Psycho / The Birds

PSYCHO, 1960, Universal, 109 min. Coming off the comparatively big-budget NORTH BY NORTHWEST, director Alfred Hitchcock decided he wanted to make a nice little, low-budget B&W film for a change of pace. PSYCHO was the result, and the shockwaves are still reverberating. Lovely embezzler Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is forced to take refuge from a rainstorm off the beaten track of a lonely California highway. Unfortunately, she checks in at the Bates Motel, presided over by young Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a strange fellow living with his mother in a nearby mansion.

THE BIRDS, 1963, Universal, 119 min. Director Alfred Hitchcock’s love affair with northern California climaxed with this stunning shocker about the residents of picturesque coastal town Bodega Bay, who find themselves targeted by a murderous invasion of birds.