A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story (1983)

21 mistakes since 9 Jan '17, 00:00

(9 votes)

A Christmas Story mistake picture

Other mistake: In the end credits, Santa's name in the song title "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" is misspelled as "Clause."

Visible crew/equipment: Right when Adult Ralph says "A C+?", Ralph looks from his paper to the blackboard. Near the bottom of his rights glasses lens, you can see a stage light reflected in it, as well as the silhouette of a crew members head. Do not mistake it for the classroom light reflected near the top of the same lens.

Missy RiRi

Factual error: On Christmas morning when the Parker's are opening gifts, several Christmas songs can be heard playing in the background. Several of these were released long after when the movie is set (around 1940), particularly Bing Crosby's performance of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," which was released in October of 1951.

wizard_of_gore

Revealing mistake: The wind up tank in the toy store window can't possibly be a continual display. Clearly a production assistant wound up and released the tank for the shot. It's not a toy that would be moving with the other display items.

Wreckdiver36

Continuity mistake: The old man throws straw everywhere getting his prize out of the crate, and a lot of it goes on his back. The straw disappears when he climbs out of the crate.

manthabeat

Factual error: In the Chinese restaurant scene there is a Santa Claus drinking a Coca Cola poster on the wall in the background. The slogan reads "Sign Of Good Taste", which was not used until 1957.

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.

Texijapi

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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: When he shoots his gun, Ralphie's glasses are shown fallen on clean snow, but when he steps on them, the broken ones are shown on snow with quite a bit of debris.

Continuity mistake: When Ralphie beats up the neighborhood bully, the chain link fence hole area where the kids look through changes multiple times between shots, for example the vertical plant vine trunk disappears.

Factual error: During the tongue on the flagpole scene, the police car that pulls up is a '46 or a '47 Chevrolet sedan. If this movie is supposed to take place pre-WWII, that car wouldn't have existed yet.

Continuity mistake: In the kitchen, after the father comes in to get warm water for his car, the 2 boxes of soap powder move from the left side of the sink to a wall shelf on the right.

Factual error: Early in the film, while the kids are looking at the toys in the Higbee's store window, two uniformed soldiers are visible right behind the kids. The female soldier is wearing sergeant stripes on her sleeves, but the braid on her garrison cap is gold - a color reserved for commissioned officers.

Texijapi

Visible crew/equipment: During the parade, the camera moves in and back a couple of times and the operator's shadow is visible left screen. This is really obvious after the Wizard of Oz characters walk by.

manthabeat

Other mistake: When Ralphie has the fantasy about going blind, watch the Old Man when he asks how they could do what they did. He has his hand over his mouth, and he's trying to keep from laughing.

dewinela

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.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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.

Factual error: In the beginning of the movie, when they are in front of Higbees, there is an RTA sign on the building in the background. RTA in Cleveland did not exist until around 1975.

Other mistake: When the old man screws in the blue light bulb on the Christmas tree and the lights go out in the house, the living room remains dark while he changes the fuse. Meanwhile a fire is going in the fireplace, so the light from the fire would cast some light into the room.

Audio problem: During the Santa scenes, Ralphie and his brother are lying in the fluff at the bottom of the slide. You can still hear kids screaming because of Santa. Nobody else is sent down the slide at that point and the camera pans up to see Santa with a calm little girl on his lap. Where are the screams coming from?

manthabeat

Visible crew/equipment: When the mom is sitting on the floor holding the broken lamp, as the dad runs in, you can see the shadow of a boom mic near the mom's left shoulder.

Missy RiRi

Continuity mistake: When we see Flick stuck to the pole with our back to the school the background tree trunk has ample green growth sprouting out but later, when it's started snowing and he's being rescued, the growth is gone.

More quotes from A Christmas Story

Trivia: Melinda Dillon was given the wrong script on purpose when they filmed the Chinese restaurant scene. She had no idea that when they brought the duck out it would have its head still attached. All of her reactions, including when she first sees the duck and when the server cuts the head off, were completely genuine.

dewinela

More trivia for A Christmas Story

Question: I apologize for my original question, that is currently listed on MM, I was mistaken as to where in the film my question refers to, so please delete that question. That said, can someone answer this, please. Right before the lamp breaks, and right after Ralphie's mom fills her watering can in the sink, it really sounds like the "old man" yells, "You platypus nut-grabber". Is that what he's saying? I realize most of his "swearing" is actually nonsensical words and rants.

Answer: You are quite right about this. At one point, he does say "platypus nut-grabber." If you listen closely, you can hear it amongst all the ranting and raving.

wizard_of_gore

More questions & answers from A Christmas Story

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