It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Revealing mistake: In the opening credits, just after the credits for Director of Photography, Production Design and Art Director are shown, the globe in the centre of the frame shifts downwards and to the left by an inch when the credits for Film Editors, Assistant to the Director, Assistant to the Producer, Production Manager (and many others) appear on screen. (00:05:33)

Casual Person

Continuity mistake: When the men are looking over Smiler, just as Smiler asks "Is he kidding", he is shown looking towards the left. When the shot cuts, he is suddenly looking to the right. Pike's hand also moves further away from him in between shots. (00:09:17)

Casual Person

Continuity mistake: When Smiler succumbs to his injuries and dies, he kicks a bucket down the hill with his left foot. In the close-up shot, his foot is shifted to the left, but in the next shot, his foot is suddenly pointing straight forwards. (00:11:47)

Casual Person

Continuity mistake: When the police officer approaches the dead body, just after Melville asks "Are you a police officer" and the officer crouches down, the positions of Melville, Ding and Benjy change when the shot cuts to a closer shot of the officer and the body. (00:12:55)

Casual Person

Continuity mistake: Just after Pike gets out of his truck, he begins to walk along the small path to the side of the road. In the first shot, he is standing directly in the sunlight, but in the next shot, he is suddenly standing in the shadows. (00:21:27)

Casual Person

Continuity mistake: When Culpeper's hat gets run over, the hat is shown landing upside down, but in the next shot, when the man in the car is shown driving away, in the background we can see that the hat is now right side up. The hat is also positioned to the right of the road markings when it lands, but when the shots cut, it is now left of the road markings. (00:24:30)

Casual Person

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Whilst discussing how to split the money, after Finch says "Please don't argue anymore, you're hurting everybody's feelings", Benjy says "Look" and raises his hands upwards. In the next shot, he is suddenly pointing with a finger on his right hand, something he was not doing in the previous shot. (00:30:23)

Casual Person

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When everyone rushes back to their vehicles after failing to talk about how to split the money, Pike's truck and Finch's car are shown to have shadows positioned to the left of their vehicles. The camera then changes angles and the shadows are suddenly positioned to the right of their vehicles. (00:31:12)

Casual Person

Continuity mistake: After Culpeper bets they'll turn to the crossroads and turn south, the scene cuts to an overview shot of the four vehicles driving. In the shot, Ding's car is shown in the middle of the road and Finch's car is shown on the right hand side of the road. In the next shot, Ding's car is suddenly on the left hand side of the road and Finch's car is now towards the middle of the road. The shadows also change direction between shots. (00:32:55)

Casual Person

Continuity mistake: When the four cars are racing to stay ahead of each other, just as Benjy says "You're gonna lose your licence, Ding", the car they are in is ahead of Pike's truck. The camera changes angles and Ding's car and Pike's truck are suddenly side by side, only for Ding to overtake Pike a second time. (00:33:37)

Casual Person

Continuity mistake: When Hawthorne is driving with Finch, Emeline and Mrs. Marcus in the car, just as Mrs. Marcus tells Hawthorne to keep driving after seeing Pike, Finch is shown sitting in the front, doing nothing aside from slightly readjusting his hat with his hand. The camera then cuts to outside, with the car driving past Pike, and we can see Finch is now leaning his head and arm out of the window. (00:40:25)

Casual Person

Continuity mistake: When Pike is trying to break free after being tied to the support column, in one shot we can see he is clenching his fists, and they are positioned upwards. But in the next shot, his fists are suddenly positioned downwards. (00:53:07)

Casual Person

Revealing mistake: At the garage, just after Pike breaks free from his restraints, he crashes through a wall. Right before the wall breaks, a faint line in the shape of a human body can be seen around the area Pike crashes through, revealing it was pre-cut before filming. (00:53:09)

Casual Person

Revealing mistake: The two mechanics hide in two toilet stalls to hide from Pike. When Pike punches through the door and the two stalls collapse, we can see that there is nothing inside, revealing that they are fake props and not real toilet stalls. (00:54:05)

Casual Person

Continuity mistake: When Pike is fighting the two mechanics, he charges at one of them, who is holding a mallet. The camera then cuts to a different angle, and the mallet has suddenly disappeared. (00:54:19)

Casual Person

Visible crew/equipment: During Pike's fight with the two mechanics, one of the mechanics is shown clinging onto the ceiling whilst Pike is trying to pull him down, which then causes the ceiling to collapse. The crane used to hold the ceiling into place can be seen when the ceiling collapses. (00:54:29)

Casual Person

Continuity mistake: Just after Pike pushes the chain filled with various pieces of metal through the window of the garage, Pike is shown kneeling downwards when one of the mechanics pulls a shelf off the wall and it lands on him. It then cuts to a different angle of Pike throwing the shelf off him where he is now standing upright. (00:55:23)

Casual Person

Revealing mistake: In the garage fight scene, the two mechanics are shown attempting to flee by rolling underneath the garage door and Pike following them the same way. The camera then holds on the garage door before the two mechanics are thrown through it. Just before the mechanics go through the door, there is a visible shift in the appearance of the door revealing that this supposed one single shot is actually two separate shots spliced together. (00:55:34)

Casual Person

Continuity mistake: While in the airplane, Sid Ceasar smashes the windshield and other parts of the plane attempting to squash a bug; when they land, however, the plane is intact. (01:08:19)

Plot hole: The police are kept aware of the status of everyone going after the money, by having helicopters follow them and monitoring what they are up to from above. However, they seem to be fully aware that the Crumps are locked in the basement of the hardware store, something that would be fully out of their reach. Even if they watched the Crumps go into the hardware store, they would have no view of what was going on inside the store, so there would have been no way for them to know if they went into the basement or if they got locked in the basement. Also, later on in the movie, the police are told that the Crumps set a fire in the basement, then set off fireworks, but they still didn't get out. Something that would have been impossible for the authorities to know if they were reporting from outside the store. (01:14:50 - 01:42:15)

Casual Person

Lennie Pike: Everybody has to pay taxes! - Even businessmen, that rob and steal and cheat from people everyday, even they have to pay taxes.

More quotes from It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
More trivia for It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.