The Birds

The Birds (1963)

553 mistakes - chronological order

(15 votes)

Continuity mistake: The neckline of Lydia's nightgown changes between shots as she says to Melanie, "No, no don't go." (01:05:55)

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Continuity mistake: As they talk in Lydia's bedroom the inside part of the left window curtain is rearranged while Melanie is standing by the clock. (01:06:20)

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Continuity mistake: As Lydia sits in her bed and says to Melanie, "I don't think I can bear to be left alone" watch the picture behind the door to the right of Melanie. The shadow of the door on the picture changes from the right to left between shots. (01:07:00)

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Continuity mistake: In the scene when Melanie is taking tea to Lydia, Lydia's hair changes between shots. When she is resting on her back you can see sections of hair are down by her neck. When she leans forward, her hair is all up on her head. This changes back when she's lying down again. Lydia's hair changes in consecutive shots, during other scenes as well. (01:07:05)

Continuity mistake: Lydia sits up in her bed and weeps, "Forgive me, this business with the birds has upset me," and the white chair moves about a foot to the left of where we saw it before without being touched by them. (01:07:05)

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Visible crew/equipment: When Melanie walks out the door carrying the tray with the tea pot on it you can see a reflection of the stage lighting for the entire shot. (01:07:50)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie leaves with the tea to go check on Cathy at the school the left side of Lydia's nightgown changes between shots and is no longer protruding from her sweater. (01:07:55)

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Continuity mistake: Early in the movie Melanie makes a right turn as she goes up to Annie's house and we see a white post on the school side of the street and a stop sign on the opposite side. Now as she drives up to the school to check on Cathy we see the exact same spot and there's no stop sign. (01:08:10)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie parks in front of the school there's a big hunk of black tar on the rear quarter panel of her car behind the tire, that wasn't there in the previous shot. (01:08:15)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie drives up to the school to check on Cathy her car is dripping a nice straight line of fluid on the gravel behind it. This is the second take of this shot because there is a lighter straight line of fluid in exactly the same spot in front the car as she drives up. (01:08:15)

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Visible crew/equipment: When Melanie pulls up to the school to check on Cathy we hear voices of the children singing inside and a crew member's reflection is seen moving in the car door as she opens it. (01:08:30)

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Deliberate mistake: When Melanie first walks into the classroom she sees five rows of students. Later when the students are about to leave there are only four rows of students, now ending with the boy in the plaid shirt (closest to the camera), in the front. The row on the left has been removed so the camera can pan from left to right in the side shot. (01:08:50 - 01:13:00)

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Audio problem: As Melanie walks into the classroom we hear the children singing "Risalty Rosalty" and as they turn around to look at her we still hear the song but none of them are singing. (01:08:55)

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Continuity mistake: Melanie's car changes positions from the time she parks near the front steps of the school. As Melanie walks out of the school to sit by the monkey bars to when she runs back to the school, and then when the children run out of the school. (01:09:30 - 01:11:40)

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Continuity mistake: At the school, as Melanie sits down to have a smok,e the dark markings on the upper plank of the wooden fence behind her move higher between shots. (01:09:50)

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Continuity mistake: When Melanie takes her cigarette case out of her pocketbook she holds it in her right hand between her thumb and four fingers. In the next shot her index finger is inside the case. (01:09:55)

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Continuity mistake: After coming back out of the school Melanie sits down to have a smoke and the strap of her handbag is in the crook of her arm. In the next shot it's around her wrist touching her watch. (01:09:55)

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Continuity mistake: When the first bird perches on the monkey bars behind Melanie the sun is behind her as you can see by the long shadow she casts as she walks to the chair. In the close-up she casts a shadow in the opposite direction on the fence. (01:09:55)

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Continuity mistake: As the birds gather on the monkey bars behind Melanie she looks to her right and straight up and sees one lone bird flying past a television antenna. This is incorrect because first of all she's looking up to high and second we've seen in that direction and there is no house there, just a hill. The house is across the street. (01:11:10 - 01:33:05)

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Continuity mistake: When Melanie gets up and looks at the birds massed on the monkey bars the area behind her is a tree and a field. This background changes entirely when she and Mitch walk up to find Annie's body and there is what looks like a junk yard with a valley behind it. (01:11:20 - 01:30:00)

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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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