always in a physical manner.  Alfred Hitchcock does everything for a meaning, and it is amazing to see him blend in the chaos of the birds in his movies without even showing a physical bird.

In Hitchcock’s film The Rear Window there was one appearance of a physical bird, however the way Hitchcock works he slips in a hidden reference to birds making it sneaky and brilliant at the same time.  The plot being a peeping tom, who has a broken leg and watches out of his window for entertainment.  James Stewart who plays Jim in this film is the peeping tom.  As Jim suspiciously finds out a lady from across the way goes missing, it makes him more and more curious and wanting to figure it out.  I find it interesting that there is a scene when the man who supposedly murdered his wife comes back to his room carrying a box that says “Eagle Head Laundry”.  However unlike other Hitchcock films that when birds are seen, a murder, or something chaotic happens.  Rather in this scene, and other Hitchcock films to come it really just is a huge change in the plot.  Once Jim see’s this box, he then knows that the wife was murdered and he was using boxes to move her chopped up body out.  This is extremely crazy and disturbing, but that is Hitchcock for you.  Also the puppy died.

Next, in the 1954 film of Dial M for Murder, Hitchcock does not waste any time letting the viewer that there is going to be some real messed up occurrences in this movie.  From the very beginning, in the opening second of the films the viewer sees a British police officer, with a white morning dove in the background.  Following the opening few seconds of seeing this you see Margot Mary Wendice played by Grace Kelly having an affair with Mark Halliday, who is played by Robert Cummings.  So right off the bat an affair is happening, but this does not even get into the rest of the plot to come.  This this film Hitchcock physically has a physical bird fluttering around in the middle of the street.  It makes me wonder if there is a significance of in Hitchcock movies of physical birds meaning something, while other signs of birds mean something else.

Although the picture above is not best quality it is indeed a dove.

Last, in the 1955 film “To Catch a Thief” Hitchcock has a little fun with with placement of having birds.  For this one Alfred Hitchcock appears in a cameo role.Hitchcock’s cameo is that of a man sitting next to Cary Grant on a bus opposite a cage of chirping birds.  I find this interesting in the sense that Hitchcock puts himself in this scene with birds, because usual when Hitchcock made a cameo appearance it was minuscule and not of very much importance.  However being in the scene with birds, and the mastermind himself really pulls in the attention of the audience making them  remember this scene for a lifetime.