The Birds

The Birds (1963)

553 mistakes - chronological order

(16 votes)

Continuity mistake: When Melanie looks out the window to see the gas station attendant attacked by the birds the coat hanger that was there earlier in the scene, next to the window, is gone. (01:24:30)

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Continuity mistake: When Melanie walks over to see the gas station attendant attacked, the green drape is flush with the side of the window. No one touched it but a few shots later it's been pulled out about six inches from the side of the window. (01:24:30)

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Continuity mistake: The gas station attendant is standing on a red hose as the bird hits him. The next time we see him he's out cold but the red hose has been neatly wrapped up even though no one went near it. (01:24:35)

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Continuity mistake: The gas station attendant drops the gas hose as the bird hits him and the first spray of gas wets the gravel to the right of it. The next time the hose is seen it's moved closer to the cement below the pump, it's shooting at a different angle and the gravel to the right is dry. (01:24:35)

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Continuity mistake: As Mitch starts to run out of the restaurant the angle of the drapes to the left of the old drunk at the bar changes between shots. At first it's spread out more at the bottom, then up close it hangs straight down. (01:24:40)

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Continuity mistake: When the birds start to attack again Mitch starts to run out of the restaurant and the old drunk at the bar is asleep. In the next shot of Mitch at the door he's suddenly awake. (01:24:40)

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Continuity mistake: The body of the gas station attendant moves to the left between shots, as Mitch runs to help him, and Mitch's position changes after he runs to help. (01:24:55)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie and the rest look out of the restaurant window the pencil in the ear of the waitress is in one place in the close-ups and another in the wider shots. (01:25:00)

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Visible crew/equipment: In the close-up of the orange car there's a perfect shot of the cameraman in the bumper as the gas hits the tire. (01:25:10)

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Continuity mistake: We see the gas hit the tire of the orange car, but in the next shot it's nowhere near the tire. (01:25:15)

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Continuity mistake: The orange car that catches fire, when the guy throws the match, moves between shots. When he lights up the cigarette there's a white parking line to left of the tire. In the previous shot it wasn't there. (01:25:15)

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Continuity mistake: When the orange car explodes there is much more gas around especially under the guy's feet than in the previous shot. (01:25:30)

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Deliberate mistake: The dummy consumed in the fireball is much shorter than the actor it doubles for. (01:25:30)

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Revealing mistake: The crew rigged the explosion to start from under the car and not from the lit match which isn't thrown anywhere near where the explosion originates. (01:25:30)

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Revealing mistake: There are two people next to a red and white pick-up truck in the upper right of the screen who are waiting for their cue to enter the scene after the car explodes. (01:25:35)

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Continuity mistake: Two seconds after the orange car explodes quite a few people appear who were nowhere nearby a second earlier. (01:25:35)

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Continuity mistake: The aerial shot of the fire is wrong. The two cars parked across from the exploding orange car are green on the left and white on the right. In the aerial shot they're both black. (01:25:45)

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Continuity mistake: As everyone runs out of the restaurant, the bushes on the left of the building that were there before are gone. (01:26:10)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie runs into the phone booth from the restaurant the four poles that were around it when Mitch walks her to the restaurant after the gull attack have disappeared. (01:26:10)

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Continuity mistake: As everyone runs out of the restaurant the fire is close to the telephone booth. In a previous shot when we saw the fire heading towards the gas station it was right next to the building on the other side of the road. (01:26:10)

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More quotes from The Birds

Trivia: Although it lasts for only several minutes on screen, the scene where Tippi Hendren is attacked by the birds in the bedroom took seven days to film.

More trivia for The Birds

Question: When the birds attack the town a gas station attendant is hit by a bird and drops the gas hose he is using to fill a car. The gasoline flows down the street and under a car; a man drops a match and lights the gas causing an explosion. Why didn't the gas pump shut off when the man dropped it?

michael g

Answer: The movie takes place in the 1960s, so presumably gas pumps worked a bit differently back then. This is also a small town and probably the gas station had not modernized. There may not have been automatic shut-offs, or if there was, it was faulty.

raywest

The automatic shut off is in the handle of the hose. When a person grips the handle they have to lift a levered switch to allow gas flow; the lever is spring loaded so that if it is released the gas will stop flowing. I have looked at older antique gas pumps and they are all the same; even the visible glass gravity flow ones. If that hose was dropped the the gas should have stopped flowing.

michael g

More questions & answers from The Birds

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