The time Hitchcock changed his mind and ‘The Frogs’ became ‘The Birds’

Alfred Hitchcock was troubled. He sat in his kitchen, morosely eating from a tub of ice-cream. His latest picture just wasn’t working.

After the success of Psycho, Hitch took some time out to consider his next picture – a slapstick comedy about a man who keeps falling over? Too lightweight. An existential piece about a monk walking about? Too Russian. He even considered a hip-hop musical, but as hip hop wouldn’t be invented for another ten years he decided against it.

Eventually he read his friend Daphne Du Maurier’s novella The Birds. He was enchanted by the idea of hordes of creatures waging war on a town, but he just wasn’t convinced they should be birds.

“Hitch was never sold on birds being frightening creatures,” said star Jessica Tandy in a 1998 interview.

“They were too feathery. Too flappy. Too silly. He wanted creatures that could genuinely terrorise a town.”

Initially, Hitchcock went with alligators. He had the script written. He had his cast on set, and then the alligators arrived.

“On the one hand, alligators were perfect, because they were terrifying. On the other, they were really hard to work with because they were terrifying,” laughed the Driving Miss Daisy star.

Alligators were out. The next idea were dogs. But dogs painted to look like wolves.

“Well, that was exactly the opposite problem, the dogs were adorable and wouldn’t attack anyone. Not even when Hitch put dog food in Tippi Hedren’s hair.”

Eventually, Hitchcock settled on frogs. The picture would be called ‘The Frogs’ and would be about a swarm of frogs inexplicably attacking a small seaside town.

“Well, I wasn’t convinced,” continued Ms Tandy.

“But, Hitch was Hitch, and what did I know? You know, I must confess, the scene with Tippi walking past the playground with frogs swarming all over the swings and in all the trees was really quite effective.”

However, there was no way to simulate a convincing frog attack, and the director resorted to flinging handfuls of frogs into the faces of the characters to give the effect of a coordinated frog strike.

When star Rod Taylor started to laugh with a frog on his head, the great director knew that it wasn’t going to work. He sent everyone home and retired to his kitchen.

However, always one to make the best of a poor situation, after half a pint of ice-cream, Hitch smiled to himself. He put the lid back on and went to bed. Safe in the knowledge he’d rescued the picture.

“Why, the next day he announced that it wasn’t going to be called ‘The Frogs’ after all, he’d had this wonderful idea to make it ‘The Birds’ instead,” explained Ms Tandy.

“Well, no one said anything thing. It was just Hitch, and everything turned out wonderfully in the end didn’t it?”

Sadly, no footage exists of ‘The Frogs.’ Although, with CGI now being able to convincingly create a savage frog attack, perhaps one day we may be able to finally see the frog masterpiece that only existed in the great man’s mind.