Column Chronicles: Silly mistakes in famous movies

Silly mistakes in famous movies

Frank Cotolo
January 11, 2018

Because audiences all over the world revere some movies, it is rare that anyone except the most adept viewer notices dumb mistakes that no one caught before release. I consider myself an adept viewer of serious films, having won the International Adept Movie Viewer Award for six years straight. Here are some of the mistakes I found in serious movies over the years.

In a scene from "Gone With The Wind," Gerald O'Hara, played by Thomas Mitchell, has an burnt hot dog sticking out of his shirt pocket while talking to house servant Mammy.

In the movie "Pygmalion," there is a brief reaction shot during a conversation where star Leslie Howard has a booger dangling from his nose.

In "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," a showdown between the characters Snape and Malfoy starts with both clean shaven and ends with both having full beards.

"Pulp Fiction" star John Travolta calls his co-star Samuel L. Jackson's character (Jules Winfield) "Phil the Tiger" in at least two scenes.

At the end of "The Shining," an early longshot of the hotel shows the famous maze in the shape of a spatula. Jack Nicholson's left thumb has a Band Aid on it while he is typing and a ring on his right middle finger. Then, a scene later, he has an iodine stain on his thumb and he is chewing a Band-Aid.

In the famous chariot scene from Ben-Hur, when Charlton Heston uses his left hand to whip his team of horses, a close up of Heston show his lips mouthing the words "My damned underwear is scratching the hell out of my scrotum."

When Tony Curtis played Houdini in the movie "Houdini," he never once walked forward in a scene starting with his left foot.

In a scene from 1962's "Mutiny on The Bounty," Marlon Brando, playing Fletcher Christian, whispers, "I'm doing this role so much better than Clark Gable," while looking co-star Trevor Howard right between the eyes.

Among a sprinkling of prisoners walking in the prison courtyard in "The Shawshank Redemption" is Jerry Garcia of the rock group The Grateful Dead.

Elvis Presley sings the title tune to the movie "Love Me Tender" while strumming a guitar in the wrong key.

In the airplane crash scene of "Cast Away" with Tom Hanks, the sign on the lavatory reads "Occupied" though the door is open.

In the 2008 version of "The Day The Earth Stood Still," Keanu Reeves, playing the alien Klaatu, pronounces his character's name as "Carl."

Diane Keaton, in "Annie Hall," has at least two scenes with Woody Allen where she obviously has a mild case of "pink eye," an inflammation or infection of the outer membrane of the eyeball and the inner eyelid.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.