MISTAKES in the MOVIES

Hello All:

I watched GF II today and noticed a glaring mistake that I had not noticed before:

In the scene in Cuba when the President is introducing everybody, the Cuban President is speaking ENGLISH and his English is being translated into Spanish through the formal interpreter, but everybody in the room spoke English. Notice the mistake: The President should have been speaking Spanish!

Any other mistakes??

Welcome, Auggie, glad to have you aboard!
No, I don't think that was a mistake. In fact, it was probably another example of FFC's fanatical attention to detail. It was probably an "official" visit of the President with important businessmen, and probably was transcribed either on tape or by secretaries "for the record." So, standard operating practice was to make sure that, even though the President spoke English, a simultaneous translation was made in Spanish "for the record." If you use the "search" function at the top of the page, you'll find at least one thread on this subject in the last few months.
Other mistakes in GFII: Probably the one that's most mentioned is when the Senator asks Michael if he was responsible for "the murder of heads of the Five Families in 1950." First, there were four other families. Second, it happened in 1955.

hey Auggie!
Welcome to the Family Mang!
nice name huh.

GoodFella

Here are some mistakes:

http://us.imdb.com/Goofs?0071562
http://us.imdb.com/Goofs?0068646
http://us.imdb.com/Goofs?0099674

and you can check www.movie-mistakes.com for more...

One of the biggest mistakes in GF III was the ceremoney at the church. It is made as if it is before the second Vatican council, which occur in the sixties, while the movie starts in 1979.

If you want to see the biggest F***up in the whole trilogy just watch the fight between Sonny and Carlo. When Sonny is kicking the S*** out of him you can totally tell that half the punches arent landng.

Welcome to the board, guys!!

There are also many mistakes related to the Statue of Liberty. Check out those scenes. I won't tell you the answers, see if you can spot them. What a tease! Welcome to the board that tests your perception, visual acuity, wit and mettle. Enjoy, peace.

The statue has shown its age in the fact it is green, instead of the copper it would have been in the early 1900's

Turnbull, my good man, would you therefore call it a "movie error" if the translation had been the other way around? The thought of doubt lingers as a cautiously write these words..

I'm sure I've read somewhere, that the direction the boat would enter NY harbour means the statue should have been on the OTHER side of the boat! The way it is shown at the beginning of GF II, basically shows the angle you would see if sailing out of the harbour!!

Must admit I would like to see some photos of the statue in its original colour before turning green.

Goofs for
Godfather, The (1972)

Page 16 of 34

Continuity: A glass of wine in the wedding scene.


Anachronisms: In several scenes wine bottles are shown with the DOC Italian wine classification designation shown on the bottle. DOC designations did not come in effect until the 1960s.


Continuity: The waiter fills Tom Hagen's glass twice within seconds during his dinner with Woltz.


Continuity: Kay's hands when she asks Michael when she will see him again.


Anachronisms: A building reflected in the window of the police car during the assassination of Barzini would not be built until more than ten years after the supposed time frame of the assassination.


Continuity: Level of wine in the glasses while Michael and Kay are having dinner following the attempted assassination of Vito Corleone.


Continuity: The windshield of Sonny's car is shattered by machine-gun fire, but is whole again by the time his bodyguards arrive.


Revealing mistakes: The bullet hole on McClusky's forehead appears before Michael fires the gun.


Anachronisms: 50 star U.S. flag in 1947 (on the building where the "peace conference" is held).


Anachronisms: At the airport at night, a swept tail Cessna 182 is shown. Production of this airplane didn't start until approximately the mid-1960s.


Continuity: A shot of Michael in the hospital walking past the camera is obviously reused a couple of minutes later.


Continuity: The placement of Moe Green's drink during his meeting with Michael.


Continuity: Fredo removes his sunglasses twice during Michael's meeting with Moe Green.


Crew or equipment visible: During Vito's funeral, when Michael stands up to talk to Tessio, the face of Mama can be briefly seen under his arm, tinted orange-red and chewing gum. After Roger Ebert reported this in his "Movie Answer Man" column in 2001, Francis Ford Coppola and Kim Aubry investigated: they confirmed that King was not supposed to be in the shot, but had gotten into it by an accidental reflection in the optics, probably off a filter (hence the tint) in the matte box.


Continuity: The level of wine in Vito Corleone's glass when he is discussing Barzini's move to kill Michael.


Continuity: When the dons meet, one of them sits back twice: once before and once after an edit.


Continuity: When Sonny is machine-gunned on the causeway, bullet holes appear at the roof line of his '47 Lincoln Continental, then disappear, then appear again.


Continuity: When Neri (the policeman) shoots the mobster at the end of the movie he fires seven shots.


Factual Errors: When Michael Corleone calls home after his father is shot, the dial on the pay phone is clearly out of alignment.


Continuity: During the string of shootings during the baptism, one guy is shot while running upstairs. Shot in the back, you can see blood and other stuff coming out of his back. While rolling down the stairs, however, the back of his shirt is untouched.


Continuity: When Michael kills Sollozzo and McClusky, the maitre d' is seen with a pipe in his mouth; in the next shot it is absent.


Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The exterior set-up shot for the summit meeting of all families is of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. While this seems like an unlikely place for a "family" meeting, it's an indication of how high their influence reaches.


Continuity: While Michael is talking to Apollonia's father after he has given her the necklace. The same two people pass by twice - once in a close-up of Apollonia and the other in a wider shot.


Revealing mistakes: The blood on the bed in the "horse head" scene. First it's there, then it disappears.


Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The punch to Michael's face broke his cheek bone which gave him a permanent black eye (and caused his sinuses to continually run - hence the use of a handkerchief all the time) until he got back to America and had surgery to fix it (Freddie says, "that doctor did a good job.")


Anachronisms: The movie's chronology indicates the time frame of the movie when Sonny is gunned down is late 1948 or 1949; however, he was listening to the 3 October 1951 radio broadcast of Russ Hodges calling the Dodgers-Giants playoff, a half-inning before Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World," specifically identifying the date of the murder as two years later than the movie's timeline indicates it should be.


Continuity: The amount of blood on Sonny after he is murdered on the causeway.


Anachronisms: Just before he is shot, Don Corleone shops for fruit at a shop. Cardboard boxes of Sunkist oranges in that shot feature graphics that weren't introduced until the Seventies. And in 1945 most oranges were still shipped in wooden crates.


Revealing mistakes: When Vito Corleone shows Johnny Fontane out of his office, we see an extra walk onto the frame from the left, but as soon as she sees Vito, she quickly lets out a little smile and backs away, as if she was in the wrong place.


Anachronisms: In the scene where Michael is arriving in Las Vegas, supposedly set in the very early 1950s, when he, Fredo, Tom and others are getting out of the car in the hotel driveway, two long-haired, bearded "hippie types" from the early '70s can be seen through the window in the lobby. (In the DVD commentary, Coppola admits that he is embarrassed by this oversight, but that the shot was done on the cheap by the second unit)


Continuity: In the wedding scene, immediately after Kay Adams meets Tom Hagan, the cigarette in her hand disappears and then reappears.


Crew or equipment visible: When Clemenza goes for a pee, crew reflected in side window of car in which Rocco has just shot Paulie.


Continuity: The gun that Sonny gets from the drawer in the dining room when Clemenza comes to the house following the attempt on the Don's life, is in his belt, disappears when he throws Clemenza against the counters and reappears as he turns around after talking to his wife.


Anachronisms: The stop sign in New England when Michael returns from Sicily is red and white. Stop signs were yellow and black at that time and did not change to red and white until the 1960s.


Continuity: When Michael announces that he will kill Sollozzo and Capt. McCluskey, the swelling in the left side of Michael's face (from having his jaw broken by McCluskey) disappears by the time he gets to his closing line, "It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business."


Continuity: While Michael is telling Kay the story of Luca Brasi, the gun and the contract, Michael is leaning back in his chair, but we cut to Kay on the other side of the table and Michael is leaning forward.


Audio/visual unsynchronised: When Carlo is strangled in the front seat of his car, and shatters the windshield with his foot, the glass is heard breaking before it is actually broken.


Anachronisms: In late 1945, the Empire State Building is shown with the 222-foot television antenna mast that it did not acquire until 1950.


Continuity: When the cop shoots the man at the top of the stairs during the baptism sequence, three shots are fired, but only two can be heard

Anachronisms: The American flags visible in the 1917 street carnival should have 48 stars, not 50.


Revealing mistakes: When Vito Andolini's mother hugs the dead Paolo, he moves his hand


Miscellaneous: During the Cuban rebel uprising scene, a store is looted while Michael Corleone makes his escape. Something is stuck to the camera lens and can be seen as a silhouette on the screen.


Revealing mistakes: The supposedly dead prostitute can be seen breathing by the movement of the white sheets.


Continuity: When Michael makes up with Fredo at their mother's funeral, the ashtray on the table by Fredo moves farther away.


Continuity: When Michael returns from Las Vegas after Christmas, he is carrying a briefcase in one hand, and nothing in the other hand. As he walks into the house, he's holding the briefcase in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other.


Continuity: Shortly after the assassination attempt on Michael in his bedroom, he meets alone in a room with Tom Hagen. They sit at an empty table. After talking for a few minutes, Michael offers Tom a glass of wine from a bottle that is now on the table.


Plot holes: After Vito kills Fanucci, he holds his baby Michael in his arms. Vito killed Fanucci in 1919, and Michael was born in 1920.


Audio/visual unsynchronised: When Vito and Genco go to the theatre, and watch the 'Senza Mama' show, the singers voice is clearly out of sync with the words of the song.


Continuity: During Roth's birthday party, the pattern on his shirt changes. Due to weather difficulties, the two minute scene took over a week to shoot and the original shirt was lost at some point. The production designer attempted to recreate it by drawing an approximation of the pattern onto a plain shirt, but it didn't quite match.


Anachronisms: The original color of the Statue of Liberty was bronze since it was made of copper. It was the air and salt water that caused it to lose luster. At the time Vito Andolini comes to American, the Statue of Liberty would not be a bright green.


Errors in geography: When the boat pulls up to take Fredo and young Anthony fishing at the Lake Tahoe estate, the boat's registration ends in AK, which means it is registered for the State of Alaska. The setting of this particular scene was Nevada.


Crew or equipment visible: When Vito is driving and Fanucci hops onto the car, another car passes between the camera and Vito's car - Coppola and the camera can be seen reflected in the car's window.


Continuity: The pen and pad of paper on the desk during the argument about Kay leaving are both gone when Michael returns to get a cigarette.


Continuity: When Michael and Kay are in their bedroom after the party, Michael is looking out the window, and below him is a mirror that shows Kay's reflection. When Michael ducks to avoid the wave of bullets that comes through the window, Kay's reflection disappears.


Continuity: During the film's second-to-last scene, set on Vito's birthday - Dec. 7, 1941 - when Michael is explaining why he joined the Marines, Vito's birthday cake disappears. Immediately afterwards, during Tom's Hagen's speech telling Michael about how he and the Godfather had discussed "plans" for Michael's life, Fredo disappears.

Great post Rollin Stone. Now I have to make a copy of the "mistakes" and look for them

I do question one item:

While I do agree that the exterior and interior shots were used to show how powerful the dons were, was it really intented for the Federal Reserve Bank building to show how high the influence was or did FFC just want to use an impressive "powerful looking" building front? I don't think too many people, even native New Yorkers, would be able to identify that building.

RS...that's some list, but not complete. Was Sonny's phantom punch on there or left off because its too obvious and previously mentioned? A friend of mine was an assistant movie editor. He said the most common mistakes are the liquid levels in glasses and the lengths of cigarettes.

As mentioned above, the immigrants on the "Mosholu" are leaving NY harbor, based on the position of the Statue. The other Statue goofs are:
1. When young Vito is quarantined at Ellis Island, a reflection of the Statue is seen in the window. The reflection shows the front of the Statue, Ellis Island faces the back of the Statue.
2. When Clemenza, Rocco and Paulie pull over for Clemenza to take a leak, the Manhattan skyline - the Empire State Building - is seen in the background. This shot is taken from the east side of Manhattan (southern Queens or Northern Brooklyn.) When Paulie is shot, the back of the Statue is seen over the weeds. This shot is taken from the west, in New Jersey.

Anachronism: The Moshulu, which is now a permanently anchored restaurant in Philadelphia, did not exist when Young Vito came to America. It was built in 1904 and captured from the Germans in WWI.

DA - I did some research on The Moshulu some time ago, and I saw, too, that it is now a restaurant, but its not the same ship. Apparently the one in Philly is an old schooner ship which coincidentally has the same name as the boat featured in "The Godfather".

SC

I feel a DejaVu going on. I got the info that the Philly ship was in the Godfather from this link (scroll to bottom):

http://www.pennslandingcorp.com/whatsnews.htm

Also, in google "moshulu godfather philadephia"
shows a few other sources.

I've eaten on the boat, and do like think its the same boat. But are you saying its an urban legend?


Also discussed here:

http://www.thegodfathertrilogy.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002057


http://www.thegodfathertrilogy.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002788#000014

Mea culpa, DA. I just reviewed the scene from the movie and compared it to the picture of the ship on the linked site you provided. You're right; it IS the same boat.

From the other pics of the restaurant that I'd seen it didn't look the same (the four masts don't show up in the movie) but the front of the ship is definitely the same.

In the immortal words of Emily Latella, "Never mind".

My aching ears, as an old Navy man, its a SHIP not a BOAT

How about a vessel?

Here's a glaring gaffe that all the nitpickers seem to have missed:

While everyone seems fixated on the Vegas hippies when Mike and Fredo get out of the car in front of the hotel, has no one else realized that "Fredo" is clearly not John Cazale at that brief moment? Watch that scene again, it's GOTTA be a stand-in. You really see the difference when they show the imposter Fredo next to the car and then the dissolve where the boys are walking down the hall and bona-fide Fredo is saying, "I can't get over the way your face looks, this doctor did some job..."

Amen... That fight sucked. I wonder why they didn't try to do it a little better.

A few years ago when PEOPLE did a "Where are they now" segment, Gianni Russo stated that although many punches were "stopped short", many also did land. Russo felt some tension with James Caan and felt that JC was not pulling his punches at times, and had some bruises because of it. There was another story of how much Russo was disliked by Caan and Duvall. It seemed that Russo was trying to be like Carlo Rizzi in his attention to the female staffers and workers on the set, acting like he was God's gift to women. A poor actor, Russo made many other minor appearances in movies (Brando actually got him a small part as the M'Aitre D in THE FRESHMAN.) He also played a small time hood in the Steven Seagall movie OUT FOR JUSTICE. After the sucess of Godfather, Russo felt that he would be the next big leading man with his Italo good looks, but his true acting skills came out and directors saw his limited talent, and he has been relegated to small one time screen appearanced in movies

In response to that last post, I think that Caan and Russo should restage that scene and make sure every freakin punch lands. They could put it on a special disc labeled things I'd like to see.

At least it didn't have those fake punch sounds to accompany it. In my opinion, considering the time the film was made, I feel the fight scene is actually very realistic and wel filmed.

Mick

I never noticed this...I'll have to watch GF I tonight...can anyone here confirm?

I think I found a new one. In the scene in which the Don is shot in GF I, the gun shots and sounds are unsycrinised.

Hi!

This and other "second crew" moments are reflected upon in FFC's commentary on the DVD. I remember him lamenting over the "hippies" in the lobby, but not John Cazale's absence (which would however be natural under these circumstances).

For example, the whole Waltz estate exterior was filmed this way. One can also see that it's not Robert Duvall walking across the studio grounds - until he steps in with his briefcase suddenly in the other hand (another known gaffe).

Best regards.

Alexander

Hi!

In fact, I believe that the Statue of Liberty is consistently shown from the wrong side or the wrong way in all GFs. Perhaps, it was not so unintentional after all (cf. the oranges)?

Best regards.

Alexander

I also think in Harlan Lebo's Book "The Godfather Legacy" it says that a double was used for the long shot of Brando in the garden death scene of Don Vito.

What caused the Statue of Liberty to turn green? When did it turn green?

Because the exterior contains copper. The copper reacts with oxygen in the air to form the green colored copper oxide (plus, acid rain accelerates this condition).

So What. The Hagen/Woltz walkabout in the Woltz estate gardens was also done by doubles. The guy that punched Michael was also a double (look carefully at the back of the cop's head to see he had longer hair and not a crewcut).

It is not a mistake unless its obvious to the viewer that doubles are used.

Hi!

Well, with this juicy discussion going over and over again, it must be obvious enough. FFC seems to be mightily annoyed about this, too.

By the way, the whole _sequence_ on the hospital steps was reportedly made later in California. One can hardly notice this unless told.

Best regards.

Alexander

something not mentioned is the scene where Michael shoots Mccluskey and virgil sollotzo the scene is from 1946. in part 2 during the senate committee mentions it happening in 1947.

FFC was annoyed with the scene where Michael is entering the Las Vegas hotel. My comments were addressing the scene where Michael/Vito are walking in the garden.

What is your source for saying the hospital scene is in California? According to Geoff's GF1 "Filming Locations", the outside hospital scene was Bellevue Hospital in NYC.

I never said it was a mistake, I was just adding to the comment about the doubles being used for the Hagen/Woltz scenes.

Hi!

Coppola's own comments on the DVD tell a different story. The second part of the sequence, with Enzo the baker trembling on the steps, was filmed later in California. One can notice this by the lights that decorate the entrance: they are different from those displayed when Mike leaves the cab in front of the hospital.

Best regards.

Alexander

Hi!

Again somewhere in the DVD commentary, FFC says oh just how mightily he was annoyed by all those second crew scenes. I'm not sure he mentions Vito's double who lies on the ground - but then it's done by Lebo.

Best regards.

Alexander