Best adventure movie factual errors of 1964

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer picture

Factual error: During the opening credits, the show's copyright date is shown in Roman numerals as MCLXIV. In Arabic numbers, that's 1164 - it should have been MCMLXIV for 1964.

More Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer factual errors
Goldfinger picture

Factual error: When Oddjob has the Lincoln crushed at the junkyard, it is smashed into a small rectangle, and dropped into the little falcon pickup. Even though the crushed car fits into the bed of the Falcon, it still weighs at least 2 tons. That weight would have dropped the back of the truck to the ground, but the truck doesn't even squat a few inches, let alone being able to handle that load with the tyres it has. (01:16:55)

More Goldfinger factual errors
First Men In The Moon picture

Factual error: When the Victorian astronauts are on the moon they are dressed in deep sea diving suits - without gloves.

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

Suggested correction: Is this really a mistake? H G Wells wrote "The First Men In The Moon" over 1900-1901 before the invention of the aeroplane, when space travel was still a fantasy. By 1964 Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova had flown into outer space, so the makers of this film knew what sort of equipment would be needed if you really wanted to make a trip to the moon. And this film shows astronauts in suits copied from those worn by actual astronauts. But the idea of the original book, and this 1964 film, was that a (very) eccentric English Victorian scientist led an expedition to the Moon. So, surely, if Victorian Englishmen and Englishwomen went to the Moon, they would have used the technology available at the time. Beside that, when they reach the Moon they find it is inhabited. Even in 1900 astronomers knew there was no life on the Moon. I don't think this film was meant to be taken too seriously, and that when they made the film they deliberately dressed the cast in deep sea diving suits as a joke.

Rob Halliday

More First Men In The Moon factual errors
The Long Ships picture

Factual error: At the end, Rolfe suggests to King Harald that they seek "the three crowns of the Saxon kings." But this lost treasure legend is a modern invention. In 1925 M R James wrote "A Warning To The Curious", which says that the Anglo-Saxon kings of East Anglia buried three crowns near the English coast. Somebody who finds one of these meets a mysterious, sinister death. The legend of the three crowns of the Saxon kings has since appeared in many books about English folklore. But there is no record of this story before 1925 and it is now believed that M R James invented it. Thus the story of the three crowns would not have been known to the Vikings.

Rob Halliday

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

Suggested correction: First of all, you state "it is now believed that M R James invented it." So it is not known for certain if he did or not? And if it is doubted now, what about 1964? Something doesn't become a mistake if future discoveries contradict what was known at the time. And finally, whether it was a real legend or not is irrelevant. It is a legend in the world of the movie, just like the legend of the golden bell. If anything this should be listed as trivia.

Well observed, Sir! I concede that you make very valid points. In hindsight, I should not have submitted this as a factual error. I should have worded it as a question. I should have asked if Rolfe's closing lines about "the three crowns of the Saxon kings" alluded, directly or indirectly, to the M R James ghost story "A Warning To The Curious." Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. But I will have to agree that, if the golden bell is a real object in the cinematic world of "The Long Ships", then the legend of the three crowns of the Saxon kings can be an equally real legend in the cinematic world of this film. I am fully aware that films are not real life and that the internal logic of a film need not follow the logic of real life.

Rob Halliday

More The Long Ships factual errors
Father Goose picture

Factual error: The radio Walter uses on the island has no apparent power source; we never see either batteries or a hand-cranked generator.

mdwalker

More Father Goose factual errors

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.