How to Win Friends and Influence Nazis - S3-E7
Deliberate mistake: Burkhalter pulls some papers out of his bags marked "Top Secret." Why would German papers be marked in English, so the prisoners know what not to look at?
Doc
16th Nov 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
16th Nov 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Plot hole: The prisoners fake a fire with some smoke bombs to have an excuse to rush into the print shop and smash up the print plates. Afterwards they even receive thanks and a reward for their valiant efforts. In reality, the guards would notice immediately that nothing in that room is even singed, but everything important has been smashed by fire axes.
16th Nov 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Factual error: In several episodes, the fence around the cooler is visible, and hanging on it, a sign saying "Eingang verboten" meaning "no entry." The correct German term would be "Zutritt verboten." In German, "Eingang" is the opening where you enter a building, not the act of entering one.
16th Nov 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Character mistake: In several scenes all over the show (though not always!), characters use the command "Raus!" to send somebody away from somewhere. Raus, short for "heraus" literally means "out" in the sense of "out of a building", which would be "aus einem Gebäude heraus" in German. Used as a command, it always means "get out", never "get away from there" or "get lost", in other words, the addressee must be inside of somewhere to be ordered "Raus." One example would be Schultz sending the prisoners away from general Burkhalter's car in S05E13.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: It doesn't take much research to debunk this claim. Also, John Banner, the actor that most often used the term in the show, was German-born and raised. I'm sure he would have spoken up if it were wrong.
Sorry, what is the "not much" it takes to debunk that claim? By the way John Banner was not born and raised in Germany but in what was then Hungary-Austria. I, on the other hand, AM German born and raised, so if you think you know more about my native tongue than me, by all means, educate me. As for why it wasn't corrected, my guess is this: Words like raus, schnell, was ist los, bitte or danke are rather well known even in the US, so the audience would be able to follow the dialog.
Sorry, John Banner was born in Poland. He was not German.
He was born in 1910 in the city once known as Stanislau, prior to being annexed by Poland in 1919. At the time of his birth, it was part of Austria-Hungary, and one of the official languages was German.
You're correct. I didn't read the IMDb page enough.
15th Nov 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
The Antique - S5-E12
Character mistake: Schultz states "In Hammelburg, they call me die Glitterzehe", which is a literal (but wrong) translation of the term "twinkle toes." That term does not exist in German, and even if it did, it would have to be GlitZerzehe, because the German word for twinkling is 'glitzern', the word 'glittern' does not exist.
5th Nov 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
The Safecracker Suite - S1-E27
Continuity mistake: As Günther leaves the room, Klink touches his forehead and begins to sit down (or his knees are buckling, not relevant). After the next cut, he sinks down into a chair in a closeup. That same chair was behind Hogan before the cut.
31st Oct 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Audio problem: Hogan knocks out his pipe against the Prussian helmet on Klink's desk. It makes a tinny, metallic sound. The Prussian Pickelhaube was made from compressed leather, not metal.
31st Oct 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Factual error: Hogan calls the radio detection truck "radar" when he orders the SS guard to switch it off. From other episodes, we know that Hogan knows what radar is, and back then, the difference between radio homing equipment and radar was even clearer to people than it is today, because radio homing was an established technology, while radar was brand new, and most people were not even aware it existed.
31st Oct 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Factual error: Baker picks up a lot of static in his radio, then suddenly signs off and says "Sounds like the radio detection unit picked up our signal." Unlike radar, radio signal homing relies entirely on measuring the signals emitted by the transmitter that is tracked. It works by comparing the strength of the signal arriving at each component of an array of directional antennae. The process is completely passive and does not cause any alteration of the signal measurable at either receiver or transmitter at all, and certainly not any audible interference or humming.
27th Oct 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Audio problem: When the quartet plays, Klink's bow strokes don't match the music. That is all the stranger since Werner Klemperer was a proficient violinist. Maybe his playing wasn't bad enough on the stage recording?
27th Oct 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Is There a Doctor in the House? - S3-E18
Continuity mistake: Hogan pulls a container with a red cross out of the drop box and opens it. It is labeled "penicillin" inside and contains among others several vials of clear liquid. Back in the camp, Hogan gives a box with a red cross on top to Kinchloe, saying "here's the penicillin." It is a completely different box.
19th Sep 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
How to Win Friends and Influence Nazis - S3-E7
Stupidity: As Burkhalter tries to straighten the picture of the Führer, he stands right in front of it, looking directly at it. A moment later, Klink walks over and fiddles with the thing. It would be absolutely ridiculous to claim they wouldn't instantly notice the difference between a photograph of a microphone and an actual microphone inset into the picture at this distance.
19th Sep 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
The 43rd, a Moving Story - S1-E23
Character mistake: When Klink explains the route of the trucks carrying the red cross packages to Kühn, he for once uses a map actually showing Germany. Unfortunately, the places he points to start near Luxemburg and track all across Germany. The spot he places Hammelburg at would be near Poznan in Poland.
30th Mar 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Factual error: The cover of the plan for Unternehmen Hannibal is marked "SEHR GEHEIM." That phrasing does not exist in German. The correct term would be "streng geheim".
30th Mar 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Stupidity: The plans Hochstetter and Burkhalter find in Hilda's desk turn out to be for the Hindenburg, a large dirigible. Burkhalter says he never saw the plane (sic) they show before. The Hindenburg was a German propaganda icon and very well known to every child in Germany. It's nigh impossible a Luftwaffe (Air Force) general would not recognize plans of a dirigible when he saw them, or not know the Hindenburg. Note that despite everything, the plans from Hilda's desk are probably meant to be not the same ones Carter later says he found inside the boxes - A Luftwaffe general not recognizing the difference between a jet plane and a dirigible is even more stupid. To avoid unnecessary corrections: Yes, according to the boxes the kits aren't for the Hindenburg but for JU-87 Stuka bombers, but that's a different mistake and not relevant for this one.
26th Feb 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Praise the Fuhrer and Pass the Ammunition - S2-E19
Factual error: In the ammunition dump, a sign saying "Warnung Hoche Sprenggefahr" can be seen. That is not correct German. First, and foremost, it must be "hohe" and not "hoche", the latter form does not exist. Secondly, the word "Sprenggefahr", while not formally wrong, was never used in German. Depending on what the meaning of the sign is supposed to be, it must either be "Explosionsgefahr", if the overall danger of an explosion is meant, or if the property of the ammunition of being explosive is meant, it should be "Hochexplosiv." If the general presence of explosive material is being warned of, "Explosivstoffe" or "Hochexplosives Material" would be possible.
16th Feb 2017
M*A*S*H (1972)
Audio problem: As Trapper opens the door to the swamp and the football flies in, a splash is heard as if it hit a tub of water, followed by the sound of a high, fluted vessel filling with water. Neither of those sounds make sense in this case. (00:07:00)
16th Feb 2017
M*A*S*H (1972)
Revealing mistake: As Hawkeye calls for quiet in the officers' club, Henry pulls the tonearm off the record player, it comes away trailing a long wire behind it. Why would it even have a long wire to trail? After all, wire costs money too. It's not like the tonearm is designed to come off and be used remotely. My guess is: they lengthened it, so the shot could be taken several times without repairing the record player every time. Now, WHY they would do it that way and not simply use a dud record player is beyond me. (00:20:55)
16th Feb 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Factual error: In the rec hall where Klink is weightlifting, there is an advertisement poster for the Grindelwald region on the wall, which is in Switzerland. The German propaganda poured a lot of money into promoting the Reich's own recreational regions through the "Kraft durch Freude" program. With the war going badly, they especially wouldn't want a "Look how beautiful Switzerland is" poster in plain view of their troops every day.
6th Feb 2017
Passengers (2016)
Factual error: The Avalon generates its gravity by rotating, which is made evident by the fact that the elevators connecting the three helical pods are without gravity. When the passengers go spacewalking, the instant they walk out the airlock, they have to be secured by magnetic boots. When they turn them off, they become weightless. Both assertions are wrong for the same reason: If the gravity is created by centrifugal force, that force is present on all points of the ship with the strength depending on the distance to the hub of the ship, no matter whether that point is inside or outside the ship's hull. That of course includes the ledge in front of the airlock. Any surface that is oriented towards the hub of the ship is felt as "floor", surfaces radially oriented to the hub would feel like "walls", surfaces oriented away from the hub would be "ceilings." So if you step off a ledge on the outside of the ship the way the actors do, you'd be drifting away from the ship on a tangent to the ledge you stepped off, and end up hanging by your tethers. You wouldn't accelerate away from the ship like you would in a real gravity field, but you would float away with a speed equal to the acceleration simulated by the artificial gravity. The only way to become weightless would be to cancel the sideways motion imparted by the rotation of the ship. At the rotation speeds depicted in the movie, that would take at least a motorbike to do.
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Suggested correction: This is wrong. Translations all over show that the sign is not only correct, but images can be found of signs with the exact same wording in real places, with the English translation right under it.
Are you trying to tell a German national how his own language works here? Zutritt is correct. Eintritt is correct. Eingang in this context was NEVER correct since the advent of modern high German. I don't know where you propose to have seen these signs, but you definitely should check your sources, mate.
Doc ★