Continuity mistake: During the opening scene, Smiler passes Milton Berle, loses control of his car, crashes through the barrier and up the ramp. However, when Berle et. al. stop at the spot where Smiler supposedly left the road, the two spots don't match. The broken guardrail where Berle is standing is not the same spot where Smiler broke through. The second spot is roughly 100 ft. up the road from where the car went "sailing right out there".
Revealing mistake: At the end when the police officer crashes through the window of the pet store and all the dogs are licking him, it is extremely obvious that it is short piece of footage being rewound and played over and over again to extend the length of the shot.
Continuity mistake: When the case is found and opened for the first time, the bills are in bands. However, when the case opens on the fire escape, the bills flyout individually.
Revealing mistake: Sylvester is shown in his car chasing after Finch and Hawthorne in their rental car to try to get them to stop. There are about five shots during this sequence that show the two cars side-by-side in the foreground of shot. In these shots, it is apparent that the cars are positioned on a fake background and not actually driving. This is especially noticeable as they are shown driving on a bumpy road, but during these specific shots, the cars appear completely still, with no signs of vibrating or bumping up and down. (01:51:53)
Revealing mistake: After getting out of the river, Meyer hitches a ride with a random driver who stops for him. There is a shot of the car beginning to drive off, and after they have driven off, a helicopter emerges from the field in the background to follow them. Just after the car exits the shot, and just before the helicopter emerges from the field, a visible edit can be seen onscreen revealing that these were two separate shots edited together. (01:45:45)
Continuity mistake: The two 1959 Plymouth taxis keep changing from scene to scene; in some you can see cab numbers painted on the hood and trunk, and in other scenes they aren't there, also dents on the cars show up and later they are gone.
Continuity mistake: In the opening scene, Smiler passes first the truck and then the Volkswagen but then passes 3 other vehicles before he passes the Imperial. Two of the 3 cars are never seen again. The 3rd is a light cream Chrysler station which is supposed to be the '62 blue Plymouth wagon of Sid Caesar.
Revealing mistake: At the beginning of the movie when the car goes through the guardrails and is falling down the mountain side, at first the car is seen coming down sideways, driver side facing down. Then it mysteriously changed to be right side up in the next shot when it crashes.
Revealing mistake: During the whole movie any time someone is driving, the driver turns either way too much or not enough for the turn they are on. Even when they are driving straight, they turn the wheel as if they are going back and forth on the road in both lanes.
Plot hole: In the beginning of the movie, all of the cars turn to the left to head south. However, the map at the police station indicates that they had to turn to the right to go south.
Revealing mistake: In the chase scene, Milton Berle and Terry Thomas are actually driving two different blue '61 Chevrolets. Initially, they are in a rare Super Sport as evidenced by the crossed flags emblem on the rear seat speaker cover. Fortunately, the car they eventually crashed was the less desireable non-SS version (i.e. no crossed flags emblem present). (01:40:05 - 01:47:25)
Continuity mistake: When Culpeper is giving everyone the opportunity to turn themselves into the police, just after he finishes saying "and, uh, just walk in", he is shown tilting it head backwards, but when the shot cuts, his head is suddenly leaning forwards. (02:20:23)
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)
Continuity mistake: Spencer Tracy says they will go to the crossroads and turn south (a right-handed turn according to the wall map he's looking at). When they get to the crossroads, they all turn left which would be north.
Continuity mistake: When the Crumps, Meyer, Ding and Benjy are in the taxicab just after leaving the park, Meyer looks out the back window to notice Culpeper driving in the opposite direction, so he yells "Hold it" to the driver. The driver then starts to turn towards the right so that he can park on the sidewalk. Whilst the driver is saying "Can you see him", the taxicab is in the middle of pulling over and is still driving. It then cuts to a shot of Culpeper driving, and towards the right hand side of shot, in the background we can see that the two taxicabs have fully stopped. (02:22:03)
Continuity mistake: When Ding and Benjy are in the taxicab on their way to the park, just after they see the Crumps in the taxicab in front, they tell the driver to pass the cab in front and that they want to get there in a hurry. At this moment, Ding is shown sitting inside the car. But in the next shot, when the two cabs are shown from outside, Ding's arm is suddenly hanging outside the window. (02:01:58)
Revealing mistake: When Mrs. Marcus falls after slipping on the banana peel, two wires used to help pull her backwards can be seen. (02:40:12)
Revealing mistake: When Mrs. Marcus walks into the hospital room to shout at the men, she is shown slipping after stepping on a banana peel. A closer look will show that she reacts to slipping on the banana peel and begins to fall backwards a split-second before she actually steps on it. (02:40:12)
Revealing mistake: When the cab driver lands on the statue of Abraham Lincoln, the right hand of the statue can be seen wobbling, revealing that it is a rubber prop. (02:36:38)
Continuity mistake: When Melville is launched from the ladder and down through the stairs in the apartment building, he is shown landing in a gap between the stairs. In the first shot, he is shown putting his hand on the bottom step of the stairs. A closer shot of Melville is then shown where his hand is now placed on the second step. (02:36:08)
