Best movie mistakes of 1951

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Alice in Wonderland picture

Audio problem: During the Tea Party scene, the Mad Hatter and March Hare ask Alice to tell her story. After the Mad Hatter says "And when you come to the end, stop!" audio follows of the voice director saying "great," leftover from the original recording. (00:45:40)

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Superman and the Mole Men picture

Visible crew/equipment: The furry suits the "mole men" are wearing clearly show the zippers up the back when one of them is going down a well.

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Death of a Salesman picture

Continuity mistake: In the flashback scene where Dustin Hoffman is in the hotel bathroom on the floor, he puts a coffee mug on the toilet, then the view switches and when it comes back the mug is gone, never to be seen again.

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Operation Pacific picture

Continuity mistake: When the Japanese ship is about to be torpedoed, there are no numbers or letters on its side. In the next shot, when the ship explodes, a large white "265" is visible on the port side of the ship.

keiko

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Westward the Women picture

Continuity mistake: At the end of the film when all the women are dressed up after making clothes out of tablecloths, you can see the Italian woman riding in the front of the wagon. The shot changes and she's riding on the side looking at all the men and smiling. The shot changes again and she's back to the front.

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The African Queen picture

Revealing mistake: When the boat is supposedly surrounded by a swarm of flies, they're really just relatively few flies trapped between two panes of glass in front of the camera lens. Evidence: whenever the camera moves, the "swarm" moves with it against the background, and you can even see some of the insects walking on the surface of the glass.

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Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man picture

Continuity mistake: At the detective agency, while Bud and Lou are talking to the murderer, the description of the murderer comes over the police radio, and it states "5 feet 11 inches, weighs 165, blue eyes, brown hair, last seen wearing a felt hat and dark borwn overcoat". Then 15 seconds later Bud says out loud, writing on a piece of paper the description "5 feet 10 inches, weight 165, blue eyes, sandy hair".

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Strangers on a Train picture

Factual error: When Bruno is on his way to Union Station, he's heading on a bridge away from the Lincoln Memorial, which means he's leaving Washington D.C. for Arlington, Virginia, or in other words, he's going the wrong way.

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A Christmas Carol picture

Visible crew/equipment: Towards the the end, when Scrooge wakes up in his bedroom on Christmas day and is elated to know he is still alive, he goes over and looks in the mirror twice. Both times you can see someone in the mirror reflection in the background, possibly holding a script.

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The Thing From Another World picture The Thing From Another World mistake picture

Revealing mistake: The Thing takes a swing at the captain after the captain opens the door. As the Thing swings his arm, he takes out a chunk of wood out of the door. If you step through the frames on the DVD, you can see the wood leaving the door a full second after the Thing has hit it. A small explosive charge that was not in sync with the actor. You can also see the outline of where the wood comes off before he swings his arm. And one more thing, his arm does not touch the door or even comes close to where the wood comes off - a safety precaution I presume. (00:57:33)

Larry Koehn

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

Suggested correction: It is not a full second delay. It is four frames which translates to 1/6 of a second. Everything described in this entry is only visible if you step through frame by frame which invalidates the mistake.

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Flying Leathernecks picture

Factual error: John Wayne's squadron lands on Guadacanal as part of the "Cactus Air Force" in August 1942. However, they are flying F6F-3 Hellcats, which were not available, even to the Navy, until the middle of 1943. To top it off, they are painted in a late-war camouflage scheme with late-war markings.

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Captain Horatio Hornblower picture

Factual error: All of the Lydia's lieutenants are wearing epauletes on their left shoulders.only lieutenant commanders were permitted to wear one on the left shoulder, while the right shoulder was reserved for captains of less than 3 years' seniority.

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Happy Go Lovely picture

Continuity mistake: During the final dance number, Vera-Ellen's skirt alternates repeatedly between long and flowing and short and tight - perhaps to facilitate some of the dance moves.

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Distant Drums picture

Revealing mistake: When Captain Quincy Wyatt interrogates a captive Seminole Native American by threatening him with a poisonous snake, the native is safe because there is a protective piece of glass between him and the snake. The snake's reflection is quite obvious on the glass panel. (01:14:40)

pandoras

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Only the Valiant picture

Revealing mistake: When The Indians launch their final attack (towards the end of the film), on a old outpost held by a small group of soldiers, Ward Bond is hit by a arrow which enters the right side of his chest. In the next shot you see Gregory Peck removing the arrow from the left side of Ward Bond's chest.

keiko

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