Suddenly, the normally benign flock attacked the hapless children and women with a fury that my young mind could not comprehend. When I asked my father why the birds were behaving in that manner, he answered simply, "It's Hitchcock."

        From that day, I was hooked! Hitchcock possesses an art of shedding light on the darker tendencies that dwell dormant in the human mind. His skill lies in his ability to bring the viewer into the story by presenting his characters as ordinary people then adding the what-if factor. In a way, Hitchcock's mind is much like that of a child which is accustomed to inventing frightening scenarios to help spice up a rather mundane day. Hitchcock's characters are a contrast to the very predictable characters of today's Hollywood movie machine.

        In Psycho, Janet Leigh plays Marion Crane, an ordinary working girl in a small Phoenix office where she has worked for eleven years, until one day she "goes a little crazy" and steals $40,000.00 instead of depositing it for a client. The intrigue continues when the unsuspecting Crane leaves town and meets a dark stranger, Norman Bates, who is played by Anthony Perkins. He has a few shadows of his own which he hides in his commonplace existence as a hotelier disguised as the boy next door whose best friend happens to be his mother.

Another example of Hitchcock's ordinary people show up in his movie Rope in which school chums decide to murder one of their classmates and hide his corpse in plain sight during a dinner party to which they invite the dead man's fiancee and father and Jimmy Stewart who plays the role of a curious college professor.

Despite the fact that the entire movie is confined to one scene, the suspense is wonderful. There are no unexpected bodies falling out of closets or ax-wielding maniacs standing behind doors; it's a simple premise with a natural progression of intrigue. It's Hitchcock.