Continuity mistake: When Marlon Brando's character demands 20% of the con game proceeds, David Niven points at him with a cigar he holds in his left hand. But when the shot cuts to a different angle, Niven's hands are both instantly in his robe pockets, and the cigar has disappeared. (00:42:30)
Continuity mistake: Near the end, Charlie, badly wounded and after killing Jack and Sheila, staggers from the house. As he stumbles towards his car, there is a gated driveway with a car parked in it. A few seconds later, the car is no longer there. (01:33:45)
Continuity mistake: At Molly's party after returning from Europe, the Duchess is introduced, and everyone bows. The shot shows Molly reaching for her neighbor who's standing straight, to bow down, and she does. Then there is a long shot showing the crowd, and the neighbor is again standing, and then you see Molly reach out for her again as she just had.
Continuity mistake: About 25 minutes into the film, Vincent Price puts two vampire bodies into the back of his station wagon. Viewed from the open rear door, the woman is on the right side face up and the man is on the left side face down, and he drives off to the pit. In the next scene, he parks the car at the pit and when he goes to unload the bodies, the woman is now on the left side face down and the man is one the right side face up. For people who have died and then been killed again, they sure did move around a lot in the back of that car.
Continuity mistake: In the train yard scene when Le Biche and Colonel Von Windheim are watching for the trains to switch to the right tracks a pipe is tossed onto a chair and tobacco spills out, but when the camera is panned away and comes back the tobacco is nowhere to be seen.
Revealing mistake: When our heroes are on the conveyor belt which carries the rocks towards the spinning saw blades, the rocks which get cut in two are seen to be cut before they reach the blades. (01:20:45)
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.
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.
Continuity mistake: When the fire engine leaves the Pilsbury Pageant, you can see that there is a blue mattress and a pink blanket on the back of it, but after running over the puddle and covering Mr Chipfield in mud, we cut back to the fire engine and the pink blanket has disappeared.
Factual error: When the pursuing fighter jets are supposed to start their engine afterburners, we instead see a short clip of them firing their air-to-air missiles.
Continuity mistake: When the initial site team comes to the Tatum's, the second jeep in the convoy has the same supposedly unique serial number as the one the general arrives in a week later.
Factual error: The movie shows a 'jet' aircraft belonging to 'consolidated airlines'. The so called airplane is a laugh. It has two jet engines attached to the horizontal stabilizers. The landing gear appear to be bolted to the wings. During the movie this plane crashes and the engines are moved to a terminal to be examined. They are too small to be real engines. During the course of examining the engines, they are run inside the terminal building. One of the investigators stands 10 feet behind the jet intake and is not sucked inside. The cockpit is not even close to what one would find in a jet airplane.
Continuity mistake: When Peter Fonda is hanging from a cliff with both hands over a waterfall, he is wearing his glasses. There is a cut to a shot of him not wearing glasses. When the movie cuts back to him shortly afterwards, he is wearing his glasses again. (00:32:10)
Continuity mistake: When Speedy is standing in the doorway of Pancho Vanilla's hut, you can see there is nothing behind him on the drive, but in the next shot more flat stones have appeared.
Factual error: The radio Walter uses on the island has no apparent power source; we never see either batteries or a hand-cranked generator.
Continuity mistake: When the clerk looks in close-up at the bank cheque written in disappearing ink by Fantomas, the background has nothing to do with the desk, and the distance is all wrong as well. (00:03:10)
Other mistake: There were no gorgons named Megara. The three that existed were Medusa, Euryale, and Stheno.
Continuity mistake: When Bruno goes to the Captain, to ask for leave so he can go to his daughter's funeral, he places his cap on the desk in front of him. It slips to the floor, but a minute later his cap is magically back on the desk.
Continuity mistake: When the protagonist of the first episode is shown, he's on the phone talking to his lover, alone in the middle of a room. The cable of his phone though comes always from the same direction even when supposedly he is in different, opposite, spots inside the same room. (00:02:50)
Continuity mistake: When Daffy is clawed by the bear, he loses his hat in the process. But when we Daffy running in the next shot, the hat is back on his head again.
Continuity mistake: When Sammy Davis Jr. is shooting up the casino, the glass rectangles for the lights on either side of all the wine bottles have machine gun bullet holes in all of them before he shoots.