The Birds

Continuity mistake: As Melanie is inside of the phone booth a man with birds attacking him runs up to her and there is a clear shot of the road extending past the restaurant. When this spot is seen earlier as Mitch and Melanie walk into the restaurant it's entirely different with a bunch of telephone poles on the left. (01:27:25)

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Continuity mistake: Before Mitch rescues Melanie from the telephone booth we can see that all the fires are still burning. But in the shot of him rescuing her they forgot to add the flames out in the road behind them. (01:27:40)

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Continuity mistake: After Mitch rescues Melanie from the phone booth he places her to the left of the front door of the restaurant as he reaches to open it. In the next shot their positions change and she is in front of the door going into restaurant. (01:27:45)

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Continuity mistake: We see the back of Mitch's coat as he reaches for the doorknob of the restaurant. It's wetter in the next shot as he brings Melanie back into the restaurant. (01:27:45)

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Continuity mistake: In the restaurant as Mitch says, "We can get Cathy at Annie's now," Melanie looks at the floor, then at Mitch between shots. (01:28:10)

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Continuity mistake: When the uptight mom starts talking, Melanie sheds a very long tear under her right eye that appears out of nowhere between shots. (01:28:35)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie and Mitch get ready to leave the restaurant for Annie's the hat and coat on the coat rack cast a very dark shadow against the wall. When we saw this spot before there was only of very light shadow against the wall. (01:29:10)

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Continuity mistake: The wire attached to the roof of the Bodega Bay School that the birds sit on as Mitch and Melanie watch was not there earlier in the movie. We see this left corner of the building up close twice earlier in the movie. The first is when Melanie drives up to Annie's and the second even better shot is when Annie stands by her mailbox as Melanie leaves. (01:29:35)

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Continuity mistake: As Mitch and Melanie walk past the Bodega Bay School we get a good look at the mud caked all over both his shoes. It's there for the whole scene except in the close-up when he picks up the rock, where his shoes are immaculate. (01:29:40)

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Continuity mistake: At the school Melanie and Mitch pass the front of her car twice on their way to Annie's house. First they stop right at the front of the car as they spot the birds on the monkey bars, then three shots later they walk past it again. (01:29:45)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie and Mitch walk past her car on the way to Annie's, it moves forward between shots, closer to the corner of the school past the flag pole. (01:29:45)

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Continuity mistake: Melanie hasn't been near her car since the attack on the children at the school. Now as she and Mitch pass it while walking to Annie's, we can see the front wheels have been turned all the way to the right. (01:29:50)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie and Mitch walk up to Annie's house they pass the school and you can see that the bench that Melanie sat on in front of the monkey bars has been removed. (01:30:00)

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Continuity mistake: Annie's body changes position on her front steps. At first her head is on the edge of the sidewalk and Mitch doesn't move her. Then after he runs to get Cathy he comes back and covers her with his jacket and her head moved about six inches from the edge of the gravel sidewalk. (01:30:20 - 01:31:35)

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Continuity mistake: In the first shot of Annie's body lying on the steps there's an orange chair on the porch pushed up under the window on the right. At first the top of the chair is below the bottom sill of the window but in the next shot it's been moved and the top of it is now above the sill. (01:30:20)

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Continuity mistake: When we first see Annie's dead body we also see the well groomed and raked gravel of her front walkway with not a pebble out of place. One shot later as Mitch runs up to her we see the impressions of his feet appearing in the gravel from a previous take. (01:30:20)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie and Mitch look at Annie's body more time elapses then we are led to believe. There's a car parked on the road directly behind them and there are no cuts in the time line of the movie, but ten seconds later we see that spot again and the car is gone. (01:30:25)

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Continuity mistake: As Mitch crouches down near Annie's body he turns to look at Melanie and you can see a large wet stain on the porch. It's there until he sees Cathy in the window, then as he runs to the front door it disappears. (01:30:30)

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Continuity mistake: When we first see Annie's house shrubs are growing right up to the edge of the right and the left side of her fence. Then when she is lying there dead the shrubs on the left side of the fence are different. (01:30:30)

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Continuity mistake: The angle of Annie's head changes from looking to the left when we first see her to looking up in the close-up. (01:30:30)

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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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More mistakes in The Birds

Mother in Diner: Why are they doing this? Why are they doing this? They said when you got here, the whole thing started. Who are you? What are you? Where did you come from? I think you're the cause of all this. I think you're evil. Evil!

More quotes from The Birds

Trivia: When we see the school children running away from the birds, they were actually running on a treadmill with Bodega Bay footage added in the background.

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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