Bodega - and its larger neighbor Bodega Bay - feature prominently in the film. We’re watching the title sequence of “The Birds,” the 1963 thriller with a cult following that made this tiny Northern California town a destination for what Madsen estimates to be thousands of tourists every year. We silently watch for a few minutes as the familiar Universal Studios opening fanfare gives way to a dissonant series of squawks and chirps that reverberate from the screen, followed by the deafening sound of hundreds of wings flapping at once. Gesturing for me to follow him inside, Madsen flicks on a TV behind the glass counter. Rick Madsen stands with an Alfred Hitchcock mannequin at Seagull Antiques in Bodega. Madsen gingerly slaps the mannequin’s shoulder a couple of times and retreats into the building again, this time carrying another mannequin with a blonde beehive and a pea-green skirt suit toward the glass telephone booth on the other side of the door: Tippi Hedren. “He’s looking pretty rough these days, but he has a back-up head in the shop.” He was 80 years old.“This is Hitch,” Madsen says, introducing the mannequin, who is modeled after the legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. ![]() Hitchcock's output would slow during the '60s and '70s as he experienced health problems, with his final film "Family Plot" (1976) released in 1976. He would remain best known as a filmmaker however, directing beloved films like "Vertigo" (1958), "North by Northwest" (1959), and perhaps the most venerated thriller of all time, "Psycho" (1960). In 1955, Hitchcock expanded his reach into television, producing and hosting the anthology series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (CBS, 1955-1965). Even more iconic thrillers would follow including "Notorious" (1946), "Dial M For Murder" (1954), "Rear Window" (1954), and "To Catch a Thief" (1955). ![]() Eventually, he would relocate to Hollywood, making his American film debut with the Selznick International Pictures mystery "Rebecca" (1940) in 1940. After directing England's first talkie, 1929's "Blackmail" (1929), Hitchcock began churning out a number of high-tension films that would soon become classics, including "The 39 Steps" (1935) and "The Lady Vanishes" (1938). Collaborating with his wife, the writer, script supervisor, and editor Alma Reville almost from day one, Hitchcock would make a name for himself as a director just a short while later with his first thriller, "The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog" (1927). There, he gained experience in writing, editing, and production management, and was eventually assigned his first film as a director, "The Pleasure Garden" (1925). Highly interested in the then new industry of film production, he made his first foray into movie making when he was hired at the London branch of Famous Players-Lasky as a title card designer. Born in Essex in 1899, Hitchcock was studying engineering at London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation when, in 1914, his father died suddenly, prompting him to drop out in order to help support his family. Among the most celebrated, imitated, and beloved directors of the 20th century, Alfred Hitchcock is widely seen as the father of the thriller.
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