"The Birds" movie car

[rocketraider]

Watched "The Birds" tonight- still one of the most terrifying movies I've ever watched. Hitchcock's psychological horror was way more effective than the blood-and-gore that dominates the genre now.

Released 1963, so there were a bunch of nice 50s cars demolished in the gas station explosion scene , but I'm trying to figure out what the European cabriolet Melanie (Tippi Hedren) drove was. One thing that stood out was the radio dial tuned from right to left instead of left to right as normal American practice. It is also left hand drive.

Anyone know what that purty cabrio was? In the past I'd always thought it was a Healey, but tonight I realised it probably isn't.

Then right behind it was "Them" so I got another good dose of old cars and some cheesy 1954 horror, complete with nuclear fearmongering.

Even though there were no old cars to watch, I guess the last really stylish horror/suspense films I saw were "Wild Things" and "Red Dragon".

[Guest ChrisSummers]

Aston Martin DB2 wasn't it? Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[Craig Gillingham]

This will answer the first question;

IMCDb.org: 1954 Aston Martin DB2/4 DHC MkI in "The Birds, 1963"

The IMCD IMCDb.org: Home page is an excellent reference source for cars in film type questions.

[rocketraider]

I guess the grille should have been a giveaway- but I did not know Aston made a DB cabrio. I had always thought they were all closed cars.

Thanks for quick response!

[West Peterson]

Wow! I didn't know that movie was filmed in color! I guess it's been a while since I saw it.

[R W Burgess]

Well, I'm aggravated! :mad:

I can't find that picture of the church used in that movie!

While attending the Grand National in Santa Rosa California this past year, Mike and I traveled back to Bodega Bay on the ocean front to visit that special spot we had been to during the tour that the Redwood Empire Region put on back a few years ago. I was ignorant back then (no comments, please).

Not this time. On this trip Mike and I were looking for the "Church", the one where the movie pictured the kids running down the hill. (Were the birds chasing them?) Anyway, I'm having trouble finding that picture now. By the way, Santa Rosa was also a movie town in the past. Even a young Natalie Wood began her movie career in Santa Rosa.

So, see sometimes, its not always about the cars!

Wayne

[Guest Oracle]

The convertibles were 'Volantes'. David Brown's (of tractor and gears fame/money) had Aston Martin-Lagonda Limited based in premises that looked like an old corrugated iron shed I recall, in Hanworth Air Park in Feltham, Middlesex before they moved to Newport Pagnell.

[Guest Bill Miller]

Glenn, you mentioned you liked the film "Red Dragon". Try to find and watch "Manhunter" which is the first film made based on the Red Dragon novel. It's a Michael Mann film with Wm Petersen and the script is in my view much scarier and more of a psychological thriller than Brett Ratner's film "Red Dragon." However I have a rather amusing story about the latter film. I happen to have an old friend who is a Hollywood film producer in a big way. When I first watched Red Dragon about 5 minutes into the film I saw his familiar face as one of the dinner guests sitting around the table with Hannibal Lecter. No speaking lines in the film as released. Well, I see this guy periodically and the next time I ran into him I asked him why he was in the film since he's really not an actor and is undoubtedly rather busy making films himself. Turns out one day he was busy with his editor finishing one of his own films when he received a call from Brett Ratner whom he knew and had worked with previously. Ratner told him he needed him right away on the set of a film he was directing because he needed another person to play a dinner guest and he had just the right look of a balding, middle aged, successful businessman. As a favor to Ratner, he agreed. Now, on a movie set there is a huge amount of down time where he actors sit around doing nothing waiting to be called to the set for a shoot. My friend, who had been given two lines for the dinner table scene, was getting very tired of waiting around since he was in the middle of getting his own film edited. He called over to the director "Hey Rat! I've got other things I need to do, so shoot me out of this so I can get out of here." The other bit actors on the set were astounded and the actress who was playing his wife in the scene and who had no idea who he was or how he got the part looked at him and said, "You just don't talk to the director like that! You will never work again." The film he was editing was, I think, Children of Men with Julianne Moore, a pretty good SciFi film.

Bill

Edited March 23, 2012 by Bill Miller
typo (see edit history)

[greenie]

Bodega Bay. A must see town on any movie lover's list. While in Sacremento for a business trip a few years back, I coerced a young co-worker into blowing off the last day of the symposium we were supposed to be attending- and I gave her a choice of Neno, NV or San Fran. Yeah, she took like 3 seconds to decide. We had lunch at Fisherman's Wharf with the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz in sight-and then we headed across the bridge and north along the Pacific ocean. Every 2 miles you want to stop and take pictures; but I was determined to make Bodega Bay before dusk. We made it by 4pm and spent a few hours driving around town finding little spots in the movie. The locals were more than happy to fill in the movie trivia blanks- like the fact that boat rentals have never been offered by the bayside. You are left with a sense that Hitchcock was such a genius; and that so much of the movie just sprang from his imagination. If you grew up scared to watch "The Birds"; but couldn't wait to see it again- you have to see Bodega Bay. call it bucket list material.

[John_Maine]

Speaking of movies, every time I watch "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", I try to figure out what the map Capt. Culpepper uses is of when he's tracing Smiler Grogan's route. I'm sure it's southern California around Los Angeles. What about the park where the money is buried? I'm sure that must still exist.

[Guest Oracle]

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

tells you.... a marvellous film and I love to identify as many vehicles as possible.

[Restorer32]

I always associate THE BIRDS with of all things my Bug Eyed Sprite. A couple days before New Year's Eve 1967 I was involved in a hit and run crash in my Sprite that crushed both my knees. Spent NYE in hospital and as a treat the nurses let me stay awake 'til midnight and watch THE BIRDS on my room's tiny black and white TV. Lying flat on your back, pumped up with pain killers, casts from ankles to waist, watching THE BIRDS in a dark room by yourself...now that's FUN!

[John_Maine]

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

tells you.... a marvellous film and I love to identify as many vehicles as possible.

Yes, I forgot to mention the cars. Lots of 50's and 60's with a few older ones thrown in. I thought those '62 Darts were horrible looking back then but not now.

[Bleach]

I personally liked the looks of a '62 Dart over the '63 restyled compact even though I owned a '63. The 63 was more of an economy car and was still too plain even fully optioned. It was a super dependable car and otherwise unstoppable, at least until a serious front end crash took it out of commission. It was still drivable but the un-ibody construction was beyond straightening.

[Studemax]

No one has mentioned the red Studebaker pickup in "The Birds".....

[Guest AlK]

John Maine and DJ

The point of horrible looking was the main reason we restored a 62 Dart when I managed to have one presented to me.

[Guest]

Speaking of movies, every time I watch "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", I try to figure out what the map Capt. Culpepper uses is of when he's tracing Smiler Grogan's route. I'm sure it's southern California around Los Angeles. What about the park where the money is buried? I'm sure that must still exist.

___________________________________________________________

That park is on ocean blvd. on the cliffs overlooking HYW 1 and the ocean in Santa Monica. Many beach shots along PCH. There is one shot where they are in a beach town called Sunset beach Orange County, right next to Huntington beach. A few shots in Venice. They finally end up in Long Beach. At that time frame Long beach was in a state of decline and there were many empty buildings in the downtown area. Today it's really changed. I remember when the movie came out, it was hilarious to us locals how they would jump from one location to another, with camera everything is doable. Great movie....J. Winters is my favorite along with upside down Ethel Merman.:eek:

D.