Mistakes in Movies
Goofs, errors, call them what you will. Some people just won’t rest until disbelief has been thoroughly unsuspended…
The Third Man (1949)
Although The Third Man is (famously) set in Vienna, and makes use of numerous locations around that city, much of the studio work and other shots were filmed in London.
This would apparently include at least some of the back projection footage made for the driving scenes. (more…)
The Odd Couple (1967)
Here’s an onscreen mistake that makes the misplaced apostrophe in The Last Man on Earth look like a huge, movie-wrecking blunder. (more…)
Harvey (1950)
In Henry Koster’s 1950 comedy Harvey, James Stewart plays Elwood P. Dowd, a good-natured sort who’s befriended Harvey, a giant invisible rabbit. At least, he seems to be a giant rabbit, by the way that Stewart spends the film looking up at him. (more…)
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
The Last Man on Earth features a lengthy flashback sequence, during which we find out a little more about the origins of the disease that has all but wiped out the human race. An immensely unconvincing newspaper is produced, (more…)
Citizen Kane (1941)
There’s a scene near the end of Citizen Kane where Kane and his wife through a lavish picnic on the beach in Florida. It’s an unsettling, eerie scene, rendered all the more so by the unusual appearance of their surroundings: it’s more swamp than beach, and those creatures flying across the background don’t quite look like birds… (more…)
If.... (1968)
In a rare moment of escape from the oppressive boarding school in Lindsay Anderson’s If…., Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) and Johnny (David Wood) pay a visit to the local town. In the street, they begin a pretend knife fight.
The scene was filmed from across the road, and the reactions of the passers-by are genuine. One reaction, however, was a little on the extreme side. (more…)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones needs to cut a stick to the right length in order to create The Staff of Ra, a doodad that will tell him the secret location of the Ark of the Covenant. Those dastardly Nazis are building their own staff with the help of evil archaeologist Belloq, but when the heroes make their calculations using clues on the staff’s headpiece, Jones realises that the bad guys have got it wrong: (more…)
