Continuity mistake: When William Holden is laying on his bunk and first notices the shadow of the hanging electric bulb, he turns around to look at the bulb, but there is no light source beyond the bulb to cause such a shadow.
Continuity mistake: When the POWs are preparing to move Dunbar, Sefton draws his pocketknife and throws it into the table, slanted, near a square etched into the tabletop. In the following shot, the knife is farther away from the square, and it stands up straight. (01:48:15)
Continuity mistake: As Sefton talks to Price, he toys with the black chess pieces. If you look closely at the table, there's no square carved in the top, yet at the climax there is.
Continuity mistake: When Steve is getting on his crutches with smudge pot tied to his leg, watch his left hand. The string goes around the back of the crutch to his handle. A moment later, the string goes directly to his hand through the crutch.
Continuity mistake: When Steve sits so Blondie can get the radio, he lifts the pants leg, and you see the bottom of the radio. After a cut scene, there is a close up, the radio is hidden by the pants leg, and Blondie re-exposes the radio.
Continuity mistake: When the camp is trying to save Dunbar with the smoke screen, the smoke pattern changes between the shots. For example, the wide shot shows the smoke going off perfectly without any wind, but in the next shot when they show a close-up of the commandant going outside to see what's wrong, the smoke is now carried by a lot of wind.
Continuity mistake: The outside shots that show the barracks roof show 2 stove chimneys per barrack, but the inside shots show only 1 stove.
Continuity mistake: After one of the prisoners shouts that there are new women in the Russian camp, the men rush out to see them. On his way, animal falls in the mud, covering his backside and the backs of his legs with mud. A few moments later, he makes it to the wire and begins calling to the women. When he turns his overalls are clean.
Continuity mistake: When Price gets his "love note" out of the black queen and reads it, he quickly puts it and the queen in his left pants pocket. However, later Sefton reaches into Price's jacket and gets it out.
Suggested correction: It's the next day. It's perfectly reasonable that Price could have moved it. It's also reasonable that Sefton, who was watching him closely, would have seen where he put it.
Continuity mistake: When Harry and Animal are painting on the wall to see the Russian women, the amount of paint on the corner post changes between shots.
