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Saturday, January 19, 2013

Do I Know, Darlings, Or Do I Know??????????


                                  Several days back, I did a posting citing that one of the key films of 1963 to turn 50 this year was one of my favorites--Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds!"  Well, someone out there must be reading this, or listening to me, (at least on the West Coast; too bad this did not happen in New York!!!!) or just has plain old  good taste, because this past Thursday,  an anniversary screening of the film was held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where it was introduced by two of its key stars, Tippi Hedren and Veronica Cartwright.

                                   That's right, girls; the former Melanie Daniels and Cathy Brenner were on hand to acknowledge not only the quality of this film, but how well they have held up in the years since, with the passage of time.  Tippi, wearing almost a duplicate of the outfit she wore in the film, looks wonderful for her age--which just happens now to be 83, as, get this, TODAY is her birthday!  So, Happy Birthday, Tippi!!!!!!!!

                                      As for Veronica Cartwright, well, you have heard me on her before--she parlayed a career of hysterics that has held up now for over 50 years, and while she and sister Angela (no longer in the biz!!!!) have added some extra....um....ounces, (and haven't we all, darlings????)  Veronica continues to act and get out there.  I certainly wish I could have flown cross country to report this event to you, personally, girls, not to mention seeing the film with two of its iconic stars.

                                       Dare we hope for a screening in New York?  I know "The Birds" played last year at the Film Forum, but I could not get to it.  I last saw it at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, where, as I have stated before, the sound system was so great that, as the birds flew across the screen during the opening credits, their cries were terrifying.

                                         Girls, these weer no birds in gilded cages.  And neither are Tippi and Veronica!
Not to forget the great Doreen Lang, whose hysterical scene in the diner--"I think you're evil!  EVIL!" has become the stuff of legend.

                                           And look closely at the scenes where there are children--the famous school attack, and, earlier, Cathy's birthday party.  One of those children happens to be a very young Morgan Brittany.  Who. I swear, was one of the models for the family picture drawing on the box cover of my Ideal Toy game, "Tip-It!"

                                             "The Birds" and its cast have done well by Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                Tweet, tweet, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 comments:

HarlowFan said...

Morgan Britanny was also Baby June in the 1962 film of Gypsy, although I think she went under her real name, which escapes me at the moment.

The Raving Queen said...


I had forgotten she was in "Gypsy." Maybe because in that she was wearing a blonde wig. Her real name was Suzanne Cupito, and that is how she wad billed in "Gypsy." She is not credited in "The Birds" but that is her. I remember years ago on a "Tonight" show, she talked about the film. What shocked me and many at the time was her revelation that, in the school scene, not all the birds were real. Some were mechanical.