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All About The Birds (1999)
Rod Taylor appears in this documentary that's included in the Collector's
Edition DVD version of "The Birds." Many of the movie's key scenes are analyzed by the people involved --
actors, technicians, writer -- explaining in detail why Hitchcock did things
the way he did and how the special effects worked.
A jovial Rod offers some amusing anecdotes. He tells how he
got off to a bad start with Hitchcock by calling the director "Alfred."
He spins tales about carousing with the "bird wranglers" and how
a crow named Archie never failed to take a peck at him. Rod says that's
true terror on his face in the publicity shot with his nemesis.
"All About The Birds" also details the omitted scene between
Mitch and Melanie, and describes the scripted and storyboarded final scene
of the foursome's drive through town and final encounter with the birds
-- in a convertible. AFI Life Achievement Awards:
Alfred Hitchcock
(1979)
Rod Taylor appears ever so briefly in this show, standing up from his
dinner table to introduce another actor featured in a Hitchcock film.
The
hour-long tape simply chronicles the evening Alfred Hitchcock was honored
with the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. It includes
warm greetings from the stars as well as clips from 18 movies, including
"The Birds." Tribute to Alfred
Hitchcock (1983)
Rod Taylor hosted a weeklong film festival of six Alfred Hitchcock movies
on KCOP-Channel 13 in Los Angeles. During the week of March 21, 1983, Rod
introduced the movies and interviews with Hitchcock's daughter, Pat; stars Bob
Cummings, Tippi Hedren and Rhonda Fleming; and writer Ray Bradbury. During
one segment Bradbury related that Hitchcock had asked him to work on the
screenplay for "The Birds," but Bradbury told Hitch that he was
already working on a script -- for Hitchcock's TV series. During another
segment, Rod himself tells a tale that occurred during the making of "The
Birds." He had pointed out to a cameraman that the light in the
refrigerator wasn't coming on when he opened the door (in the kitchen scene
with Rod and Jessica Tandy). Hitchcock overheard Rod's comment and said (in
Rod's best Hitch imitation): "We shall now take a two-hour lunch while
Mr. Taylor, our technical adviser, shows us how to make a movie." |
