The Birds

Continuity mistake: The girl in the red sweater's facial cuts get much worse when we see her in the station wagon. (00:14:55)

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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: After the final attack they're all in the living room in the dark. As the camera pans from Melanie to Mitch the wick of the kerosene lamp faces it. In the next shot of Mitch alone the lamp has been rotated so that the wick still faces the camera. (01:45:15)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie and Mitch go back into the house after Lydia calls him he grabs for the doorknob and we immediately here the sound of it turning as he walks through the other side of the door in the next shot. The problem is that they left out the screen door he would have had to open first before he could have entered the house. (01:34:55)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie walks over to the cashier in the pet shop the bird in the cage on the right with the greenish beak faces the other way between shots. (00:02:30)

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Continuity mistake: As Annie leans up against the middle of the red mailbox she knocks the flag down. When we see her again her right arm is pushed up against the front of the mailbox and some amount of time, longer than the three seconds implied, has gone by as the shadow of the mailbox's handle moves between shots. (00:18:00)

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Continuity mistake: So it can be seen better as Melanie looks out the window the stuff inside Mitch's barn is lit differently and moved between shots. (00:22:05 - 00:22:40)

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Continuity mistake: The pink flowers behind Deke get rearranged between shots and no one touched them. The second time we see them, one flower in the center sticks out higher than the rest. (01:18:40 - 01:19:20)

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Continuity mistake: As Mrs. Bundy tells everybody how many birds there are in the world a lock of hair falls out from under fishermen Sebastian Sholes' hat between shots, disappears and falls out again as the scene progresses. (01:21:00 - 01:24:00)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie walks through Mitch's front door she's looking down at the door knob. In the next shot as she walks through she's looking forward. (00:22:05)

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Continuity mistake: After Mitch suggests that they get help up at the restaurant, the shadow of Melanie's hand on her forehead changes between shots. (00:26:15)

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Continuity mistake: In a close-up of her driving to Bodega Bay Melanie turns the steering wheel to the left and we hear the screeching of her wheels, but the background indicates she's still going straight. (00:11:05)

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Continuity mistake: As Mitch checks the doors and windows Melanie sits with Cathy on the couch. Notice the fruit bowl under the lamp. At the beginning of the attack the red apple jumps to the front of the bowl from the back without anyone being near it. (01:36:50)

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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: When Mitch is first seen sleeping on the couch, after the last attack, the red throw pillow is protruding out from behind his right shoulder. The next time he is seen from the front the pillow is totally behind his back. (01:45:25)

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Continuity mistake: When we first see Mitch on the ladder it's resting against the 6th plank below the window. Mitch never moves it but after Melanie hands him the last piece of lumber and he climbs down it's resting against the 7th Plank. (01:34:00)

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Continuity mistake: After the final attack as Mitch sleeps in the chair the tabletop and the three items on it to his left are lit up. They get much darker the next time we see them. (01:45:25)

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Continuity mistake: As Mitch checks everything in the kitchen he walks past the birdcage and looks in it. Look closely at the door of the birdcage as he walks around it. At first it's closed then in the close-up it's open. (01:38:00)

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Continuity mistake: When Melanie lets the bird go, her hands are at eye level. In the next shot they're totally over her head. (00:05:55)

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Continuity mistake: As Lydia cleans off the coffee table and walks out with the tray the green pillow on the left of the couch is at the center of the screen. No one touches it but a few shots later as Melanie brings Cathy back from the bathroom it's been fluffed up with the right corner now being higher than the left. (01:39:15)

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Continuity mistake: A blond boy in a light brown shirt is attacked by a crow and goes from having no blood on his neck to having a lot of blood smeared on his neck between shots. (01:14:10)

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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
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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