Best movie mistakes of 1981

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S.O.B. picture

Revealing mistake: 'Nightwind', the film at the centre of the drama, has finished shooting, and has been edited and postproduced, has premiered and bombed. All of this would take months - for a major production, up to a year. So why are the sets still standing on the studio sound stages?

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Das Boot picture

Revealing mistake: In one scene just before the attack on a big Hunter the young captain (Jürgen Prochnow) is sitting with his charts. Beside him he has got a glass of beer standing. The sub lurches heavily right and left in the hard weather, but the surface of the liquid stays the same.

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Excalibur picture

Visible crew/equipment: After Arthur drinks from the Grail and goes to visit Gwinevere at the convent and she gives him the sword back, he paces around her chamber- you can clearly see the film crew reflected in his armor.

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Love Story picture

Continuity mistake: When Jenny arrives at Oliver's parents' home, her hair is stringy and separated, but when she walks through the front door, it is brushed.

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Death Hunt picture

Continuity mistake: When Albert Johnson jumps into the top of a tree, he first throws his backpack off the hill but leaves his rifle. After he gets to the base of the tree both his backpack and rifle are there.

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Omen III: The Final Conflict picture

Continuity mistake: In the first two Omen movies, Damien's mark of the Beast was hidden on the top of his scalp. In this movie, it's behind his right ear.

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History of the World: Part I picture

Visible crew/equipment: When Comicus and his entourage are on the road to Judea, the tire tracks of the vehicle carrying the camera are blatantly clear in the lower part of the picture.

Nicki

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Neighbors picture

Visible crew/equipment: When the families are eating dinner, Ramona says that John Belushi tried to pork her. When she says that line a boom mic appears in shot, above her head. Also, when Vic is talking about where he got the food, the boom pole is visible at the top right of the screen.

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Reds picture

Continuity mistake: When John Reed is eating dinner with his wife in their cottage, in one shot he is reaching for a piece of bread. The next shot he's missing the bread and the following shot has him reaching for it again.

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The Postman Always Rings Twice picture

Continuity mistake: In the final scene of the movie, on the highway, Cora (Jessica Lange) is ejected from the car Frank (Jack Nicholson) is driving, hits the ground, dies instantly after the impact, and rolls over to the shoulder of the road. Weeping, Frank kneels by her side and holds her motionless right hand with his right hand, which, of course, has no wedding ring (They had just been married.) The next and last close-up shot shows he's holding her right hand with his LEFT HAND, the wide gold wedding ring appearing now in full sight. (01:59:33)

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Caveman picture

Other mistake: Dennis Quaid is supposed to be frozen in a wall of ice but if you watch closely, and very quickly, you can see him blink his eyes.

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Zombie Lake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When the woman in the opening credits is taking off her clothes, she is about to take a blue shirt from her bag, but decided against it. As she does, you can see a crew member aimlessly wandering around in the bushes behind her. (00:01:40)

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Arthur picture

Other mistake: When Arthur is in the bath tub, Hobson brings him a martini on a tray. Arthur grabs the glass. It shoots over to Hobson then back to Arthur and he picks up the glass again without even putting it down.

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Scanners picture

Continuity mistake: In the head exploding scene the table gets covered in blood and brain matter, but in the next shot the table is clean. (00:13:05)

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Polyester picture

Continuity mistake: About 20 minutes into the movie, the family is sitting around the dining room table eating breakfast. Dad asks how school is going, and the daughter replies, "I learned all about my cervix in sex ed today", then walks off. They are eating breakfast, and the kids have not yet gone to school.

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Happy Birthday to Me picture

Continuity mistake: After the 'game' of flying over the drawbridge in cars, Ginny runs away into the forest with just her scarf. In the forest she has her scarf and handbag.

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Escape to Victory picture

Factual error: In the final football game scenes ( from about three-quarters of the way through the film or so) all the spectators are wearing 1970's clothes and have 1970's hairstyles.

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Night of Terror picture

Continuity mistake: A zombie smashes a window, and then we see its hands trying to get in. One woman grabs a machete from the table and then proceeds the cut both its hands off. The amount of glass on the window-ledge below the zombie's hands differs, depending on the shot.

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Göta Kanal picture

Continuity mistake: After the engines break down on the Carina, Lena leads a horse dragging the boat along as they work to fix it. We see her leading it on the north side of the canal but when they pass Uniship she is suddenly on the south.

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