 In a sense, this is a reprise of  Tippi  Hedren s famous role in Alfred Hitchcock s "The Birds," but this time it is ravening jungle beasts who assemble in flocks to invade an otherwise quiet home where they chase humans up and down stairways and from one room to another. The film took eleven years to complete and suffered every conceivable cat-as-trophe, including maiming of actors and technicians by temperamental tigers, flood, fire, foreclosure, and a deadly disease that decimated the feline cast. Producer Noel Marshall (who was married to Miss Hedren at the time) wrote the script, directed, and starred, along with his wife, three of their children (including Melanie Griffith), some 150 lions, leopards, tigers, cheetahs, and other big cats, whose witty ad-libs gave the film its title. At a cost of $17 million, this must be the most expensive home movie ever made.