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On Christmas morning when they open presents, the sleeves on the mother's robe move back and forth between rolled up and rolled down. See more...

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A Christmas Story (1983) - 45 corrections

Directed by Bob Clark, starring Darren McGavin (add more)

Genres: Comedy, Family

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

Mistakes
Trivia
Corrections
Questions
Submit
While Randy and Ralphie are waiting in line to see Santa, the heavy-set lady in the red coat is ahead of them. A short time later,they are in front of the heavy-set lady in the red coat. [When the announcement comes on over the PA that the store is closing, just after the kid with the goggles takes his turn with Santa, Ralphie pushes past the heavy set lady so that he and his brother can have their turn. There is a whole scene of the two of them squeezing past the lady as she turns to go back down the stairs.]
Edit
Ralphie's father complains after reading in the paper that "The Sox traded Bullfrog!" which is a reference to Chicago White Sox pitcher Bill Dietrich. Dietrich was released by the Sox, not traded, in 1946. [The Bullfrog he was referring to is a fictional character. He was traded for Shottenhoffer. There has never been a MLB player named Shottenhoffer.]
Edit Corrected by jairodrigue
Ovaltine stopped sponsoring Little Orphan Annie in 1940. The Wizard of Oz was released in 1939. The movie setting, therefore, would have to be between 1939-1940. The chattering teeth seen in Miss Shield's desk weren't invented until 1949. [While semi-autobiographical, this story is fiction. By the director's own admission, the film is set "amorphously late '30s, early '40s." It's about a particular *time* in American history, not a specific date. If this is a mistake, then so would the existence of the fictional family and all the events surrounding them.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez Time
As Ralphie gets the first two letters in the code we are told the first word is "be." Since there is no distinction from when one word ends and the next word begins, it is too early at this point to determine the first word. [Ralphie is excited and grasping to learn the code so since "B" and "E" make a word, that's his first assumption, which turns out to be right.]
Edit Corrected by MovieFan612 Time
Watch when all the kids are putting the fake teeth in their mouth near the beginning of the movie. Ralphie's friend, the kid who sits in front of him, just pretends to put the fake teeth in at that point. Very obvious. [We don't see the students put in the teeth. When they say "Good Morning, Miss Shields" his teeth are loosened and he readjusts them.]
Edit Corrected by jairodrigue
In the breakfast scene, after Ralphie's father hopes for a new furnace for Christmas, you see Ralphie and Randy laughing at this notion. Notice Randy's milk glass has fallen over; in the next shot it is upright, and there seems to be more milk in it. [The glass in question spends a lot of time off camera. His mom who is off camera but at the table is rearranging things as she prepares her toast, fixes the glass or Randy does it himself. There is milk in the bottom of the glass because it didn't completely fall over it was resting on the saucer keeping some milk in the glass.]
Edit Corrected by jairodrigue
When Randy is playing with his fire truck on Christmas morning, Ralphie pushes it away from Randy, causing him to whine. When the parents come downstairs, every sound except for Randy's whine and imitation of the fire truck's sound can be heard from when Ralphie did this. [Randy doesn't whine he says Hey! when Ralp pushes away the firetruck. The sounds you hear when the parents come downstairs is the boys playing. No audio problems here.]
Edit Corrected by jairodrigue
When Ralphie receives and decodes the Little Orphan Annie secret message, the last numbers don't match. On the radio, the announcer said the last number is 25. But in close-up shots of the paper Ralphie wrote on, you can see he has written 11 as the last number. [The announcer never says the last number is 25. It's just the last number we hear as the camera cuts to the radio. The rest of the numbers are edited out, we don't need to hear all the numbers.]
Edit Corrected by jairodrigue
In the scene after they buy a Christmas tree, and are singing Jingle Bells, the tire pops and the father says, "Dangum blowout," but his lips don't move. [His mouth does move as he says the line.]
Edit Corrected by jairodrigue
When Ralphie gives the huge fruit basket to his teacher, she has to move it aside to see who is behind it. Their height in relation to the basket varies from one shot to the next - a few shots show both of them taller than the basket, which would have allowed the teacher and Ralph to see each other the whole time. [The difference is in the camera angle of the shots. As Ralphie is carrying the basket, he is holding it up, blocking his face and as he lowers it to the desk, along with a grunt, he lowers his body and head, of course, as he brings the basket down to place it in front of the teacher. In the next shot, the camera angle is looking from about the teachers armpit, not from her head and line of sight. It would appear that she would be able to see just a portion of Ralphie's face, above the yellow bow, which is why she moved it aside.]
Edit
When Ralphie receives his theme with the "C" grade, a map is visible behind the teacher, which stops at the northern border of California. In the next shot, the map now continues north of California. [There are two reasons why this may not be a mistake. First, the teacher has walked over and is standing right in front of the map as she is saying that she is disappointed with the margins. The camera pans and the scene continues for another ten seconds or more as Ralphie is looking at his C+ paper. It is not uncommon for teachers to straighten things in their classroom as they walk around and that was plenty of time to do so, as she was right there. Second,the shot showing the witch in front of the map is in Ralphie's imagination, where the map may look as however he may conjure it to look.]
Edit
When Ralphie goes to see Santa at Higbee's. They are on the street level when they are watching the parade. Then they go up an escalator to the very same street level where they once were. Also later in the scene Santa was telling one of the elves "if Mr.Higbee was thinking that was going to work any later than 9" Now Edwin Converse Higbee (The founder of Higbee's) died in 1906,over 24 years before the Higbee's store that they were at was finished (1931). [This should be submitted as two separate mistakes. Also, there is a cut between the end of the parade and when we see them come up the escalator. We have no idea what they did in between.]
Edit Corrected by jhoffman100@yahoo.com
After Ralphie swears, his mother goes to the wall telephone in the hall to call Mrs. Schwartz. The film is set in Indiana, USA, but the telephone is a 1940s Northern Electric "Uniphone", made for small-town, local Canadian telephone companies, certainly not for the huge Bell System in the U.S. Back then, telephones were leased, not purchased, and you couldn't bring a phone from a different country and connect it to the line without getting in serious trouble with your service provider (they could test your line and see if any unauthorized phones were connected). [The telephone is a North Electric No.1 Uniphone, not a Northern Electric (Canadian)telephone and is the correct telephone for the time period. ]
Edit
When Ralphie and Randy go to see Santa, we see Santa deal with a boy who he calls a "wet one" and we see him tell the elves to get him off because he's wet. There's no wet spot visible on the boy. [There is a small wet spot in the very middle of the boys pants.]
Edit
In the scene where Ralphie's father is gluing the leg lamp back together, there is no cord on the lamp. [Completely untrue. Not only is the cord CLEARLY visible, after the lamp falls apart the entire top of the lamp, including the shade are hanging by the cord.]
Edit
In the scene where all the students have the fake buck teeth on, Ms. Shields takes them all in her left hand and then we see her bend down to open a drawer with her right hand but when the shot changes to the drawer actually being opened, you can see that it is opened by her left hand and the teeth are dropped in from her right hand. [The film is correct. She twists her right hand (wearing a pinky ring) to open the drawer. She drops the teeth into the drawer with her left hand (wearing the watch). This entry is not needed, there was not a filming mistake.]
Edit
Near the beginning of the movie, there is no cabinet under the sink. Later, Randy is hiding in a cabinet under the sink, afraid that Daddy is going to kill Ralphie because of the fight he had. [I just watched this movie last night and looked specifically for this mistake. The shadows in the earlier scenes make the area beneath the sink appear to have no cabinet, but, looking closely, the cabinet is there throughout the movie.]
Edit
The movie is supposed to be set in 1939-1940. However, since Christmas Day falls on a Sunday (his father reads the Sunday comics), it either had to be 1938 or 1949. To further confuse the issue, in neither year did the Bears and Packers play each other in December. [This movie is not set up to be a historic documentary; it is fiction. Therefore, the movie makers have leeway to make minor changes.]
Edit Corrected by Zwn Annwn
In the scene where Ralphie says the F word, he starts to walk back to get into the car. He passes in front of the car upset and inside the car, it's VERY dark. In fact you cant see anything in the car. Then, the camera changes to view inside the car and it seems like there's a light on inside. You can see them perfectly fine. [This is a common movie-making convention. We need to be able to see the action in side of the car. The same way there always seems to be a light in other dark places, such as caves.]
Edit Corrected by wizard_of_gore Time
When "saving" his family from Black Bart and his gang, Ralphie shoots the one climbing the rope, who then falls to the ground. When they show Black Bart standing behind the monkey bars, the guy that fell off the rope is in the background, supposedly dead. But, when Black Bart is talking to Ralphie, you can see the guy's breath because of the cold weather. [This is a dream sequence. Whatever happens is provided by a young boys (Ralphie) imagination thus not a valid mistake per submission rules.]
Edit Corrected by Paul Van Scott

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