La Confidential

Continuity mistake: Bud and Exley are sitting in their car talking - Exley looks OK. His lip and eye are almost healed and there's only a little black and blue on the upper part of his left cheek. Than in the next scene with Lyn he looks like he's been beat up again worse than before. (01:56:10 - 01:56:40)

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Continuity mistake: In the scene where Lt. Exeley resets the clock, the first time you see the clock it is exactly 5 minutes after 2. When Exeley puts on his glasses to see the time, it is clearly only 3 minutes after 2 oclock! (00:30:30)

Continuity mistake: When Bud White pulls into the driveway at Pierce Patchett's house to question him about Susan Leffert's murder, the wind is causing a tree top (top center of the frame) to sway. Before Bud opens the car door, you can see the tree come to a sudden stop in a position different than that of the last frame. (00:37:40)

Continuity mistake: It's the scene where Russell Crowe is holding the D.A. out of a window. On the wide shot, he is holding only one of his legs, and the other is flailing about. But in the tight shot, he is holding on to both of his legs. (01:53:55)

Continuity mistake: When Exley ends up at the boxes at the end the fight, they are in a different position than at the beginning of the scene. The third row of boxes are now pushed in so that there is a place for Bud White to put Exley's head. (01:48:20)

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Continuity mistake: They shut all the blinds at the Victory Motel, but later some are open again. (02:00:00)

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Continuity mistake: When Bud White beats up on Exley the light on the desk gets blown out. Later in the scene it's back on again. (01:48:15 - 01:48:55)

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Continuity mistake: Exley's eye injury is much worse at the Victory Motel, and it's on the wrong eye all of a sudden - for the rest of the movie. (02:01:30)

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Continuity mistake: Mrs. Lefferts' glasses move from being under her handkerchief that's on her head to on top of it without her taking them off. This is when Bud White interviews her in her home. (01:20:30)

eileen

Continuity mistake: Exley has gauze or cotton stuffed on the left and right side of his upper lip (a la The Godfather). It's supposed to look like swelling from the unbelievable beating he just took. If you look at him closely in these several shots, the amount of cotton in his lip changes. Then later the bruises are only on his left cheek, with no swelling of his lip. (01:50:45 - 01:52:20)

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Continuity mistake: Exley's little cow lick bangs, on the left side of his forehead, changes a lot throughout this scene. (01:52:10 - 01:53:20)

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Continuity mistake: Right after the fight the folder behind Exley's head is yellow, yet later it changes to dark green. (01:48:25 - 01:51:05)

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Continuity mistake: In the final shoot out, Dudley Smith shoots Bud White in the right cheek as Bud stabs Dudley in the leg with his knife. Later, when you see Bud sitting in the car, he has bandages and tape only on his left cheek, and his right cheek is completely okay.

Meriam

Continuity mistake: When White shoots Fitch in the chest, at first there's only a little blood around the bullet hole, but in the next shot there's instantly much more blood.

MikeH

Factual error: In the scene where Lt. Exley arrives at the Night Owl after the murder, the patrol officer is wearing a Safariland velcro-fastened handcuff case on his left hip. That style of rounded cuff case was not introduced until the early to mid 70s.

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Question: Ed Exley recommends that the LAPD shift the blame for Bloody Christmas to men whose pensions are secured, and he names Bud White and Richard Stensland as two such men. But when Dudley Smith later tells Bud White that Stensland has been forced to retire, White says "A year from his pension!" So was Stensland entitled to a pension or not?

Answer: Exley is suggesting two things: to shift some blame to three officers with secured pensions and forcing them to retire; when he refers to White and Stensland though, he is saying "someone has to swing" and that they should be charged, tried and imprisoned - so Stensland is not entitled to a pension.

Sierra1

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