Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds is widely regarded as a cinematic masterpiece, and one of the classics when it comes to horror thrillers. Yet it's funny that for all the acclaim the movie has received over the years, we don't talk about the absolutely wild way it starts off. I'm talking, of course, about the absolutely unhinged beginning of the movie, which revolves around the actions of one Melanie Daniels.
Tippi Hedren gives a phenomenal performance in The Birds, but the actions of her character in the first half of the movie are questionable at best. For those who don't have a chance to watch it with a Peacock subscription ahead of Halloween, here's why I'm scratching my head about this truly baffling character.
She Almost Went To Jail For A Practical Joke
We first meet Melanie Daniels while she waits for news on a bird she ordered, and she decides to have some fun in the meantime posing as one of the store's employees. It's there she's introduced to Mitch Brenner, who is in search of birds for to give to his sister. Melanie's joke soon goes awry, but it's exactly what Mitch expected.
We then learn that Mitch knew who she was all along because she almost went to jail for a practical joke that resulted in the smashing of a plate glass window. First off, what kind of practical joke was this grown woman doing that broke that strong of a window. Second, why does this sound like something for which a YouTuber would appear in court?
In all seriousness, if we're assuming that Daniels is the same age as Tippi Hedren was when filming The Birds, a 34-year-old appearing in court for a practical joke is pretty wild. Unfortunately, the movie only touches on this specific part, which is a shame because I have a ton of questions about it. It does set the stage for just what kind of person Melanie is, though, and the lengths she'll go to all for a laugh.
She Buys Love Birds For A Guy She Just Met
After Mitch shames Melanie, she decides she needed to make amends and buy his sister love birds for her birthday. It seems like a huge task to do in the 1960s considering she only just met this guy, but because she's a quick thinker, she copies down his license plate and calls a friend at the city for his address. That feels all sorts of illegal, but The Birds kind of brushes past that for the sake of moving the story along.
I'd also like to remind the reader that Melanie was already on the hook for a bird she purchased before she ever met Mitch. She then purchased another two birds, which can't be cheap. Where is this woman's money coming from? What kind of job does she have to justify buying two birds on a whim?
I should also note that The Birds explains Melanie did this as an apology, but I'm not sure what she's apologizing for. Mitch was the one who set her up for being on the other side of a joke, so why exactly does she have to make amends? Again, the movie doesn't do much in exploring this, instead just peddling along with her journey to get him these birds.
She Drives Over An Hour To Track Down The Mystery Man
Once Melanie obtains the birds, she attempts to deliver them to Mitch's apartment. She's then informed by a neighbor that he's out of town for the weekend, as he went to go visit family. If she wants to deliver the birds, she has to drive an hour and a half out of town to see him.
At this point, I felt like I wouldn't blame Melanie for letting the whole thing go. For some reason, though, she's bound and determined to give these birds to him as a free present he can in turn give to his sister. She hops in the car and makes the trek to Bodega Bay in hopes of figuring out where he lives.
The Birds really undersells how difficult a task this is. It's one thing to obtain the information from a neighbor about where Mitch is from, and quite another to figure out where his house is. Fortunately, she's aided by a shopkeep who seems to know everyone's business, and he just so happens to know that Mitch's family lives in the big white house across the bay. Fortunately for Melanie, there's a road that leads directly to the house, but of course that's not ideal for the surprise entrance she wants to make.
She Literally Rents A Boat To Pursue This Man
Melanie wants her arrival to be a surprise, so she asks the shopkeep about where she can rent a boat to get to Mitch's house. The shopkeep, who honestly should've realized something was up at this point, decides to tell her where to find one. As the reader can guess, she spends the money to rent a boat and ride across the bay to his house.
It takes some time for her to arrive, and she runs into his old ex along the way, but for some reason no one questions the lengths Melanie went to show up unannounced at his home. Honestly, it probably would've came up had The Birds not shifted to the whole thing to where the birds of the world all start to simultaneously attack humanity. They really did her a solid in erasing some of the wild antics she engaged in before this, and I choose to believe that was their motive for attacking rather than the other prevailing theory about The Birds.
I should note that while this post is made in jest of Melanie Daniels, none of it is meant to reflect Tippi Hedren's performance. As an actress, she delivered on what the script called for, and given the allegations of sexual assault she later leveled against Hitchcock coming from her time on Marnie, it's a wonder she performed as well as she did with the director possibly impacting her ability to deliver. It's still a solid movie, but the odd issues with Melanie Daniels are hard to overlook at the beginning.
As mentioned, The Birds is available to stream over on Peacock. Check it out along with several other horror classics, which can make for a night full of streaming the best horror movies of all time.
