9 Behind-The-Scenes Stories You Didn't Know About Your Favourite Films

Alongside the 1960's classic thriller Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds has to be up there on the list of all-time greatest horror/thriller films. His follow up in 1963 which stars Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor is famed for its ability to make a whole generation of cinema-goers frightened by a simple bird.

All the birds on the film set where trained and looked after by animal trainer, Ray Berwick. The majority of the birds on the set of Hitchcock's film were crows with the addition of a few seagulls and sparrows. Berwick also went onto work on Lassie and Little House on the Prairie.

During the filming of the production, actor Tippi Hedren was required to film a scene where the birds were seen to be relentlessly attacking the star, forcing her to corner on the ground in a bedroom. To force the birds to seem as if they were really attacking Hedren, a thin wire was tied to the birds' legs with the other end tied to the actress. As the birds tried to fly away from the actress they would be pulled back in to give the effect needed. This took a whole seven days of filming with Hedren having a mental breakdown after filming was complete. Production was halted for a week for the actor to recover.

As well as this, a bird flew into the safety glass of the phone booth her character was hiding inside of. The glass shatters and stabbed the star in her cheek and nose. It was later revealed that the crew had not used safety glass at all but normal regular glass.