Character mistake: Toward the end of the film, Detective Davis orders Captain McKenna to put his badge on the table. New York City police always refer to their "shields", not badges.
Character mistake: Blore accuses Lombard saying "What about those 21 poor natives in South Africa?" The record played during the first evening mentioned indeed 21 men, but that were natives of a tribe in East Africa. (00:14:20 - 01:10:10)
Character mistake: The protagonist says "You know, Croesus once said 'Count no man happy until the end is known'" but it's not Croesus uttering that line. According to Herodotus, Solon says it to King Croesus. (00:03:00)
Character mistake: Detective Spitzer went into Harper's dark/unlit house, saw his partner Greg on the floor, and then saw Alec standing in the kitchen. Without identifying himself, telling Alec to drop his weapon (pistol pointed toward the floor), or bothering to determine what happened, Detective Spitzky shoots Alec. (01:27:08)
Character mistake: In the scene where the warden gives Frank the rules of Alcatraz. The warden states that prisoners do not get to see newspapers or magazines. Later when Frank distributes reading material from the Library to D block, he offers the prisoners books or magazines. One prisoner is seen taking a magazine to read.
Character mistake: When Jimmy kills Dave, he says that he killed Just Ray when his wife was pregnant with Brendan, but she was pregnant with Ray Jr (Brendan's brother).
Suggested correction: Jimmy says pregnant wife, little Brendan.
Suggested correction: My father used to tell stories about his nieces and would constantly get their names mixed up. People often get siblings names switched around, and that is when they are in their right mind. Jimmy had been drinking, was still emotional over his daughter, and was telling the story with full intention of murdering Dave within minutes. Fully understandable that he would make this rather common error.
It might be understandable, but not so much within the context of this movie. Would the writer deliberately include in the script that a character will use the wrong name because it does happen sometimes in real life? Maybe if this were a movie about dementia or "Grumpy Old Men", but it doesn't seem to fit in this movie. [I know - not all elderly people have memory problems or lapses.].
Character mistake: In one of the National Tattler headlines, the word "pursues" is misspelled "persues". (00:52:15)
Character mistake: When Captain Jones first introduces himself to Christine Collins he says he is from the Lincoln Park Juvenile Division instead of Lincoln Heights.
Character mistake: Lewis Dinkum tells Deputy Mike Figuerola it's only a .50 cal round that hit him in the shoulder. The rifle he was shot with was a Blaser R93 LRS2 which fires a 338 Lapua round. A .50 pretty much would have torn him in half. (01:33:20)
Character mistake: When Dotzler is giving one of his first meetings when trying to catch Brian in the police station, the LAPD signs behind him are misspelled "Departement."
Character mistake: In the scene where the news helicopter comes in close to the building and causes high winds that almost blow 'Joe Walker' off the ledge, Detective Lydia Mercer calls him "Nick". She doesn't know his real name at this point. (00:38:30)
Character mistake: When the hijackers separate the lead car and back the rest of the train away, the conductor says in amazement, "I didn't know these things went backwards." Any subway conductor would know that trains run in either direction. Most trains relay (reverse direction) at their terminus, and any subway train can be operated from either end.
Character mistake: Dino puts up his "Elemento" for whoever takes down Marshall. Monarch then says there are only three of those cars (a Lamborghini Sesto Elemento) ever made. This is not true. Lamborghini didn't make three, they made twenty.
Character mistake: At Duke Boudreau's bar, the potential recruits for the sting are told, "Gondorff is setting up a con on the North side". Later in the film, Agent Polk tells Lt. Snyder, "Gondorff is running a con on the South side". The actual address for the betting hall is not given, but it is just down the alley from Klein's, which does have a South side address.
Suggested correction: It's possible recruits were given the wrong information on purpose until they'd been cleared for participation. Misinformation is a good way to confuse and delay any unwanted attention.
This does not correct the posting. "Polk" tells Snyder that Gondorff is running a con on the NORTH side, which is incorrect. He has absolutely no reason to try to mislead Snyder.
Character mistake: Lisa is testifying about the 1963 Pontiac Tempest and the 1964 Buick Skylark being the same height, width, and wheelbase. While the Tempest and Skylark shared the same components, the 1963 and 1964 models were quite different from each other. The 1964 Skylark and Tempest moved to a 115 inch wheelbase and a larger body and frame. The 1963 Skylark and Tempest were smaller with a 112 inch wheelbase. An expert as she claims to be wouldn't confuse the two.
Character mistake: Julie Madison, when having dinner with Bruce Wayne, says that he just called her Ivy. He didn't, and never does in that scene.
Character mistake: Police Chief Lutz tells Axel (Johnny Wishbone) that he checked with Immigration and they never heard of Johnny Wishbone. He says, "you're illegal, buster." Johnny Wishbone is from St. Croix, which is in the United States Virgin Islands. Johnny Wishbone would be a U.S. Citizen. (00:51:27)
Character mistake: When the high roller Ikachawa returns to The Tangiers, Rothstein said he's betting $1,000 instead of his usual $30,000, so when he won, it didn't feel like he had won $10,000 (10 $1,000 bets), but felt like he lost $90,000, alluding to the fact that betting 1/30th of his normal bets made him feel even though he was winning $1k a hand he was missing out on the other $29k, or losing that. At ten hands won, at $1k/hand, he really would have felt like he was losing $290,000, not $90,000 as Rothstein says.
Character mistake: When they are surprised by Gale, Billy angrily says to Stu "Man, I thought she was dead." To which Stu replies "She looked dead, man. Still does." However, Stu didn't have time to check on Gale, since she crashed the vehicle moments before Sidney is attacked by a Ghostface that had to be Stu himself (since he does the quick clothes switch coming from the car).
Character mistake: When Frank Serpico is recording his phone call regarding being transferred, the guy, who says the precinct is clean as a houndstooth, calls him Mike.