The Birds in Bodega

To quote Alfred Hitchcock, "The Birds is here"

From my upcoming book, Popcorn and Passports: The Great Outdoors

...Director Alfred Hitchcock knew that terror lies in unexpected places and realized feathered friends make energetic enemies. Though bird attacks remain key, the film holds up through human interactions. Rod Taylor stands at the center of emotions as a man desired by Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette, and Jessica Tandy. Any chance to watch stage and screen legend Tandy at work proves rewarding, while Pleshette adds pathos as a caring schoolteacher. 

For Hitchcock, the project involved creating believable title characters, and the mix of real birds with mechanical ones still looks spooky. One of his most memorable scenes comes with the gradual arrival of one bird at a time on playground equipment as Hedren sits outside waiting on a bench; Mel Brooks spoofs the sequence in his High Anxiety tribute to Hitchcock, which like The Birds, includes San Francisco filming (at Embarcadero’s Hyatt Regency ). 

Hitchcock starts avian action in San Francisco, with images of Hedren walking around Union Square. The director’s signature cameo happens at the fictitious Davidson’s Pet Shop, inspired by the former Robinson’s House of Pets on Maiden Lane. Action quickly moves up the coast to Bodega, a community that still celebrates its most famous project. One store features a mannequin of Hitchcock and set-jetting pilgrims easily find the Potter Schoolhouse for tourist snapshots.