Best movie mistakes of 1961

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Mysterious Island picture

Factual error: It is barely credible that a young Victorian woman like Elena would even think about wearing a goatskin miniskirt - exposing her legs in those days would be akin to walking about topless nowadays. Even if she did those bright yellow cotton knickers - gleefully visible in the scene in the beehive - are in no way from the 1860s. Her pants are a hundred years ahead of their time.

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Guns of Navarone picture

Plot hole: The huge guns are set high up on a cliff face facing out to sea and it is obvious that they cannot be depressed to fire at a downward angle - the massive gun carriages set on rails would prevent that happening. They cannot be elevated to fire at an upward angle, too, because they fit pretty snugly in the hole cut into the cliff face to accommodate them. This means that their maximum and minimum ranges would be quite close together, covering a strip of maybe a few hundred metres either side. Given that the sea is completely open on the side of the island they are protecting, why don't the ships targeted by the guns while passing the island simply sail inside or outside of the narrow stretch of sea the guns can hit?

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Suggested correction: The guns are firing across a strait. A strait is a "narrow passage." Since the targets must appear at a limited range, the guns only need a limited elevation angle.

Noman

Watch the film again. The guns are facing the open sea. There is no land visible anywhere behind the ships. If that's a strait, it's a very, very wide one.

The mission given says the guns are guarding a strait. The last shot of the six destroyers shows land behind them on the opposite side of the strait.

Noman

Other summaries explain that the strait is only deep enough for the ships at the place which matches the guns' range. So ships could not take advantage of further away or closer in.

Then what are the dark shapes rising out of the sea on the far side of the ships. If they are not islands, what are they?

Noman

Suggested correction: That the gun carriages are supposedly set on rails is not correct. In the novel template, as well as in the film, it is shown that the guns were installed on turntables. And as for their variable angles of fire - it could be due to (fictional) modifications.

Daniel4646

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Atlantis, the Lost Continent picture

Continuity mistake: The shots are badly mismatched when Demetrius saves the elderly slave about to fall from the rope. Their arms and legs shift positions multiple times between takes.

Jean G

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101 Dalmatians picture 101 Dalmatians mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the park, when Pongo tries to get Roger to meet Anita he yanks Roger ahead, and Roger leaves his hat on the bench. In the next shot, when Roger and Anita are entwined in Pongo's leash, Roger is wearing his hat. (00:09:30)

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El Cid picture

Visible crew/equipment: On the beach there's a battle charge, and in the foreground you can clearly see a set of tyre tracks from the camera vehicle preceding the charge.

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West Side Story picture

Continuity mistake: When Maria is hitting Tony while saying "Killer," her hair is across her left cheek. In the next shot, it is completely away from her face. (01:48:20)

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The Comancheros picture

Factual error: The rifles that Jake Cutter has Paul Regret dig up are Henry repeaters, or possibly 1866 Winchesters. Either way weapons unavailable in the period depicted in the movie.

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The Explosive Generation picture

Revealing mistake: During several of the driving sequences, the teenager in the driver's seat turns the steering wheel - but the rear screen projection keeps the car "moving" in a straight line. And it's particularly ironic in light of the movie's "big message" that the students here bear no resemblance to real-life teenagers in any real school. They're all slim, trim, athletic and model-gorgeous, as well as all-too-obviously not teenagers at all. (Because US child labor laws severely restrict the hours that underage actors can work, many films "cheat" by having youthful 20-somethings play the teens.)

Jean G

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Carry on Regardless picture Carry on Regardless mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Sam Twist jumps from the train on the Forth Bridge, he lands in a puddle between the tracks, which are resting on sleepers on top of ballast - but when we see the train disappearing, there are no sleepers or ballast - the rails look like they're on concrete 'runners'. (00:55:00)

Madstunts

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King of Kings picture

Continuity mistake: When Jesus is being flogged, he is turned over onto his back, and whipping is heard. Later on, no marks are to be seen.

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Breakfast at Tiffany's picture

Continuity mistake: Near the end of the movie, when George Peppard is talking to Audrey Hepburn in the alley and it's raining heavily, his hair switches between being combed back and combed to the side. Very obvious - this takes place several times.

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The Young Ones picture

Visible crew/equipment: During the scene when Cliff's girlfriend is walking down a street singing, if you look carefully there is a gap between two of the buildings through which you can see the scaffolding holding the set up.

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The Parent Trap picture

Continuity mistake: In the cabin when they are coming up with the idea to swap places, Susan has on white sneakers in the beginning of the scene when she is on the bed, and Sharon has on the black Mary Janes. Later in the scene, with no time to change shoes, Susan is seen walking around the cabin wearing the black Mary Janes.

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Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea picture

Factual error: With the radiation belt on fire, the icecaps begin to melt. The Seaview is bombarded by huge chucks of ice. The ice is sinking to the bottom like stones. Ice floats, it doesn't sink.

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The Hustler picture

Continuity mistake: At the beginning of their first pool match, Fats' collar goes from buttoned to loose, to back buttoned in only a moment on-screen.

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Blue Hawaii picture

Audio problem: When the airplane door is opened and we see Elvis kissing the stewardess in the doorway, you can hear a crowd of fans screaming - it is brief, but audible. (00:05:25)

wazz

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The Pit and the Pendulum picture

Continuity mistake: When Elizabeth Medina starts to open her coffin you see her hand reach out and grab the side edge but in the next shot her hand is gone.

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Pirates of Tortuga picture

Revealing mistake: At the opening of the film as the pirate ship passes left to right the flags are blowing in the opposite direction of the ship's movement and the sails keep blowing back although the ship keeps moving forward. Notice the large amount of churning water at the ship's rudder indicating that the boat is powered by a motor.

Kenneth Cote

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The Misfits picture

Other mistake: When they're roping the mustangs, the "stallion" doesn't have the genitals of a stallion.

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The Absent Minded Professor picture

Continuity mistake: The police that come to the aid of the professor are driving an older Ford when they approach than when they arrive to help. The car is a newer model in the later scene.

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