History YMMV / TheBirds

* SlowPacedBeginning: It takes ''45 mintues'' for first bird attack to happen.

* PoorMansSubstitute: Try as they may, Creator/RodTaylor and Creator/TippiHedren weren't Creator/CaryGrant and Creator/GraceKelly.[[note]]Somewhat ironically in Taylor's case, as Grant himself at the time was facing accusations of being a poor replacement for Creator/RockHudson after making ''Film/ThatTouchOfMink'' with Creator/DorisDay, with whom Hudson had made a string popular romantic comedies.[[/note]]

* PoorMansSubstitute: Try as they may, Creator/RodTaylor and Creator/TippiHedren weren't Creator/CaryGrant and Creator/GraceKelly.

*** Interesting point, except this film reinforces the concept in film that women in crisis's are just about useless. While Mitch is busy keeping the birds out of the house, Melanie spends her time rolling around the walls being dramatic. Mitch even sits the women down on chairs, something they clearly hadn't thought to do themselves. Note how many times the women ask Mitch "What should we do/what is going on?" For something so "feminist", the film goes out of its way to show how much of a burden the three female characters were to the male lead.
--> '''Mitch''': "Do you think you can bandage her (Melanie)"
--> '''Lydia''': "I ... think so?"

** Trees the size of the "Cleonymus tree" [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia_sempervirens do exist]]. No word on whether Native Americans of late first millennium BC hung shields on a moribund specimen, though.

* EarWorm: ''I married my wife in the month of June. Risseldy, rosseldy, Mow, mow, mow. I carried her off in a silver spoon. Risseldy, Rosseldy, hey bambassity, nickety, nackety, retrical quality, willowby, wallowby, mow, mow, mow.''

* RetroactiveRecognition: Child actress Creator/VeronicaCartwright, who played Cathy, would become especially familiar to fans of science-fiction/horror films starting in [[Film/{{Alien}} the late 1970s]].

* SpecialEffectsFailure: The bird effects were extremely technically innovative when the film first released, but look rather ropey nowadays.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Annie Hayworth, the school teacher, stayed in the town her ex-boyfriend lived in on the weekends, despite originally being a city girl, saying she didn't want to lose the friendship between them... could it have been something else? Could Annie in fact have been Cathy's real mother, with Lydia actually being Cathy's grandmother given her age and appearance, but being the time period that it was such an out of wedlock birth could not be accepted, so they all just lied about it to save face? It would certainly explain some of Annie's interactions with Cathy at the party and later on [[spoiler:Annie sacrificing herself to save Cathy from the birds]].
* CanonFodder: Just what did cause the birds to attack? It's never specified either way, but that hasn't stopped people from guessing. Explanations range from a sudden heatwave angering them, to the lovebirds somehow causing it. The trailer implies that birds have just decided to declare war on mankind.

* TearJerker:
** [[spoiler: [[HeroicSacrifice "Annie pushed me inside!"]]]]
** Lydia finding her friend's body and later confiding to Melanie about how her late husband related to their children better than she did.
** Melanie telling Mitch about how [[MissingMom her Mother]] [[ParentalAbandonment wasn't around for her growing up]].
** Cathy, despite everything, still loving her own pet birds. Can double as [[HeartwarmingMoments heartwarming]].
-->"Can I bring the lovebirds, Mitch? They haven't harmed anyone."

* UnbuiltTrope: One of the earliest films to use DevelopingDoomedCharacters. Except here the horror comes as part of a HalfwayPlotSwitch, the attacks build up and the developing is all about justifying why Melanie is in Bodega Bay in the first place.

* PoorMansSubstitute: Try as they may, Creator/RodTaylor and Creator/TipppiHedren weren't Creator/CaryGrant and Creator/GraceKelly.

* PoorMansSubstitute: Try as they may, Creator/RodTaylor and Creator/TipppiHendren weren't Creator/CaryGrant and Creator/GraceKelly.

* PoorMansSubstitute: Try as they may, Creator/RodTaylor and Tipppi Hendren weren't Creator/CaryGrant and Creator/GraceKelly.

* PoorMansSubstitute: Try as they may, Rod Taylor and Tipppi Hendren weren't Creator/CaryGrant and Creator/GraceKelly.

* HellIsThatNoise: The endless shrieking of the birds when they're on the attack, especially during the phone booth scene. Not helped by the fact that there's no score, giving it a measure of horrible realism.

* FunnyAneursymMoment: Melanie's tracking down of Mitch is PlayedForLaughs and it's just a part of the playful banter between the two. When you learn about how Tippi Hedren was essentially stalked and harassed by Alfred Hitchcock, it becomes uncomfortable.

* ValuesDissonance: Earlier in the film, Melanie is searching for Mitch's family home and the local townspeople give her directions to not only his home but also to the local school teacher's home; before that, an apartment resident tells her how long Mitch will be in Bodega Bay. This is jarring from a modern perspective worried about serial killers and stalkers.

* ValuesDissonance: Earlier in the film, Melanie is searching for Mitch's family home and the local townspeople give her directions to not only his home but also to the local school teacher's home; before that, an apartment resident tells her how long Mitch will be in Bodega Bay. This is jarring from a modern perspective worried about serial killers and stalkers.