Mar. 21, 1962 - Alfred Hitchcock is using his own money to finance his latest movie, it was learned today. The cost will be well in excess of $1 million. The movie on which Mr. Hitchcock has risked so much money is “The Birds,” based on a novella by Daphne du Maurier. It is being filmed along Bodega Bay in northern California. The film will be distributed before Hitchcock’s “Marnie,” which will star Grace Kelly. The stars of “The Birds” are Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, Jessica Tandy and Tippi Hedren. The novella told how birds turned on humans and destroyed them with organized, kamikaze-style assaults. The locale of the book has been shifted from Europe to California for the movie. For an established director to put money into a movie is extremely rare, and the only producer who backs his own movies is Samuel Goldwyn. It was said that Mr. Hitchcock had decided to finance his own movie because of the huge profits he earned from his last film, “Psycho.” That film, distributed by Paramount, cost about $750,000 and is said to have grossed about $14 million so far. Mr. Hitchcock is reported to have earned about $7 million from “Psycho.”
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