Best musical movie factual errors of all time

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Dumbo picture

Factual error: When the stork is flying to deliver Dumbo, the map shows the state of Kentucky above Alabama and Mississippi instead of Tennessee. (00:07:15)

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Charlie Chan at the Opera picture

Factual error: Charlie Chan claims that mixing hydrochloric acid with ferrocyanide of potassium is mixing two acids. Ferrocyanide of potassium is not an acid. (00:27:00)

Noman

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West Side Story picture

Factual error: At the beginning of Quintet, a modern Manhattan skyline is visible in the distance not a late 1950s skyline. Also, the view is consistent with the Paterson, NJ filming location, not the Upper West Side.

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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes picture

Factual error: The "Olympic team" sailing on the ship consists of approximately 18 men. The actual 1952 US Olympic team consisted of 286 competitors (245 men and 41 women), plus a large number of coaches, trainers, and so on.

mdwalker

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Buck Privates picture

Factual error: Abbott and Costello have inadvertently enlisted in the Army but anyone weighing 240 pounds or more will be rejected. When Costello steps on the scale, the Army physician tells him, "You're in the Army. You made it by two ounces." Medical scales at that time (1941) showed weight in whole pounds only and did not show ounces.

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Lady and the Tramp picture

Factual error: At the end of the movie, Lady has four puppies, three Spaniels, like her, and one mixed breed, like Tramp. Realistically, they would all be mixed breed with characteristics from both parents.

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Thoroughly Modern Millie picture

Factual error: The movie is set in 1922, but the women's clothes are more along the line of 1928, with a strong 1960's influence. For an accurate depiction of 1922 fashion, refer to Season 4 of Downton Abbey.

mdwalker

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Show Boat picture

Factual error: Actual showboats were very rarely self-propelled. The engine and boilers needed to propel the vessel would have taken up the space needed for the stage, backstage area, and auditorium. As a result, they had to be towed everywhere by a towboat.

mdwalker

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Beyond the Sea picture

Factual error: A scene in the second half of the film pans up over the top of the Flamingo hotel/casino facing north up the Vegas strip. The Caesars Palace sign is to the left (west) and north of the Flamingo are the Sands, the Dunes, and the Frontier casinos in that order. The Dunes hotel/casino was never located between the Sands and the Frontier. It was in fact one of the southernmost located casinos on the strip at that time and would have technically been behind, southwest of, the Flamingo in this scene.

quizjrt

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The Muppet Movie picture

Factual error: The TV remotes of the day wouldn't control more than one TV at a time, yet they all come on and go off at the same rime.

Movie Nut

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Mame picture

Factual error: At the end of the movie, Mame takes Peter with her on a trip to Siberia. However, at this point in the timeline, it's the late 1940s, meaning that Stalin was still in power, so even Auntie Mame would be crazy to think of vacationing in Russia. Not to mention the difficulties of getting Peter a visa to travel to the USSR at the last minute. (In the stage version, the destination was India, rather than Siberia, which makes a lot more sense).

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Bedknobs And Broomsticks picture

Factual error: At Portobello Market, when the kids are eating, there's a sign that reads "cookies." No chance there would have been anything like that in 40's London. It would definitely have read "biscuits."

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Kissin' Cousins picture

Factual error: Ma Tatum, while bemoaning Pappy's misfortune, sits herself on a burlap bag marked "Mash". Mash, the basic component of moonshine, is a semi-liquid, and couldn't be stored in a burlap bag.

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Slade in Flame picture

Factual error: This film is set in the 1960's. The Ford transit van belonging to Russell, the group's roadie, is a facelifted 1971 model.

eric 64

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Camelot picture

Factual error: During the Jousting all the knights fail to use their lances correctly by putting them across the horse's neck, instead they just attack each other on the lance arm.

Blue321

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Hans Christian Andersen picture

Factual error: In Danny Kaye's song about "The Emperor's New Clothes" he persistently and repeatedly uses the words "the king is in the altogether." Hans Christian Andersen lived from 1805 to 1875, but the expression "in the altogether", meaning naked, was invented and popularised by George Du Maurier in his novel "Trilby" which was not published until 1894.

Rob Halliday

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Jailhouse Rock picture

Factual error: When Vince Edwards is marking months off the calendar he marks months off on two consecutive years that have the same days of the week. That never happens.

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FM (1978)

FM picture

Factual error: In the opening, they are playing 'Life in the Fast Lane' by the Eagles, and they do a closeup of the studio turntable playing the last song on an album, but 'Life in the Fast Lane' is the second song on 'Hotel California' - not the last. (00:04:24)

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