Continuity mistake: Al Pacino is accused of killing the 5 family leaders in 1950. In "Godfather part I" the killing of the 5 family leaders took place in 1955. (00:15:20)
Suggested correction: Michael is accused of "devising" the murder of the heads of the five families in 1950. Devising means planning, so while it may have taken about 5 years to successfully carry out, Michael begin planning the murders in 1950.
How is Michael accused of plotting the murder of the heads of the five families, as he himself is head of one of the families, yes five people die but Moe Green is not head of a New York family. It's been a long time since I have seen the film but that always stuck.
For alliteration purposes, five families seems to sound better then four families. Vito also asks for a meeting with the heads of the five families to stop the war, but he is one of the heads so he does not need to say five families, as if Tom would not think to include Vito in the meeting.
This is a common mistake made by viewers. Although there were, in actuality, 5 families in real life, there were 6 families. The script should have said "the other five families..." (or, better yet, just "the other families..." to make it clearer.
Factual error: When Michael meets with Hyman Roth at his home in Florida the television is on and you can hear the announcer calling a USC/Notre Dame game. The meeting takes place in the late 1950's, but the announcer is Tom Kelly, a long time USC announcer who didn't start calling their games until the 1960's.
Suggested correction: The announcer calls out Don Buford and Luther Hayes. These players were on USC's roster together only in 1958. Therefore, the game must be the 1958 matchup that Notre Dame won 20-13. This is not a factual error.
The announcer has the voice of Tom Kelly, who did not announce USC games until the early '60's.
The point is that given the announcer heard is calling a real game from 1958, it's almost certainly the actual announcer from that game. There'd be no point in hiring Tom Kelly to call a fake game. The announcer must just sound like him, but be someone else. Tom Kelly isn't in the credits, which he would be if he was specifically cast in that role.
