Evan Hunter

And we'll lull the audience until she opens that final door and boom, there are all the birds.

Yes, there were many in the film.

For example, the scene where Melanie is trapped in the phone booth, this is not in the screenplay at all, not at all.

The scene ends, I don't know, the birds are chasing the children and everybody's running from the town, but it was Hitch who put her in that phone booth.

And Hitch who had all the birds smashing into the phone booth, picking up the metaphor of she being a bird in a gilded cage from the beginning of the film, and now she's back in the gilded cage in the phone booth.

It was wonderful imagery and scary as hell.

When they're battering the walls of that thing, you think they're going to get her.

And you can see everything that's happening.

And you see people running and the one guy with blood all over his face almost trying to want to get in the phone booth.

So it was a brilliant scene and not at all in the screenplay.

Now, did you enjoy working with Hitchcock?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, he was wonderful.

He was like the father every boy wished he could have.

He was, I think, approximately twice my age while we were working on the film, and in good health and good spirits, and told me many, many times that he felt he was entering the golden age of making films, his golden age of making films.

He had just come off the success of Psycho, you have to understand, and was looking forward to Birds being an even bigger success.

But he was humorous, he was anecdotal, he was generous, with his time and with his patience.

You know, I was the new kid on the block out there in many, many respects.

And he took me under his wing, not to use a metaphor.