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| The Birds (1963) | |
| Plot Synopsis (continued)
When they enter the cafe/bar, the locals check out the couple. When Mitch seats her, she is positioned - not coincidentally - directly under a yellow sign that reads: PACKAGED GOODS SOLD HERE. The owner Deke Carter (Lonny Chapman) and his wife Helen (Elizabeth Wilson) provide cotton and antiseptic (peroxide) to cleanse the wound. Although the owner is fearful of being sued, the expert lawyer assures him: "I don't think Miss Daniels is going to sue anybody." Melanie upturns her head as he treats her in a booth [the camera angle uneasily tilts a shelf of bar bottles in the background], commending him for his occupation and tendency to imprison offenders in jail cages:
To avoid appearing too forward or interested, Melanie claims that she came up to Bodega Bay "anyway," to visit and stay with her friend Annie Hayworth - a bold lie that is extremely transparent to his astute reasoning. She is internally conflicted about her emotional feelings for him:
Behind Mitch, his widowed mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy) [an elderly version of Melanie with a similar French-twist hairdo, although greyed] enters the cafe door, positioning herself between her son and his new friend. She learns that Mitch had to "acknowledge a...delivery...Miss Daniels brought us some birds from San Francisco...for Cathy for her birthday." To both Melanie's and his mother's surprise, Mitch explains that Melanie (who hasn't been invited yet) is expected for dinner. Clearly disapproving, Mrs. Brenner is concerned that love-birds are the reason that her son has become associated with a new female acquaintance:
Later at Annie's front door, Melanie convinces Annie to rent her a room for just one evening, holding up a "utilitarian" brown paper bag with things she picked up for the night at the general store, and hinting that things are developing positively with Mitch:
As Annie gestures for Melanie [a 'migrating' bird?] to enter her domicile, more birds gather and fly across the sky, prompting an exasperated Annie to ironically note:
Melanie drives to the Brenner's home for dinner, and vainly looks at her small mirror to wipe excess lipstick from the corners of her mouth. Bird sounds are again heard. At the side of the home as the family walks in from the barn, young Cathy (Veronica Cartwright) rushes up to "Miss Daniels" and gratefully hugs her for the new lovebirds in her life [thankful that she now has a loving, surrogate couple that she can care for]: "Oh, they're beautiful. They're just what I wanted. Is there a man and a woman? I can't tell which is which." Lydia listens attentively as Melanie answers: "Well, I suppose so." According to Mitch, "something seems to be wrong with...the chickens (they) won't eat" - Lydia disagrees with his worried assessment. In the living room, Lydia remains in the foreground as she phones the chicken feed salesman and complains about the "no-good" quality of the feed that the chickens won't eat. Melanie remains in the background and is attended to by Mitch. During the domineering, loud phone conversation, the only words deciphered from Melanie toward Mitch are from her question: "Is that your father?" (She has been standing and staring at his framed painting on the wall.) [The question is extremely significant, since it is later learned that all of Mitch's relationships have been poisoned by his domineering mother Lydia, especially after the death of his father.] After Mitch serves drinks, Lydia is centered between him and Melanie. She comes to a realization of what has happened with the words, "Oh, I see," when told that her chickens may indeed be sick, since other chickens (eating other varieties of chicken feed) in town "won't eat either." She asks Mitch: "You don't think they're getting sick, do you Mitch?" After dinner, Mitch and his mother attend to domestic duties like a husband-and-wife in the background, as Melanie plays a Debussy piano piece with Cathy nearby in the foreground, who derisively refers to the violent "hoods" in cells that her brother defends in the city:
Cathy pleads with Melanie and is upset that she cannot attend her "surprise" birthday party the next day - feeling unloved and lacking a "female" or maternal figure in her life:
Mitch is dependent upon his mother in Bodega Bay: "Mitch likes it very much. He comes up every weekend, you know, even though he has his own apartment in the city. He says San Francisco is like an anthill at the foot of a bridge." Their close relationship is revealed in the kitchen as they clean up, and Mitch lovingly calls his old-fashioned, protective mother "dear" and "darling," even though she cattily speaks about Melanie's notorious reputation. His mother recollects that the "charming...certainly pretty...very rich," jet-setting socialite's name often appears in the newspaper columns, including one scandalous report about her cavorting naked (as a jaybird?) into a fountain (birdbath?) in Rome the previous summer:
The film dissolves from a pensive look on Lydia's neurotic face concerned about the interference Melanie will provide, to a shot of the couple walking toward Melanie's car as she leaves. From a high, slightly overhead camera angle, Mitch physically dominates the frame, looking down on Melanie in her car and inquisitively and aggressively questioning her (as if she were a defendant in a courtroom's witness chair) about the Rome fountain incident - his mother's information intrudes upon their flirtatious, defensive, friction-filled conversation (and so do bird noises):
But Melanie does admit that she was "lying" about her association with Annie, and that she wrote him a "stupid and foolish" letter (that she subsequently tore up) that said: "I think you need these lovebirds after all. They may help your personality." Their squabbling and chatter - at continual cross-purposes, ends in rejection and sarcasm:
Refusing his stubborn, further interest in her, she roars off into the darkness. He turns and with a perplexed look, he notices that flocks of birds are amassed on the telephone pole wires along the country road. When Melanie arrives at Annie's home to spend the night, she finds her host wearing a robe and pajamas, and reading the newspaper while reclining on her sofa. In Annie's living room are glimpses of her appreciation of culture: art reproductions hanging on the wall, an LP record of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, and shelved books next to her desk. Noticing that Melanie appears bothered by her encounter with Mitch, Annie offers a drink of brandy. Although Melanie "despises" the town, Annie relates the history of how she came to the isolated "little hamlet" of Bodega Bay - "...a collection of shacks on a hillside. It takes a bit of getting used to." As Melanie had suspected, Annie followed "a friend" (Mitch) there from San Francisco when their affair ended "to be near him" - filling her time, as she mentioned earlier, with "compulsive...tilling of the soil." According to Annie, there are ambiguous reasons for their breakup - possibly because of Lydia's displeasure and interference with any other women who would love her son, or because of her fear as a widow "of being abandoned" after her husband's death - or maybe due to Mitch's basic unresponsiveness. From hints during their conversation (in which she alternatively sits and stands in a restless mood), Annie hasn't recovered from losing him:
Furthermore, a phone call from Mitch to Melanie positions Annie in two poses: she pensively listens to their discussion in the foreground, and in a second side-view, she stares off into space while smoking a cigarette. After apologizing for his rude behavior, Mitch persuades Melanie to remain for Cathy's party. When Melanie accepts his invitation after the words "I see," Annie closes her eyes to accentuate her feelings of being lonely and abandoned:
The two discuss her decision to remain - and possibly become more involved with Mitch in a relationship. Annie permits and encourages Melanie to attend:
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As
she travels along, smiling smugly and watching his car take the circuitous
route around, he beats her to the dock and waits there, resting non-chalantly
for her arrival and their reunion. [ATTACK # 1] Suddenly,
as she tilts her head to the side (as she did in the elevator) in
a bird-like pose, a gull
"deliberately" and abruptly sweeps down from the cloudy sky
and viciously pecks her in the forehead, upsetting her affected pose,
and messing up her hairdo. The right index finger of her gloved hand
is spotted with blood from the ripped-open gash. Reacting immediately,
he climbs down to assist the stunned, shaken woman, as she shuts off
the engine and drifts into the jetty. As they walk to the nearby Tides
Restaurant, a trickle of blood runs down the side of her forehead.