Best crime movie mistakes of 1973

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The Wicker Man picture

Other mistake: During his conversation with the landlord of the pub he ends up staying in, Sergeant Howie makes it clear that he did not intend to stay on Summerisle overnight, that he had been delayed and so needed accommodation. Makes you wonder why he packed his pyjamas. He's wearing them when Britt Ecklund does her famous naked song and dance routine, and they are not new so we know he didn't buy them that day. When he arrived he didn't even think he'd be on Summerisle for more than a few hours - we don't see him with so much as an overnight bag.

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The Sting picture

Factual error: When Hooker comes out of the diner there is a billboard advertisement to the right. It is for Ezra Brooks bourbon. Ezra Brooks brand wasn't created until 1957.

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Papillon picture

Visible crew/equipment: In the last scene where the main character escapes, he jumps into the bay and is supported by a sack which he is carrying. Actually you can clearly see that he is supported from underneath by a diver.

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Magnum Force picture

Visible crew/equipment: After Callahan removes the bomb from his mailbox, he looks up at a man on the nearby stairs. As a car drives by on the street, the lights from it cast the shadow of the boom operator onto the wall.

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Charley Varrick picture

Plot hole: Swapping his dental X-ray records with his deceased partner won't convince anyone that Varrick is dead - then (as now) the patient's name appears on the X-ray.

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Enter the Dragon picture

Other mistake: In the intense outdoor battle scene at the end, when Bruce kicks a guy in the face three times in a row, one of the extras in the background cracks up laughing.

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White Lightning picture White Lightning mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Close-up interior shots show that Gator's brown Ford has a Hurst floor-shifter and manual transmission. But when he arrives at his parent's home, he very obviously puts the column-mounted automatic shifter into 'Park'. (00:17:10)

johnrosa

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The Seven-Ups picture

Revealing mistake: When the Grand Ville turns onto the street where the children are playing, it clips a parked car as it makes the turn. This is the same car that later gets its driver's door ripped off by the Grand Ville just before the police give chase. It was repainted red for the second scene, but note the same dent in the right fender as before.

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Walking Tall picture

Revealing mistake: When the bad sheriff tries to run Buford Pusser over, he drives off the road and the car explodes for no reason. It's in the air when it explodes, there's no way it could have exploded without hitting the ground.

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Executive Action picture

Factual error: The kid is wearing a Texas Rangers baseball cap. The Rangers didn't come to Texas until 1972.

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Serpico picture

Continuity mistake: When Serpico finds three black men raping a girl in the park, one of them cuts the girls face slightly and the cut is very visible. The camera then cuts away then back and the cut and blood is gone. (00:10:25)

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Mean Streets picture

Continuity mistake: During one of the pool scenes, balls disappear and change position between cuts.

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Hell Up in Harlem picture

Other mistake: Throughout the whole scene when Black Caesar is wounded by the Irish hitman several passers-by can be seen looking directly into the camera, and in many shots people are crowded together on the sidewalk watching the filming. Conversely, the hitman fires a big and loud revolver in the middle of a crossing with dozens of people and cars in close quarters, and nobody bats an eyelid. (00:03:00)

Sammo

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The Last of Sheila picture

Character mistake: After Clinton's phone call, Christine talks with her assistant and making fun of the "mourning", she says "We went directly to Streisand's opening at the Sands right from the cemetery." However, in Vegas Barbra Streisand never performed at the Sands; she did the International (then Hilton) and the Riviera. (00:05:15)

Sammo

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Black Mama White Mama picture

Continuity mistake: Some scenes show the actresses in their yellow prison dresses getting dirty, yet a minute or so after this, they're clean again.

Rob245

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Electra Glide in Blue picture

Continuity mistake: For the infamous closing scene, a van of drug-runners fire a double-barrelled 12-gauge shotgun straight into the windscreen of Officer Wintergreen's Electra Glide motorcycle, killing him. In the full front view, the gunfire virtually explodes the windscreen, shattering it on all sides all the way to the frame. Camera cuts to a side view and we see Wintergreen topple off as the motorcycle keeps traveling down the road. In this profile shot, the windscreen is no longer exploded, but now has a neat 4-inch hole in it.

Charles Austin Miller

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The Knock Out Cop picture

Continuity mistake: Visiting the prostitute scarred with the sharpened coin, Rizzo looks at her in her hospital bed. In her close-up she is holding the bed sheet with both hands, but in the wider views before and after, nothing of the sort happened, her hands were off the sheets. (00:18:00)

Sammo

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Shaft in Africa picture

Audio problem: The slave recruiter in the village shoots Shaft and kills his bodyguard. The Luger gun he is using has a suppressor, but the noise it makes is the noise of a normal, not 'silenced' gun. (00:56:55)

Sammo

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