The Godfather (1972) - 54 mistakes

Continuity: In the first scene the undertaker Bonasera asks the Godfather for help. When the Godfather gets up from his desk the rose in his lapel is either fresh and straight or slightly wilted and bent in alternating shots. Also later in the wedding scene this rose keeps recovering from intermittent spells of weakness.

Continuity: When the 'baker' is meeting with Don Corleone about keeping his son in the country, he's holding a 'shot glass' in one hand, and a thin cigar in the other. When he reaches out to clasp the Don's hands in gratitude, the items are GONE. A split second later, they're BACK.

Continuity: When Michael and Kay are eating lasagna during the wedding, Kay is smoking a cigarette. But depending on the shot, that cigarette disappears from her hand, then reappears.

Continuity: When Michael asks Kay if she wants to meet Johnny Fontane the drink in his glass almost disappears between shots, then reappears later.

Continuity: When the Godfather tells Tom that he is going to California tonight his glass switches from his left to his right hand.

Revealing: When Vito Corleone is walking Johnny Fontane out of his office, he opens the door and you can see an extra walk by and stop, look at the camera and actors, and back up out of the shot. (Mentioned on the commentary).

Continuity: When Tom Hagen and Woltz have dinner the scene starts with a wide shot with a huge log fire in the fireplace behind Woltz. In all later shots the fire is about half as high.

Continuity: When Tom Hagen is meeting with Jack Woltz, the server fills Tom's wine glass twice within a split second.

Continuity: Before Luca Brasi's hand gets pinned to the counter by Sollozzo's knife, Tattaglia holds it down on the counter with both hands, but then, in a close-up of the stabbing, Brasi's hand is hovering over the counter and Tattaglia's hands are nowhere.

Factual error: When Luca Brasi goes to meet the Tattaglia family and Sollozzo to pretend he would like to defect, and they garrote him, Brasi is making all kinds of loud noises while being strangled until he dies. During choking or strangulation, one is unable to make much (if any) sound because air cannot pass through the vocal chords on its way out of the body just as it cannot enter the body and get to the lungs.

Continuity: When Luca Brasi goes to meet Sollozzo and Tattaglia, he gets stuck in the hand with a knife and the blood runs out. Some few seconds after you see a shot of the hand, where the blood is already dry.

Continuity: When Marlon Brando is gunned down at the fruit stand, he drops the bag of fruit he just bought. However, when he's collapsing against the car, the bag of fruit is now on the hood of the car.

Continuity: When Don Vito Corleone gets shot, the camera angle from the side of the car shows Fredo bent over trying to pick up the gun he dropped, but when we see him from the camera angle from above, he's just walking to the front of the car. When the angle cuts back to the front of the car, Fredo is once again bent over trying to pick up the gun.

Continuity: During the strangulation of Luca Brasi, two mistakes occur between the front and side shots of him dying. First the knife in his hand disappears; second his head goes from being about a foot under the counter to about 6 inches over.

Continuity: When Vito Corleone gets shot, he rolls on his back and his coat opens up to show his shirt. Then we see Fredo sitting down on the nearby steps and crying. In the next wide shot, Vito is lying on the side, totally covered by his coat, and Fredo is sitting farther away than where we saw him before.

Audio problem: During the assassination of Don Corleone, the last shot that one of the assassins take makes no sound, but smoke is seen coming from the gun.

Revealing: When Michael calls Sonny, after he finds out that his father has been shot, the phone booth he calls from has a broken dial - you can see that the dial is off center and would not work in that condition.

Continuity: When Clemenza knocks at the door Sonny gets a gun from a drawer and puts it in his belt. When he pushes Clemenza the gun disappears, but it's back a moment later. As the shot where the gun disappears is uncut the gun must have slipped down his pants.

Revealing: In the kitchen scene where Sonny is talking on the phone one can see that the lower portion of the telephone handset has no internal parts.

Continuity: When Tessio delivers the bulletproof vest and the fish, Sonny's hands are in one position (one below, one on top of the parcel), a fraction of a second later they are in a very different position (both on top, unwrapping). The parcel is half open while Tessio is carrying it but fully closed when he puts it on Sonny's lap.