The Bad Seed and The Birds

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 12:42 am

If you put those together you get : The BAD BIRDSEED. Bahaha.

Anyway...those are 2 of my favorite old classic movies that I think are pretty chilling.

The Bad Seed is a classic...a friend of mine just met Patty McCormack and got me an autographed picture of her. She played Rhoda.

Has anyone else seen these movies, and do you like them??

uncletor · Post by **uncletor** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 10:05 am

THE BAD SEED is a staple for work..we have to play that one every year. Love love love that piano that just keeps playing faster...George, a guy I work with now and again, will sometimes imitate the guy from Reefer Madness and bug his eyes out and say:"Play it FASTER.." At just the right moments..by the way..in the original version stage play..RHODA GETS AWAY WITH IT..but the folks at the movies just HAD to zap her..
THE BIRDS is slightly less popular with the folks at work..but I like it..Tippi looks really really HOT..one year, I got to work with a nurse who was totally TORQUED at the ending. Wanted to KNOW what the HECK had happened.."What do you MEAN they just get in the car and DRIVE AWAY???"
And I explained the whole MOVIE was a set up by Hitch to make one of his ice blondes walk that gauntlet...
This sort of bothered her, and she got very quiet and said:'Oh.."

BlackCat · Post by **BlackCat** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 10:06 am

I saw them both as a young kid. Haven't seen either since so I don't remember much. I don't even remember if I was scared or not!

darkshadow · Post by **darkshadow** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 7:02 pm

THE BIRDS...I watched it with my family. We thought it was really cheesy, and really stupid, and really entertaining. We all laughed so hard!

MHooch · Post by **MHooch** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 1:41 am

Try reading the story that The Birds is adapted from...by Daphne DuMaurier (sp?)...she wrote "Rebecca'...which is also a great Hitchcock film.

geekmidwinter · Post by **geekmidwinter** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 9:46 am

I've never seen the Bad Seed, but The Birds was spectacular. I love that they never explain why it happens.

Hooch, Rebecca is one of my all time faves, and there was a sequel written by someone who is not Daphne DuMaurier, I believe it was called Mrs. Dewinter. It was okay, nice to have some more story, but not near as good as the original.

MHooch · Post by **MHooch** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:30 am

I'll have to check that out.

MWRuger · Post by **MWRuger** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 4:58 pm

The Birds is one of Hitchcock's best. He relies almost completely on visuals and dialogue to carry the tale.

Hitchcock had been using Bernard Herrmann for underscore but didn't in the case. He used electronics (The Trautonium) to create the bird squawks and sounds.

No music at all to tell you want to feel. Tension has to build on image alone.

Hitchcock uses some really interesting photographic techniques to carry off his tale. The scene with Tippi in the phone booth is very effective. He also does a series of reaction shots with her intersperse with shots of the gas station blowing up that really work.

It isn't scary by today's standards but in the context of when it was filmed (1963) it was perfect. America was a land of stability and near conformity, the height of 50's culture with the over arcing fear of nuclear destruction. Who could possibly suspect that something as normal as birds could shatter all that?