Corrected entry: When Ralphie is looking at the store window display, there is Snow White and a dwarf depicted behind the toys. The scene is supposed to be set in 1939/1940 but Snow White didn't come out in theatres from Disney until 1944.
Corrected entry: In Ralph's daydream, when the bad guys jump the fence, it is obvious they are using trampolines to spring over.
Correction: It's a silly kids daydream that is being imagined his own way. Daydreams are like any dreams. Anything can happen, therefore not a mistake.
Corrected entry: At the Christmas parade, a band is heard playing the song "Santa Claus is Coming To Town". That song didn't debut until the early 1970s.
Correction: The song "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" came out in 1934. It's the stop motion film that didn't come out until 1970.
Corrected entry: Randy is laughing cheerfully as Dad returns to the car after Ralphie said "fudge." This is because the young actors were anticipating Mom's reaction to the previous take where "fudge" was mentioned. A giveaway is when Darren McGavin scolds "Randy" as he gets into the car.
Correction: The dad said "Randy" because he did not want Randy to lean forward and hear the bad word he was about to whisper. Randy then attempts to lean forward and listen anyway where it can be assumed his giddy look is because he knows it's some sort of secret and little kids often view listening into conversations they're not supposed to hear as a game and think it's funny. I did this plenty of times myself as a kid and got the same scold from a parent who warned me not to listen by using my first name.
Corrected entry: When Ralphie is copying down Pierre Andre's numbers to decode, the first number is "12." If you look at the decoder in the next scene when he is in the bathroom decoding the message, the numbers correspond to where they are in the alphabet. The first letter in the message is "B." Therefore, the first number should have been "2", not "12."
Correction: Remember he has to set the decoder, no sense in having a decoder if the letters follow their numerical order.
Corrected entry: When Ralph is shooting the bad guys in his daydream he shoots three times and kills four men.
Correction: This is a daydream. Not real.
Corrected entry: There was no foil wrapping paper in the 1940s.
Correction: In the 1937 Shirley Temple/Heidi movie, her snow globe (Christmas present), is wrapped in foil wrapping paper.
Corrected entry: When we view Flick stuck to the pole with our back to the school, the pole is near the left gate post. When the emergency crew arrives to release him, the pole is near the right gate post. (00:17:55 - 00:19:35)
Correction: The camera angle changes from looking more left down the road (you see a green garage) to straight perpendicular to the road, so it just looks like the flag pole switches to be in line with either side of gate.
Other mistake: When the father "won" and he tells the family it was going to be sent "on tonight", he accidentally closes the door on one of the hound's ears. The dog starts moving up and down, which means the ear was thin enough to move around. If the ear was thin enough to move around, the dog could've just pulled itself out. (00:25:30 - 00:26:00)
Suggested correction: I'm sure the dog could have pulled itself out, however, that doesn't necessarily mean it would once it felt frightened from feeling its ear caught in the door. Dogs are funny like that, especially when they get scared. Sometimes they'll freeze and do little to help themselves even though they could. For some of them that's simply their survival instinct.
Corrected entry: Randie is in the cupboard crying because he thinks his Dad is going to kill Ralphie. When the Mom gives Randie a glass of milk, there is a can of "Kleaner" by Ran die's leg. When she opens the cupboard door again to take his empty milk glass, the can is no longer there.
Character mistake: Right after the firefighters have removed Flick's tongue from the flagpole, notice the police officer on the left (Flick's right). He is wearing his sidearm on his right but his Sam Browne cross strap is attached to his belt on his left. The whole point of the cross strap is to support the weight of the sidearm, so the officer is wearing it backwards.
Suggested correction: With exception of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Sam Browne belt shoulder strap is typically worn over the right shoulder and attached to the belt on the left side.
This is correct for military uniforms - once again, the Sam Browne is used to support the weight of a weapon (in the military, this would be an officer's sword, always worn on the left side). However, for police uniforms, the shoulder strap is worn over whichever is the non-dominant shoulder (usually the left). Once again, this is to support the weight of the duty weapon. If you look at agencies such as the Kansas Highway Patrol, New Mexico State Police, and various police honor guards throughout the U.S., you will see that the strap is worn primarily over the left shoulder, since most people are right-handed and therefore would wear a duty weapon on their right side.
Continuity mistake: In the very beginning the camera is panning, showing Ralph's house next to an empty lot and continues past, showing that across the street is a corner house with hedges. So Ralph's front window would be staring up a street and a line of hedges running up the street. When his father wins the award, the neighbors have their backs to the hedges with the large white house in back of them. This would have them staring across the other street, not at Ralph's house.
Suggested correction: This is wrong. The hedge runs both up 11th St. (Cleveland St.) and Rowley Ave. You can tell this is the correct shot, which includes the side of the house (window and porch) behind the old man.
Corrected entry: Scott Farkas, the bully, wears braces. Problem is, the stick-on braces he's wearing didn't become available until the 1970's.
Correction: According to my parents who grew up in the 1940's, braces like that were used back then. Considering the writer of the book grew up in Indiana in the 1940's I doubt he would make something up like that or they would have found an actor to play the kid that didn't have braces.
Correction: Braces prior to mid -970's always wrapped around the tooth, the stick on braces were new when I got them in about 1975. I was the first patient my ortho used them on.
Correction: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was released in 1937 to great acclaim, and was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1939. It was re-released in 1944 and many times after that.
Jon Sandys ★