Other mistake: In the Christmas party scene all the soldiers are in uniform wearing military boots. Except Bing Crosby, who is in his uniform wearing brown dress shoes, in a war zone. (00:03:00)
Suggested correction: Crosby is wearing dress shoes because he is on stage, entertaining the troops with dancing and singing. It would be hard to do a "soft shoe" tap dance in combat boots. Danny Kaye is wearing boots, but he only does a few simpler dance steps. Crosby is the main entertainer and he would change back into his combat boots once the show was over.
Bombs dropping around them. So shiny brogues were out of the question... and you can't call what Bing does was a dance.
Continuity mistake: During the morning outside following the buttermilk scene in the inn where "Counting My Blessings" was sung, Bob arrives in a jeep to talk to the general. Bob shows him a hand bill for the upcoming show, which has a reddish top trim. He sits down with the hand bill on his leg in order to light a match for the general's cigarette. The hand bill falls to the ground. However, in the next shot, the hand bill is in Bob's right outside coat pocket with other papers (he may have done that after the previous shot to keep it from falling to the ground but it wasn't caught). (01:08:00)
Suggested correction: He has multiple playbills in his hand. He takes one and puts the rest in his pocket. This doesn't seem to be a goof.
Just watched it. The playbill falls to the ground and goes out of frame, no attempt to pick it up, but later when they stand up the playbill is not on the ground where it fell. The playbills in the coat pocket are unrelated to the continuity error.
Continuity mistake: The view out the back of the barn door when it's first revealed does not match the same view, just minutes later, in the final shot of the film. (01:55:43 - 01:59:12)
Continuity mistake: The train that transports The Haynes Sisters and Wallace and Davis from Florida to Vermont is shown as being of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in one sequence, and of the Southern Pacific Railroad in another. Neither railway ran on the east coast of the U.S.
Continuity mistake: Opening scene, on the stage where Bing is singing next to the tree. There is no bench. Danny Kaye picks up the music-box he's been cranking to get it out of the way of the soldiers... And suddenly he has a bench to put it on.
Continuity mistake: When they are at the table in the train's dining car, there is a large menu against the window. The menu is horizontal. When they start singing, the menu is suddenly vertical.
Continuity mistake: When Wallace and Davis are on the train heading for the club car, they bump the door to the stateroom where the Haynes' sisters are. In the morning when they are getting ready to disembark, the sisters are in sleeping berths, not the stateroom.
Suggested correction: They all change to berths because they have to split the cost of a room for two to sleeping for 4. Intentional not an error.
Not possible since the conductor said to Wallace and Davis there was no room on the train. He said if they buy tickets, they can sit up in the Club Car all night.
Possibly a change of trains in D, C, OR MY.
Yes. They HAD to change trains. No direct service from Florida to Vermont back then. Or today either, matter of fact.
It takes more than one night to get to Vermont. The train would stop in New York before Vermont so there would conceivably be more room when people left the train.
I don' think so. Because when the guys get on the train and don't have the ticket's the conductor tells them all that the train is full and all that is left is the club car. There must be a cut scene or something because this one sticks out like a sore thumb.
Wrong! It takes TWO trains to get from Florida to NY. Still does even today on Amtrak.
Tickets were to New York, not Vermont. Obviously new accommodations.
The conductor said there was no space available. The train was all booked up so there were no berths available even if they wanted to that. It's just another continuity error, period.
They changed trains in New York. Other commenters have clarified this already.
Continuity mistake: When the General comes into the room for his surprise party the old lady and the granddaughter step back when he first enters then the camera cuts to another angle and they step back again.
Continuity mistake: The two sisters are in their room backstage. One sister is holding a coffee pot and pours a cup of coffee, and then puts the coffee pot down. The camera cuts away and cuts back and now she is holding the coffee pot again.
Continuity mistake: Near the beginning during the war when the two actors are in the tent, they are sitting on a cot talking. They are next to each other, then not, then back, in the same scene.
Factual error: While travelling up the east coast from FL to ME they show a Santa Fe passenger train, which only runs out west.
Continuity mistake: There's a mysterious moving pitcher of buttermilk and a tray of sandwiches in one of Bing's scenes in the Inn.
Character mistake: When Wallace and Davis start performing together, they show the newspaper "Variety" with five different headlines. Three of those papers have the same story, "Old Trooper Dies."
Continuity mistake: During the General's anniversary/reunion scene, the camera follows him into the room, the candles on the cake are lit. Angle changes to the left, as he continues to walk, the candles are out. Back to behind, the candles are lit again.
Continuity mistake: Watch Mary Wickes button-down blouse during the scene when she eavesdrops on Bing Crosby's phone call. There is one short sequence where one button has come undone. The rest of the time, all buttons are fastened securely.
Continuity mistake: On the train scene in the dining car, watch the table. Every camera angle change, the salt and pepper shaker, the ashtray, the flower, everything, jumps around on the table.
Continuity mistake: When the general gets introduced to the Haynes sisters he buttons his sweater as if to look more presentable. But then when he is handed the bag by Emma shortly after, his sweater front is wide open.
Continuity mistake: At the dinner, the General blows out the candles on the cake. At the end of the movie they are lit again.
Continuity mistake: In the "White Christmas" number at the end, the angel ballerina begins to stand before Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen come in. When we cut back to her after they've come in, she is back down to her starting position.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Wallace and Davis are changing clothes before going to see the Haines sisters, Danny Kaye steps behind a trunk to change pants. When the scene cuts to him actually taking them off the trunk is taller than it was before the cut (for modesty, I assume). It was thigh high before the cut and almost waist high after.
