How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying

Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the movie, Finch hops on the boom platform to start his day as window cleaner. His fellow co-worker on the platform is a guy with a big pompadour. A minute later Finch breaks into his song (and into the building) and his co-worker is now a different man with shorter hair. (00:03:35)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: Finch's window washing companion fully soaps a window that is completely foam-free in the reverse shot where Finch gets into the building. (00:04:25)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: Finch bumps into the president of the company himself. Unscathed, J.B. Biggley tells everyone to go back to work. Finch straightens his jacket, which pops the collar of the shirt out, but in the next shot he's still hunched over with the shirt burrowed under the jacket. (00:05:55)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: There is an executive lackey next to president Biggley that tells Finch he committed "industrial suicide." If you look at the earlier part of the scene when Biggley was talking, that man was holding his newspaper at a different height depending on the camera angle used. (00:06:00)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: When the secretaries start their dance getting set to work at 9 AM, the cord of the typing machine of the first one runs in front of the table in the establishing shot, and behind the table after she changes to the flat shoes. (00:11:25)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: Finch just started working for the company. We see at 9 sharp the secretaries, who all are wearing high-heeled shoes curiously of the same beige color, change them slipping in more comfortable ballerinas of a variety of different colors. The coffee break is announced a couple minutes later, and all of them storm the food cart wearing again their beige high heels; the colourful flat shoes are nowhere in sight. (00:11:25 - 00:12:50)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: Ponty gives the flower to the boss' secretary saying it cries out to be given to her. In the background there's another secretary with a light blue dress, and a man in a suit that walks in the corridor. Cut, and the secretary changed position and the man vanished. (00:19:20)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: When the chief of personnel Mr. Bratt leads Miss Hedy LaRue towards the stairs, a woman in an orange and beige dress is moving down the same stairs. In the close-up of the derrière of Maureen Arthur the aforementioned woman is coming down the stairs again and starting from one of the top steps. (00:31:35)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: During the musical number "A secretary is not a toy", when the line "employed to do a gavotte / or you-know-what " the secretary in purple (third one in the left wing) turns her head facing straight ahead, and she repeats the gesture in the next shot. (00:35:30)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: When Ponty wishes Miss Jones luck at the bowling tournament, she stops and turns. She also happens to hold her notepad in completely different ways in the two shots. (00:36:50)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: Ponty just got from Miss Jones the information about his boss' Alma mater. He is then trying to tell Rosemary something in front of the elevator, but Smitty next to them seems to sorta hinder them. Smitty is putting a glove on, and in the next shot not only she has it on, but her arms are crossed. (00:38:25)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: Singing her part of "Been A Long Day" song, Smitty is at the first "Now she's thinking..."; Rosemary is holding her folder with her arms positioned differently, and Smitty herself first has her arms crossed, then her right arm is straight and she crosses it only in the second shot, and in the next cut her arms are both down, and then again up. (00:39:25)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: During the second part of her performance in "Been A Long Day", Rosemary says "For dinner we could meet", placing entirely out of the way the magazines that she is still clutching to her chest in the next shot. (00:40:20)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: When it's time for the meddling nephew to sing his version of "Been a long day", Miss LaRue says the kid "could even name the hotel" and strikes a pose with her fingers pointing towards herself. Cut, her hand is outstretched, fingers pointing out. (00:44:25)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: Rosemary gifts Ponty a yellow flower for his new office. When she leaves and Miss LaRue saunters towards the desk, the flower is pointing the other way. (01:02:40)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: Finch is spying Mr. Ovington; between shots the position of his brush is inconsistent and there are obvious variations in the soaped up part of the window. (01:11:40)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: At the rooftop party, the president tells the other executives that the boy is "loaded with ideas"; rather obvious continuity mistake when you look at the man on the far left, who in one shot is drinking and in the next is not. (01:15:50)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: When J.B.Biggley gives Finch 48 hours to present the campaign, the man next to Finch puts the cigar out of his mouth, and is chewing on it in the next shot. (01:16:25)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: Ponty rebuffs Hedy's offer and says "Rosemary's going to be my secretary" holding her by the bare upper arms in the first shot, her sleeves in the next. (01:24:55)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: In the executive washroom, Finch says "Wish me luck"; Mr. Bratt wishes him luck grinning like a shark. He has his left hand in his pocket, but in the previous shot his arm was folded. (01:30:50)

Sammo

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.