'BIRDS' FLIES AT BENEFIT.

Byline: - Valerie Kuklenski

Most look at crows as the bullying seed thieves of the avian world. Alfred Hitchcock saw them as the menacing antagonists of a big-screen horror tale.

His 1963 movie of feathered friends as foes, ``The Birds,'' based on the Daphne du Maurier novel, is showcased Saturday at the Valley of the Stars Film Society benefit.

``I think the fact that it was such a technical movie to make and came out as such a successful movie was really amazing,'' said Pat Hitchcock O'Connell, the director's daughter, who will talk about the film before the screening. ``They used all different kinds of birds. They used real birds, mechanical birds, fake birds.''

She recalled one trained seagull in the children's birthday scene giving its wranglers a little difficulty. ``This one gull, Charlie, got out and just was walking along and everyone was concerned about how to get him back. It was near the ocean.''

The event at the Museum of the American West at the Autry National Center is a fund-raiser for area film festivals the Valley of the Stars supports, including MethodFest and Screamfest. O'Connell will be interviewed by Drew Casper, who holds the USC School of Cinema-Television's Hitchcock chair, about ``The Birds'' and her biography of her mother, ``Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man.''

``I wrote about my mother because my mother was really behind everything he did. He didn't make a move without her,'' said O'Connell, who has appeared in more than a dozen videos talking about her father's films.

``She was in the movie business before he was in England,'' she said. ``She was a script supervisor. When they came over here, he depended on her for everything. If he read something and he was interested in it, he would have her read it and see if it would become a movie.

``I just felt that she deserved some credit for everything that he'd done,'' said O'Connell, who will sign copies of the book at the benefit.

Tickets for the 5:30 p.m. event are $75 and include dinner, lecture, post-screening dessert and a DVD of ``The Birds.'' It will be held at the Museum of the American West at the Autry National Center 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles. For information, call [phone] or go to www.valleyofthestars.org/filmsociety.