Stupidity: When birds gather in the schoolyard, Melanie runs in to warn Annie. Rather than call the police or fire department for help and shelter in place until aid arrives (which would take about ten minutes), they make a run for it with the children, out in the open, attacked by the birds. As it's the 1960s, the schoolhouse must have a working phone. Even if it didn't or wasn't working, one adults could have driven in Melanie's car to get help.
The Birds (1963)
1 stupidity
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Jessica Tandy, Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, Tippi Hedren
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)
Doomsayer in diner: It's the end of the world.
Trivia: Tippi Hedren actually received a cut on her face by a bird in one of the shots.
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?
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