Front Row Dress Circle

Universal Studios are producing a remake of that classic Hitchcock film, The Birds. The stars in the original film were Tippi Hedren ( the mother of Melanie Griffith ) and Aussie actor Rod Taylor ( my Dad knew him years back ) along with the late Jessica Tandy  and the sadly recently departed Suzanne Pleshette.  The remake will star Naomi Watts.

I am in two minds about this project. It is not very often that a classic movie comes over better in it’s new and updated version. Firstly, movies such as The Birds and Psycho had one thing in common that cannot be replicated today…Alfred Hitchcock! his movies carried his own macabre and sinister touch that other directors simply do not have.  I think there are some films that should remain un-remade and The Birds and Psycho should be on the list. 

Actors and actresses today have less of the mysterious quality about them and more of the natural, down to earth than those of the past. And this is fine, except that the qualities that defined stars like Tippi Hedren and, say, Rita Hayworth, is what made them so special and seem so untouchable. We can all see ourselves bumping into Naomi Watts at the local store, but you’d never meet Rita Hayworth in a supermarket would you?

Directors and direction today too have a completely different style to the golden years – everything is right in your face in movies now where as Hitch  worked on the theory that what the eye did not see, the mind had to imagine. And this was what made his films just so damn chilling.  As a fan of Daphne du Maurier’s book I can say I will turn out to see the remake of this movie with an open mind. I just hope that whoever is directing ( not revealed as yet ) works with a completely clean slate and does not try to pull off a Hitch-copy because it just will not work.

Did you know…?

* That Hitchcock used mind-tricks on Tippi Hedren throughout filming of the movie in order to ensure she had that edgy persona. By the end of filming she was a complete nervous wreck and almost suffered a breakdown!

* During filming of the scene where Hedren is trapped in a room and being attacked by birds ( above pic), Hitchcock had real seagulls released and thrown at her along with the fake birdies. She really did get pecked and poo-ed on during that scene!

* When filming was completed Hitchcock, for some macabre reason, sent Tippi Hedrens daughter, seven year old Melanie Griffith, a minature coffin with a Tippi Hedren doll inside it. Weird eh…?

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