Chinatown (1974) - 90 mistakes

Continuity: In the very first scene of the movie Curly looks at the pictures of his wife that Jake took. He gets to the fourth picture and rotates it 45 degrees to get a better look. As he goes on to the next picture he lifts the fourth one up, and in the next shot he's holding a different picture.

Continuity: When Jack says to Curley, "Enough's enough", the statue to the left of Jack moves in front of the picture of Franklin Roosevelt between shots.

Continuity: when Mayor Bagby speaks at the water and power meeting the map behind him curls up on the left in some shots and not in others.

Continuity: Jake follows Hollis Mulwray out to the ocean. In one shot he's standing in front of some boulders then in the next shot Mulwray's out near the water about 50 feet further.

Deliberate "mistake": Hollis Mulwray walks out to the ocean and it's obviously sunset. In the next shot we see Jake's face up close and it's obviously mid-afternoon.

Continuity: At the office, Jake picks up the photos of Hollis Mulwray and Noah Cross, which Lawrence Walsh gives him, with both hands. In the next shot he's holding them with his left hand.

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.

Factual error: Duffy rows Jake around Echo Park and if you look closely you can see some late twentieth century street lights in the background.

Continuity: Hollis Mulwray rows Katherine Cross around Echo Park in a rowboat. When we first see them her hands are in her lap but in the next shot her left hand is touching the side of the boat.

Continuity: As Jake takes their picture from the roof top we see Katherine Cross and Hollis Mulwray's reflection in the camera lens and her dress is a direct sunlight in the reflection but not in the previous shot.

Continuity: When we see Katherine Cross and Hollis Mulwray's reflection in Jake's camera lens, Hollis is standing in a different spot than we saw in the shot before. In the reflection he's in front of the chair but in the previous shot he was next to the chair.

Continuity: There's a very cool shot of Katherine Cross and Hollis Mulwray's reflection in the camera lens as Jake takes their picture from a roof top while they're having lunch. The problem is as the cameraman zooms in, Jake's hands are shaking but the reflection in the lens doesn't.

Continuity: As Jake gets a shave in the barber shop we see the picture he took of Katherine Cross and Hollis Mulwray in the newspaper. If you look closely it's obvious that these are not the same actors we saw in the previous scene.

Continuity: In the barber shop as Jake gets a shave look closely at the shaving cream on his face. In the first shot it reaches all the way up to his lower lip, but when he gets out of the barber's chair to yell at the banker, it's nowhere near his bottom lip.

Continuity: The left side of Barney the barber's bowtie is tied differently between shots as he gives Jake a shave.

Continuity: Before Jake gets out of the barber's chair to yell at the banker the news paper in his hands is folded in half. In the next shot it's laying flat in his lap.

Continuity: As Jake gets a shave in the barber shop look at the rings holding up the lower drapes in the front window and you'll see that they move between shots without anyone going near them.

Continuity: Jake walks back into his office after getting a shave at the barber shop and sees Duffy standing by the water cooler which has a tank that is one-quarter full. Two shots later as he tells his joke about the Chinamen the water tank is half full.

Continuity: Jake walks back into his office after getting a shave at the barber shop and his hair is combed backwards. Later in the scene as he tells the joke about the Chinamen his hair is still parted in the middle but combed sideways to the left and right.

Visible crew/equipment: Jake goes into Hollis Mulwray's office and looks at Evelyn Mulwray's picture on his desk. He doesn't move a muscle but the cameraman can be seen moving in the reflection in the glass.