Continuity mistake: When Eastwood is looking through binoculars at the cable car going up to the castle (the studio model), Burton arrives down the hill and lies beside him and there is no cable car to be seen at the actual castle in the background.
Continuity mistake: When Major Smith and the others have completed their parachute jump, they find Sgt. Harod dead in the snow. Major Smith says at first Harod broke his neck on landing, but later said to his trusted comrades Harod was murdered after landing. Since he was murdered by a member of the landing party there would be tell-tale footprints of the murderer in the virgin snow around Harod's body, but there are no footprints around him at all.
Character mistake: Before entering the tavern,Smith tells the team to meet outside in a 1/2 hour. When they are sitting at the table just before capture, he says he gave orders for nobody to leave.
Continuity mistake: In her castle room, Mary lays all the sticks of dynamite on their sides in the suitcase. When Smith opens the suitcase in the meeting room after they got the names of the spies, the dynamite is now standing on end.
Factual error: Near the end the Germans have to blow a tree in two pieces but the snow on the road is still there, not affected by the blast. And later when the first Kübelwagen is passing the gap for the chase there are already tracks from other takes.
Deliberate mistake: Smith and the team come down the mountain and into the village at dusk, yet it is light out during the entire movie.
Revealing mistake: When the cable car is seen in long shot coming down from the hill (carrying the film's heroes) it is painfully obvious that while the cable car is real enough, the mountain behind it is fake.
Continuity mistake: At the parachute drop the close-ups of Smith shows his face in sunlight, but the wider shots are grey and foggy.
Factual error: The Mosquito couldn't carry passengers. It has only seats for the pilot and navigator. And why was it flying over Nazi Germany with an American general on board?
Revealing mistake: The team parachuted onto a mountain top while it has been snowing for some time, but when they go looking for Harris the missing radio operator, you can see footprints in the snow.
Factual error: Most of the soldiers (both German, British and American) sport 1960's style haircuts. Regulations in all three armies call for buzzcuts. Eastwood sports almost a pompadour, and Burton almost a mullet. This is a mistake made in about 50% of war movies.
Factual error: A number of the German uniforms in this film are incorrect for this period and location. The reversible white/camouflage parkas worn by the allies were scarcely seen beyond the eastern front before D-Day and would have looked very suspicious without the matching over-pants. Additionally, the marsh pattern camouflage on these didn't appear on these until mid 1944, which only partially replaced the Heer splinter patterns, SS camo patterns, as well as blue and olive solids. Finally, the stereotypical black SS uniforms seen in the film were largely replaced with an olive green version of similar cut nearly 10 years before the film was set. In 1943-44, it was only worn by Himmler (who also wore the olive version), his staff, very highly placed members of SS related organizations, some of Hitler's bodyguard detachment, and native security forces on the eastern front (hiwi's).
Continuity mistake: When Eastwood gets off the German motorbike after the escape from the town, the seat of his trousers are wet but 2 seconds later are bone dry.
Other mistake: When escaping down the walls by abseiling, the actors hold rope with two hands - impossible to do down such a height with small width of rope. The stunt folk have rope going round their backs as they come down, abseiling properly.
Continuity mistake: When the Germans set up the machine gun in the corridor and are shot by Eastwood, they collapse next to and over the machine gun in the middle of the corridor. When the team escapes down the corridor later the gun and the bodies have disappeared.
Chosen answer: This is not unusual in older films. Earlier costume designers were less attentive to historical accuracy and freely incorporated current fashion trends into period movies. It was just an accepted practice and movie audiences back then were often less discerning and/or unaware of inaccuracies. Today's costumers have greater access to historical information, do more research, and strive for authenticity.
raywest ★