Great sites

Anything Hollywood

Atomic Popcorn

Banned in Hollywood

Bits & Pieces

Blockbuster Buzz

Book mistakes

CanMag

CHUD

The Daily Column

Daily Stab

Defamer

Double Viking

The Evil Beet

Film Drunk

Filmofilia

Filmspotting

Foundry Music

Game mistakes

Geek Tyrant

Gone Hollywood

Hollyscoop

Hollywood Outbreak

I Am Bored

I Love Bacon

Joblo movie news

Movie Banter

Movie Buzz

Movie spoilers

Movie timeline

Other crap

Screenjunkies

Sky movie reviews

Something Really Funny

Tengossip

Trailer Addict

Unreality Magazine

Quotes

Noah Cross: 'Course I'm respectable. I'm old. Politicians, public buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.

See more...

Trivia

The homage Roman Polanski pays is subtle but there are many similarities to Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon directed by John Huston. Ida Sessions in beginning of the movie trying to put one over on Jake, the guys removing Hollis Mulwray's name from the door of the office after he dies, and Jake's interrogation of Evelyn Mulwray at 1972 Canyon Drive. See more...

Picture

Movie Mistakes blog

Popular blog posts:

Top 15 biggest Harry Potter film mistakes

The biggest mistakes in the Harry Potter movies

The 20 biggest Friends mistake pictures

10 Twilight mistakes in pictures

10 Biggest mistakes in The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Update alerts | Exclude type?

Chinatown (1974) - 90 mistakes

Directed by Roman Polanski, starring Faye Dunaway, Jack Nicholson, John Huston (add more)

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Thriller

Mistakes
Trivia
Pictures
Quotes
Corrections
Submit
⇑
⇓

Continuity: Jake takes Lieutenant Escobar to Curley's house, and the flower pot on the ledge and the shades in the window move between shots after he walks up to it.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: At 1972 Canyon Drive, Evelyn Mulwray says to Jake after he walks threw the door, "Have you slept?". The pearl necklace she's fiddling with is over her collar in one shot and under it in the next.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: After Mr. Palmer walks over and tries to pick up Claude Mulvihill's gun (which Jack kicks away) we see Jack's hat on his left. In the next shot as Jake picks it up it's now on his right.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: At 1972 Canyon Drive, Jake speaks to Evelyn Mulwray and there's a dress lying on the open suitcase behind her as she sits on the couch. In previous shots, it's not in the suitcase, and no one went near it.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: At 1972 Canyon Drive, Jake sits down and says to Evelyn Mulwray, "Do you know any good criminal lawyers?". If you look closely the dress on the chair to his left has been rearranged between shots.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: At 1972 Canyon Drive before Jake meets Katherine Cross, the dried flowers in the vase behind the sofa have been rearranged since we saw them at the beginning of the scene.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: At 1972 Canyon Drive as he talks to Evelyn Mulwray, the curtain above Jake's head extends almost halfway to the center of the rod. Earlier when we first saw it, it was pushed all the way to the left side.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: After Jake walks threw the door at 1972 Canyon Drive the mirrored makeup case in front of the staircase moves between shots. At first the top is angled slightly, then when we see it again it's opened fully and straight up in the air.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: Jake takes Lieutenant Escobar to Curley's house and as they drive up, he takes his right hand off of the backseat of the car. In the next shot both of his arms are leaning over the backseat.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: At 1972 Canyon Drive, the shadows on the left stairway wall change radically between shots as Jake walks in.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: Throughout the scene at 1972 Canyon Drive, the handle on the hat box to the left of the sofa changes in relation to the hat sitting on top of it.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: At Ida Sessions' house, Lieutenant Escobar shows Jake the photos that he took at Echo Park earlier in the movie. If you look closely though, Katherine Cross never holds her hat in front of the bridge as we see in the third photo. The other photos also have problems.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: At Hollis Mulwray's office, the shadows on the pictures to the left of Russ Yelburton's door fall to the right of the pictures as Mulwray's Secretary walks in to see him. Two shots later, as she walks out of the office, the lighting has been changed and the shadows fall behind the pictures. Later the first shadows return.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: After his altercation with the farmer, Evelyn Mulwray drives Jake home and he pulls out a piece of paper with Jasper Lamar Crabb's obit on it. This scrap of paper is not the same one that he tore out of the newspaper in the restaurant before he met with Evelyn Mulwray. The side of this scrap of paper is even, but if you watch as he rips the newspaper in the restaurant, the tear moves to the left as it goes up the sheet.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: After Jake slaps Evelyn Mulwray, the vase on the table on the right of the sofa disappears between shots.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: Jake goes back to Evelyn Mulwray's house only to find the gardener working in the back yard. As he walks over to talk to him the shadow on the circular brick walkway goes from half shaded to totally shaded between shots.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Factual error: In Jake's office, Evelyn Mulwray stands by the window and a mid twentieth century modern building is outside it to the right.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: John Huston sees Katherine Cross and says to her, "I'm your grandfather," and we see a black car passing by them on the road. In the next shot, it's gone.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: As they are escorted out of the Mar Vista rest home, Jake kicks Claude Mulvihill in the stomach and if you look closely his hat never leaves his left hand as he smashes his head into the front railing. In the next shot as Claude drops his gun to the floor we see the hat on the ground next to it.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time
⇑
⇓

Continuity: After he takes a shower Jake's stitches are very visible as they stick straight out of his nose. In the next shot they are different and you can hardly see them. This happens many times throughout the movie.

Edit Submitted by ???? Time