Continuity mistake: The tall structure on the hill behind the swing set has a lot of clouds around it. When we see it seconds later the sky is clear. (00:52:05)
Continuity mistake: After Mitch runs to Annie and Cathy there's a fake movable bird behind the real bird to the right of the swing. It's gone when we see Mitch carry the little girl into the house. (00:52:20)
Continuity mistake: When we first see the table with the food on it the sandwiches in the middle are piled up in interlocking stacks of three with one more pile of three or four sandwiches rising in the center. When we see the sandwiches again up close as Mitch brings the little girl into the house, they are neatly stacked above each other though not interlocking as before and the middle pile is not there. (00:52:25)
Continuity mistake: A bird pops some balloons as it flies through the gazebo. In the next shot a bird chases a boy in a blue suit and we see the gazebo again but we don't see the first bird fly out. (00:52:25)
Continuity mistake: In the close-up shots of the party scene the grass is much greener than in the wide shots, where some brown is mixed in. (00:52:30)
Continuity mistake: In the party scene the close-up of Melanie, Annie and Mitch together had to be shot at a totally different time. Before, the structure behind the swing set had a long shadow across its window. Now the window has no shadow on it at all. (00:52:30)
Continuity mistake: We see Melanie run to help the girl in the blue dress twice. The first time she starts out from the middle of the yard and almost gets to her. The second time she starts from further back near the lawn chairs. (00:52:35)
Continuity mistake: As Melanie looks at the little girl in the blue dress she's trying to climb under the inner of two fences before a bird attacks her. When Melanie runs to her there's only one fence. (00:52:35)
Continuity mistake: As Lydia and the girl in the orange dress run into the house, there's just a plain wall with none of the background of the room that we see at the end of the scene. (00:52:55)
Continuity mistake: As Lydia runs into the house with Cathy, we see a black light fixture between the window and door the that wasn't there before when she brought the cake out. (00:52:55)
Continuity mistake: After Melanie saves the little girl in the blue dress from the gull they run past the table with the birthday cake and punch on and almost get to the door. In the next shot they run past the table again. (00:52:55)
Continuity mistake: As they all run into the house to get away from the birds the redheaded boy in the grey-blue suit disappears. He runs across the lawn at the same time as Annie and the two little girls with her and should arrive at exactly the same time but we never see him again. Mitch even looks around in his direction to see if there are any children still outside before he enters the house. The boy just disappears from this scene and is not in the last shot of everyone inside the house either. (00:53:00)
Continuity mistake: At the party the tablecloth is blowing under the table in the long shot as everyone runs toward the house. In the next shot as they enter the house it's not blowing and there is no wind at all. (00:53:00)
Continuity mistake: In the wide shot as Melanie brings the girl in the light blue dress to the house the front of the lawn chair facing the hill is angled to the right of the pole behind it. When Mitch carries the girl into the house, it's angled to the left of the pole. (00:53:00)
Continuity mistake: In the wide shot of the party scene as everyone is running into the house a girl in a bright red sweater and white skirt pulls her mother in the blue dress by the hand. In the next shot they've changed positions and are together with the mother's arm around the girl's back. (00:53:00)
Continuity mistake: As everyone runs into the house there are four neat stacks of paper cups around the punch bowl. When we saw this spot before there were only two cups around the punch bowl and most of the other paper cups were stacked on trays and knocked over as a bird plowed into them. (00:53:05)
Continuity mistake: As Mitch brings the little girl in the blue dress back to the house the doorknob appears between shots. (00:53:10)
Continuity mistake: No one went near it, but the chair at the left of the dinner table has been pushed in right up against the table between shots. (00:54:10)
Continuity mistake: As they all sit down to have dinner Lydia covers the lovebird's cage with a cloth. After the birds fly from the fireplace we see the birdcage again and you can tell by the edges that the cloth is in a different position even though no one went near it. (00:54:10)
Continuity mistake: Before the birds fly out of the fireplace Lydia sits on the couch and there are two pillows behind her a red one on the left and a green one on the right. She doesn't move from the spot but two shots later as the birds fly into the room the pillows are reversed. (00:54:25)
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