Themes and Plot Devices in The Films of Alfred Hitchcock - Birds

Birds

There are countless images of birds in nearly all of Hitchcock's films. Some of the most prominent are listed below.

Psycho - The film begins in Phoenix, Arizona and a Phoenix is also a mythological bird. Marion's last name is "Crane." Norman practices taxidermy as a hobby and his favorites are birds. Norman describes Marion's eating behavior as "eats like a bird".
Vertigo - Gavin's last name is Elster, which is German for Magpie.
The Birds - The film's plot revolves around birds attacking Bodega Bay.
To Catch a Thief - Hitchcock's cameo is that of a man on a bus holding a bird cage with a bird inside it.
Sabotage - the front for the bomb maker is that of a bird seller and the instructions for the bomb are in the base of a bird cage.

Read more about this topic:  Themes And Plot Devices In The Films Of Alfred Hitchcock

Famous quotes containing the word birds:

    The birds that came to it through the air
    At broken windows flew out and in,
    Their murmur more like the sigh we sigh
    From too much dwelling on what has been.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
    Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,
    And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
    Their perch and not their terror.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    In a herber green, asleep where I lay,
    The birds sang sweet in the mids of the day;
    I dreamed fast of mirth and play.
    In youth is pleasure, in youth is pleasure.
    Robert Wever (fl. C. 1550)