The Birds

A gorgeous, idle debutante (Tippi Hedren) plays a prank on an attractive man (Rod Taylor) at a San Francisco gift shop, which he quickly foils. She decides to track him down on his island home, bearing a peace offering of two parakeets. There, while contending with a rival (Suzanne Pleshette) for the man's affections and endearing herself to his mother (Jessica Tandy), the local seagull population grows increasingly hostile, eventually posing a threat to everyone on the island and trapping the party inside the island home. Alfred Hitchcok's "The Birds", his third adaptation of a Daphne du Maurier work following "Jamaica Inn" and "Rebecca", is an alternately scary and silly work, which I'm not quite sure belongs on the list of his greatest classics. Tippi Hedren is excellent, and carries much of the film.