The Birds

The Birds (1963)

553 mistakes - chronological order

(15 votes)

Continuity mistake: No one touches the two yellow buoys on the end of Mitch's doc, but after Melanie leaves the birds in the house they've changed position relative to the wooden planks underneath. (00:23:10)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie gets back into the boat she places her pocketbook in the back with the latch facing her. In the next shot as she watches Mitch on the shore the pocketbook is reversed and it stays that way until she gets out of the boat after being hit by the gull. (00:23:25)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie watches Mitch from out on the boat, someone opened the shades on the left lower window of the house. In the next shot as Mitch watches her with the binoculars the shades are closed again. (00:24:10)

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Continuity mistake: As Mitch holds his binoculars in order to see Melanie, the left strap comes down in the middle of the palm of his hand. We know he hasn't put the binoculars down but in the next shot he's holding them differently with the strap moved over two inches closer to his sweater's sleeve. (00:24:15)

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Visible crew/equipment: As Mitch watches Melanie with his binoculars he looks directly into the opening of the camera lens. You can see its dark reflection on the right lens of his binoculars. The next time we see them the reflection is gone and both lenses look the same. (00:24:20)

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Audio problem: After the gull hits her in the head, Melanie says to Mitch, "Yes, I think so," but her mouth does not go along with what she's saying. (00:25:35)

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Continuity mistake: As Mitch takes Melanie to try to get help he tells a guy, "A gull hit her" and a long shadow of a wire appears on the white sliding door directly behind them. In the next shot we see the door in middle of the screen and the shadow is gone. (00:26:05)

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Continuity mistake: When Mitch takes Melanie to try to get help after she is hit by the gull the first door they come upon says, "out to lunch". If you look closely as they walk up to the door they're in bright sunlight but in the next shot as they get to the door it's overcast. (00:26:10)

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Continuity mistake: As they go up to the restaurant to get help Melanie says, "I had a booster before I went abroad last May" and the background changes abruptly between shots. (00:26:15)

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Continuity mistake: As they start off going up to the restaurant for help two large brown crates appear out of nowhere on the dock behind them to the left of the screen. (00:26:15)

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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: After Mitch and Melanie walk past the door that says, "Out to Lunch," look at the numbers on the front of the boat behind them you'll see that they change between shots. (00:26:15)

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Visible crew/equipment: As they head for the restaurant, a crew member's reflection can be seen on the far left of the screen moving in the lower green section of the phone booth just as Mitch's shadow passes the phone booth. (00:26:25)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie and Mitch approach the restaurant there's a fence that they pass on the left before they get to the door. When we see this spot later in the movie the fence is not there. (00:26:25 - 01:26:15)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie and Mitch walk past the side of the restaurant look closely at the windows at the top left of the screen. They have transparent green shades on the rear windows that are pulled down about one-third of the way from the top. In the next shot, when we see the back of the restaurant, no shades are pulled down. (00:26:25)

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Continuity mistake: There's a fixture with a wire hanging down from it in the front left corner of the restaurant. When they built the interiors for this scene they forgot to put it there and when Melanie opens the phone booth door trying to get out the wire hanging from the bottom of the roof of the restaurant is missing. In the close-up as Melanie tries to get out the cord that we saw previously sticking out has been tucked back in towards the phone for this shot. (00:26:25 - 01:26:45)

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Continuity mistake: As Melanie and Mitch walk past the side of the restaurant look closely at the second and third windows from the right. Now we can see right into the place through these but after they walk into the restaurant look behind the bar all three windows have drawn blinds. (00:26:25)

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Continuity mistake: No one is sitting inside the window at the left of the restaurant as they walk by. In the next shot inside the restaurant there are people sitting there. (00:26:25)

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Continuity mistake: The phone booth changes when Melanie is in it during the bird attack later in the movie. Here the green part on the bottom has three vent slits per row, later when the fire is behind it you can see four vent slits per row. (00:26:25 - 01:26:15)

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Continuity mistake: As they get to the restaurant door, Melanie is to the right of Mitch, but in the next shot inside the restaurant she walks around him again to get on his right side. (00:26:30)

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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: There is no musical score for the movie.

More trivia for The Birds

Question: What's making the birds go insane and attack people?

Answer: It is never explained, probably because it would ruin the mystery of the film to spell it out.

If you are a Hitchcock fan, you pay attention to dialogue. They mention quite often that it started Melanie's arrival, of which she brought 2 caged birds. The rest is implied.

Answer: None of the characters knew why the birds attacked, or the reason it was confined to the one town of Bodega Bay. The incident was so isolated that the outside news media was barely aware it was occurring or knew its severity, so there was no investigation into it at the time. Alfred Hitchc0ck's explanation was that the birds were rising up against humans to punish them for taking nature for granted.

raywest

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