War Movies - Real & Fiction - Goofs and Trivia

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H James,

You should place that critique with the film online.

These are a couple from the net! Makes you wonder what was in the 25 minutes that was left out.

Trivia for
Yanks (1979)

• John Schlesinger originally delivered the film at a length of around 165 minutes. He was forced to cut the film by approximately 25 minutes before the film's premiere engagement. The film stayed at this length and the 165-minute director's cut has never been seen.
• Olivia Newton-John was interviewed for a key role.

Goofs for
Yanks (1979)

• Anachronisms: The film is set during WW2. But throughout the very first scene we see modern 1970s road markings.
• Anachronisms: When Helen plays the slot machine in the Officer's Club, in Ireland, there are some "Roosevelt dimes" in her payout. The scene is 1943-44, and the first Roosevelt dime wasn't minted until after the war, in 1946.

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Trivia for
Hope and Glory (1987)

• 'Charlie Boorman' , who plays the Luftwaffe Pilot, is the son of the film's director, John Boorman.
• Trevor Howard was replaced by Ian Bannen.
• "News reel" footage shown in the cinemas of the RAF versus the Luftwaffe is actually bits of "The Battle of Britain", released in 1969.

Goofs for
Hope and Glory (1987)

• Continuity: When she's under the stairs during the air raid, the slit in the door where Dawn stabs the knife is clearly visible before she does so (widescreen version).
• Revealing mistakes: The String Quartet of Grace, Faith, Hope and Charity are clearly not actually playing the piece of classical music near the end of the film.
• Revealing mistakes: When Bill is being chased, the dog is running next to him in the last couple of shots.

Memorable Quotes from
Hope and Glory (1987)

Grandfather George: Give him the you... know... what!

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Teacher: [jabbing at a map of the world, with the British Empire lands in pink] Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. What are all the pink bits? Rowan.
Bill Rowen: They're ours, Miss.
Teacher: Yes. The British Empire. Arthur... what fraction of the earth's surface is British?
Arthur in Roger's Gang: Don't know, Miss.
Teacher: Anyone? Jennifer Baker?
Jennifer Baker: Two-fifths, Miss.
Teacher: Yes, two-fifths! Ours. That's what this war is all about. Men are fighting and dying to save all the pink bits for you ungrateful little twerps.

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Grandfather George: [pointing to an electrical transformer tower at the edge of his prpoerty] Look! They're coming this way: the Future on the march. I curse you, Volt, Watt and Amp!

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Clive Rowen: Billy, before I go there's something I want to tell you. You're not quite old enough, but, well...
[he produces a cricket ball]
Clive Rowen: ...it's the googly. Your hand is too small to master it, but you can make a start.

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Grandfather George: I have no friends, only relations!

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Grandfather George: You want to know why they're called Faith, Hope, Grace and Charity?
Bill Rowen: Why?
Grandfather George: Your Grandmother. She named them after the virtues I lack. That's marriage for you!

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Winston Churchhill: [on a radio broadcast] Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

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Clive Rowen: That was a googly... I taught him how, and now he turns it against me!
Grandfather George: [laughing] The law of life, cruel isn't it?

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Grandfather George: You look frustrated, Faithy. That husband of yours still can't rise to the occasion?
Faith: He's a menace. He should be locked up.

[Gage]

Thanks for the info. Love 'Where Eagles Dare', great film.
Check out this. A bit anal for me thou.
http://www.whereeaglesdare.com/zwh/index.php

'Hope and Glory', another great film with loads of humour. Well worth checking out.

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Originally Posted by Gage

Thanks for the info. Love 'Where Eagles Dare', great film.
Check out this. A bit anal for me thou.
http://www.whereeaglesdare.com/zwh/index.php

'Hope and Glory', another great film with loads of humour. Well worth checking out.

It seems that I am not the only "Where Eagles Dare" fan.

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Trivia for
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

• Carl Foreman wrote the screenplay with Humphrey Bogart in mind for the role of Shears, but Columbia Studios head Harry Cohn refused to allow Bogart out of another project. Cary Grant then was briefly considered to star as Colonel Nicholson, but his flop in a serious role in Crisis (1950) concerned the producer, Sam Spiegel. The role was offered to Laurence Olivier who turned it down. Alec Guinness was the next choice.
• Alec Guinness initially turned down the role of Colonel Nicholson, saying, "I can't imagine anyone wanting to watch a stiff-upper-lip British colonel for two and a half hours." He had also clashed with David Lean when they made Oliver Twist (1948).
• Howard Hawks was asked to direct, but declined. After the box-office failure of Land of the Pharaohs (1955), he didn't want a second one in a row, and he thought the critics would love this movie but the public would stay away. One particular concern was the all-male lead roles.

• Screenwriters Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman were on the blacklist of people with accused Communist ties at the time the film was made, and went uncredited. The sole writing credit, and therefore the Oscar for best adapted screenplay, went to Pierre Boulle, who wrote the original French novel but did not speak English. Clearly Pierre had not written the English script and this became a long-running controversy between the Academy and the actual authors to achieve recognition for their work. 1984 the Academy retrospectively awarded the Oscar to Wilson and Foreman. Sadly Wilson did not live to see this; Foreman died the day after it was announced. When the film was restored, their names were added to the credits.
• While the bridge in the story was constructed by prisoners in two months, the actual one built in Ceylon by a British company for the filming (425 feet long and 50 feet above the water) took eight months, with the use of 500 workers and 35 elephants. It was demolished in a matter of seconds, and the total cost was 85,000 pounds (equivalent to about 1.2 million pounds in 2002).
• The train had a small diesel engine at the rear to make sure all four coaches went off the bridge after the steam locomotive.
• In some prints of this movie, star Alec Guinness's surname is written as "Guiness".
• Charles Laughton was announced as the star, but decided he couldn't handle the heat of Ceylon and withdrew. Among the actors considered as replacements were Ronald Colman, Noel Coward, 'Ralph Richardson' , Ray Milland and James Mason.
• The bridge cost $250,000 to build; construction began before anyone had been cast.
• After the final scene was shot, producer Sam Spiegel shipped the film footage on five different planes to minimize the risk of loss.
• William Holden, then a major star, was brought into the project to provide "box office appeal" after Cary Grant turned down the role. He received little money up front, but was guaranteed a hefty share of the profits, to be paid at the rate of $50,000 a year. Because the film made so much money, his share still has not been completely paid, and his heirs continue to receive $50,000 a year, and will for years to come. This is one reason why Holden sued to stop the first American TV showing of the film in 1966, claiming it would hurt future box office receipts, on which he was dependent. (The lawsuit was unsuccessful.)
• When this film was first aired on commercial TV in the USA, on Sunday night, Sept. 25, 1966, ABC-TV pre-empted its entire evening's schedule so the film could be aired in one night, as opposed to two parts on consecutive nights. This was considered a bold move at the time. It was the longest single network telecast of a film up to then (three hours and 10 minutes with commercials; Ford Motor Co. was the lone sponsor), beating the previous record set by Laurence Olivier's Richard III (1955), which was telecast by NBC over three hours on March 11, 1956. An estimated 60 million viewers watched the program.
• The train wrecked at the end of the film was purchased from an Indian maharajah for just that purpose.
• The title of the English translation of the French novel "Le pont de la rivière Kwai" was "The Bridge Over the River Kwai".
• It was Percy Herbert who suggested the idea of using Kenneth Alford's "Colonel Bogey March" to David Lean.
• The actual Major Saito, unlike the character portrayed in the film by Sessue Hayakawa, was said by some to be one of the most reasonable and humane of all of the Japanese officers, usually willing to negotiate with the POWs in return for their labor. Such was the respect between Saito and the real-life Lieutenant-Colonel Toosey that Toosey spoke up on Saito's behalf at the war-crimes tribunal after the war, saving him from the gallows. Ten years after Toosey's 1975 death, Saito made a pilgrimage to England to visit his grave.
• John Ford, like Howard Hawks, was considered as a director before David Lean was chosen.
• On the first take of the final bridge sequence, the explosions on the bridge didn't detonate. The train crossed over safely, only to crash down a hill on the other side.
• After filming was completed on the exploding bridge sequence, which cost an enormous amount of money and time, rumor has it that the footage disappeared somewhere between Ceylon and London. It was finally discovered two weeks later, sitting in the intense heat out on the runway at the airport in Cairo, Egypt. Miraculously, the footage was undamaged.
• David Lean initially wanted Nicholson's soldiers to enter the camp while singing "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball", a popular (during World War II) parody version of the "Colonel Bogey March" poking fun at Adolf Hitler and various other Nazi leaders. Sam Spiegel told him it was too vulgar, and the whistling-only version was used instead.
• Fred Zinneman was another choice to direct; Sam Spiegel very much wanted him to take the job, due to his box-office clout, but Zinneman didn't understand the novel and declined. Orson Welles was reportedly approached to co-star and direct, but Welles, too, dropped out after reading the script. William Wyler was considered but never formally approached. Ultimately, Spiegel explained the decision to hire David Lean (then virtually unknown outside of Britain) as being "In absence of anybody else."

Goofs for
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

• Continuity: In the opening scene, the railway is 5'6" (1.676 m) broad gauge, as used in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the filming location; but when we see tracks on the finished bridge, they're much narrower, about 2' (60 cm).
• Errors in geography: Both scenes are wrong: the actual line would have been 1 metre gauge, as it connected existing Thai and Burmese metre-gauge routes.
• Anachronisms: Set in 1943, a 1946 Chrysler was shown as a military staff car.

• Factual errors: The movie credits have only one 'n' in Alec Guinness' name (this has been corrected in the "restored" version).
• Continuity: The demolition charges were only placed at water level around the bridge pilings but when the actual explosion takes place, small explosions can be seen right under the tracks, far above water level.
• Continuity: When Col. Nicholson is examining the wire sticking out of the river, the current switches direction.
• Continuity: At the very end of the movie the bridge is blown and the entire train falls into the shallow river Kwai but no engine or cars are visible under the bridge as the movie ends.
• Revealing mistakes: In the very last shot of Major Clipton, you can see wind marks in the water from the helicopter pulling up to film the scene.
• Continuity: During the bridge completion celebration Nicholson gives a speech on the stage while Shears and Joyce are placing the explosive charges under cover of darkness. In some shots, the camp is visible in broad daylight beyond the left edge of the stage backdrop behind Nicholson.
• Continuity: When Col. Saito sits in his shack and asks Clipton to sit too, the calendar in the wall behind him is high over his head. In the following shot the calendar is behind his head.
• Continuity: In part of his escape, Shears drags his empty canteen held in his belt. But soon after, when he is encountered by native people, the canteen has disappeared.

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Trivia for
The Great Escape (1963)

• Paul Brickhill, who wrote the book from which the film is based, was piloting a Spitfire aircraft that was shot down over Tunisia in March 1943. He was taken to Stalag Luft III in Germany, where he assisted in the escape preparations.
• The film was shot entirely on location in Europe, with a complete camp resembling Stalag Luft III built near Munich, Germany. Exteriors for the escape sequences were shot in the Rhine Country and areas near the North Sea, and Steve McQueen's motorcycle scenes were filmed in Fussen (on the Austrian border) and the Alps. All interiors were filmed at the Bavaria Studio in Munich.
• When the Bavaria Studio's backlot proved to be too small, the production team obtained permission from the German government to shoot in a national forest adjoining the studio. After the end of principal photography, the company restored (by reseeding) some 2,000 small pine trees that had been damaged in the course of shooting.

• For the train sequences, a railroad engine was rented and two condemned cars were purchased and modified to house the camera equipment. Scenes were shot on the single rail line between Munich and Hamburg, and a railroad representative was on hand to advise the filmmakers when to pull aside to avoid hitting scheduled oncoming trains.
• During the climatic motorcycle chase, John Sturges allowed Steve McQueen to ride (in disguise) as one of the pursuing German soldiers, so that in the final sequence, through the magic of editing, he's actually chasing himself.
• Several cast members were actual P.O.W.s during World War II. Donald Pleasence was held in a German camp, Hannes Messemer in a Russian camp and Til Kiwe and Hans Reiser were prisoners of the Americans.
• Charles Bronson, who portrays the chief tunneler, brought his own expertise to the set: he had been a coal miner before turning to acting and gave director John Sturges advice on how to move the earth.
• Although Steve McQueen did his own motorcycle riding, there was one stunt he did not perform: the hair-raising 60-foot jump over a fence. This was done by McQueen's friend Bud Ekins, who was managing a Los Angeles-area motorcycle shop when recruited for the stunt. It was the beginning of a new career for Ekins, as he later doubled for McQueen in Bullitt (1968) and did much of the motorcycle riding on the television series "CHiPs" (1977).
• Hilts (Steve McQueen) strings a wire across the road to obtain a motorcycle. McQueen himself played the German motorcyclist who hits the wire.
• The motorcycle scenes were not based on real life but were added at Steve McQueen's suggestion.
• Steve McQueen also personally attempted the jump across the border fence, but crashed. The jump was successfully performed by Bud Ekins.
• Wally Floody, the real-life "Tunnel King" (he was transferred to another camp just before the escape), served as a consultant to the filmmakers, almost full-time, for more than a year.
• The real-life escape preparations involved 600 men working for well over a year. The escape did have the desired effect of diverting German resources, including a doubling of the number of guards after the Gestapo took over the camp from the Luftwaffe.
• The real-life escape was on the night of March 24, 1944, and the ground was snow-covered. The German town near the prison camp, called Neustadt in the film, was really Sagan (now Zagan, Poland).
• The nationality of a few of the prisoners in the story was changed, emphasizing American, and de-emphasizing Commonwealth and other Allied.
• The gold medallion Steve McQueen wears throughout the film was a present from his wife.
• Steve McQueen accepted the role of Hilts on the condition that he got to show off his motorcycle skills.
• In the scene following Hilts' theft of a German motorcycle, he rolls into a nearby town, and stopped by a police officer. He tells Hilts something in German, to which Hilts kicks him away and rides off. The officer asked Hilts for identification papers Hilts doesn't have.
• Steve McQueen held up production because he demanded that the script be rewritten to give his character more to do.
• Though seemingly hauled away for allowing the escape to take place, the Commandant was actually arrested for being involved in a brisk black-market operation, a fact unearthed during the Gestapo investigation of the escape.
• Ramsey's title, 'S.B.O' stands for Senior British Officer.
• One day, the police in the German town where the film was shot set up a speed trap near the set. Several members of the cast and crew were caught, including Steve McQueen. The Chief of Police told McQueen "Herr McQueen, we have caught several of your comrades today, but you have won the prize [for the highest speeding]." McQueen was arrested and briefly jailed.
• Steve McQueen's character was based on an actual American prisoner in the camp who flew on Doolittle's raid on Tokyo.
• McQueen's character Hilts was based on amalgamation of several American characters, including Major Dave Jones, a flight commander during Doolittle's Raid who made it to Europe and was shot down and captured. Another character was Colonel Jerry Sage, who was an OSS agent in the North African desert when he was captured. He was able to don a flight jacket and pass as a flier otherwise he would have been executed as a spy.
• MacDonald (Intelligence) is based on George Harsh, a very good friend of Wally Floody (the real Tunnel King). They were both transferred to Belaria before the escape. Harsh was a very interesting character who was from the American south and had joined the RCAF as a tail-gunner. In the 1920s Harsh had committed murder and was sent to jail for life. A medical student, Harsh performed an appendectomy on a dying prisoner and saved his life. The governor of Georgia granted him a pardon and he was set free. After the war, he had personal problems as he was plagued by guilt over the crime he committed as a youth; on top of adjusting to life after fifteen years in captivity (12 years on the Georgia chain gang, followed by three years as POW). On Christmas Eve 1974, he did shoot himself but survived. A stroke soon after left him partially paralyzed. When that happened, Wally Floody and his wife brought him up to their Toronto home and looked after him. He eventually went to live -at his own urging- at the Veteran's Wing at the Sunnybrook Medical Centre. He died in January of 1980.
• James Garner developed his "Scrounger" character from his own personal experiences in the military during the Korean War.
• In issue 73 of Your Sinclair magazine in January 1992, the Spectrum stealth game adaptation of this movie was voted the 23rd best game of all time.
• When celebrating the Fourth of July and pouring alcohol, Hilts (Steve McQueen) is thrown off by an ad-lib by Goff (Jud Taylor). While Hilts is drinking, Goff says, "No taxation without representation." McQueen jumps out of character and gives him a look (and mouths, "What?") The director must have signaled to "just go with it" and the scene continues. But it is an obvious ad-lib.
• The medal that Colonel von Luger wears around his neck is the Pour le Merite, also known as the Blue Max. Originally a Prussian military honor, in the First World War it was automatically given to fighter pilots who shot down eight planes (later raised to sixteen). The Nazis replaced it with the Knight's Cross but it could still be worn by officers who'd won it before the Third Reich.
• Most of the planes in the airfield are actually American AT-6 Texan trainers painted with a German paint scheme, but the one actually flown is an authentic German plane, a Bf 108 liaison aircraft.
• Donald Pleasence had actually been a World War II prisoner of war. When he kindly offered advice to the film's director John Sturges, he was politely asked to keep his "opinions" to himself. Later, when another star from the film informed John Sturges that Pleasence had actually been a RAF Officer in a World War II German POW Stalag camp, Sturges requested his technical advice and input on historical accuracy from that point forward.
• During production, Charles Bronson met and fell in love with David McCallum's wife, Jill Ireland, and he jokingly told McCallum he was going to steal her away from him. In 1967, Ireland and McCallum divorced, and she married Bronson.

>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<< Trivia items below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.

• SPOILER: The individual incidents in the film are mostly true, but were rearranged as to both the timing and the people involved. (A note at the start of the film acknowledges this.) For instance, of the 76 who escaped, there were indeed 3 who got away and 50 who were murdered in reprisal, but the murders occurred in small groups, not all at once. (14 Germans were executed after the war for their parts in them.)
• SPOILER: The shooting of the recaptured escapees was one of the charges at the Nuremburg War Crimes Trial of Hermann Göring and other Nazi leaders.
• SPOILER: According to David McCallum, the barbed wire that Hilts (Steve McQueen) crashes into near the end of the film, which was actually made of rubber, was made by the cast and crew during their free time by tying small pieces of rubber around larger ones.
• SPOILER: In real life, the forger was James Hill, so obviously the stuff about him going blind and being shot dead is fiction.

Goofs for
The Great Escape (1963)

• Factual errors: While there were Americans in the camp when the escape preparations were begun, in real life none of them were among the 76 who escaped because they had all been transferred to another camp by then.
• Anachronisms: The railway logo is incorrect.
• Anachronisms: Traffic signs are clearly post-war.

• Anachronisms: During the escape, there is a brief shot of a bridge spanning a river. This bridge is very obviously a post-war construction.
• Continuity: In Bartlett"s briefing, he says tunnel "Tom" will go out from hut 104, and Harry from 105. However, by the July 4th celebrations, "Tom" is in hut 105 when Strachwitz discovers it (and "105" is painted on the hut when the guards surround it).
• Anachronisms: The motorcycle that Hilts uses in his escape attempt was a 1960s British Triumph 650.
• Continuity: Motorcycles change in close-up shots.
• Continuity: On their first day in camp, Hilts throws his baseball to the wire to check the Germans' lines of sight. When he is finally stopped and the commandant comes over and Hilts is explaining what he was doing, the position of his hands change in differently angled shots.
• Anachronisms: Sedgwick is shown reading "Liberation", a newspaper not published during the German occupation of France.
• Crew or equipment visible: The Region 1 widescreen DVD version is framed such that some unintended things are seen to the left of the screen. When Hilts is serving moonshine, for instance, a crewmember can be seen pushing the prisoners forwards (in the Region 2 version, only his hand is visible). When Hilts is first sent to the cooler, the left-hand edge of the set can be seen at one point, too, with crew and equipment visible beyond (completely out of shot in the Region 2 version). When the prisoners are assembled the morning after the escape, there are several huge studio lights on stands on the left side of the frame between the trip wire and the fence. More studio lights are visible on the left frame during the first appearance of German town where Roger Bartlett and Mac McDonald are captured. The Region 1 Special Edition DVD has been reframed, removing most of these instances.
• Continuity: After Hilts steals the motorcycle, he is hiding behind a building waiting for the German troops to go by. As they go by, the sidecar on the German motorcycle is on the wrong side of the bike, indicating that the shot was reversed.
• Continuity: Postion of the propeller crank when Hendley first hands it to Colin and when Colin begins to turn it
• Continuity: In the tunnel, Colin's socks alternate between grey and white between shots.
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Hendley wears USA flashes on his uniform. This shows that he is an American serving in the RAF and is a member of the Famous "Eagle" squadrons, three squadrons composed of Americans who joined the RAF. This also means that Hendley was shot down before 1944, since the squadrons were re-absorbed by the USAAF at that time.
• Continuity: The steam engine of the passenger train with which the majority of the prisoners tries to escape is a German "Baureihe 78" (type 78) model. However, when arriving at its final destination where all passengers get off the train, the engine is a "Baureihe 64" (type 64) model (the engine of the freight train with which Sedgwick has escaped).
• Miscellaneous: Despite Hilts' understanding of German (which he proves to be at least adequate in the episode with the wire cutters), he kicks the German soldier in the chest when asked for his Ausweis, a document he should have because it was among those scrounged by Hendley earlier in the film.
• Continuity: When Hendley and Colin jump from right side of the train into the field of haystacks, the train continues toward the left of our screen. However, in the next shot, when Hendley and Colin appear in the back of a haystack and look toward the train steaming away, they are looking toward our right on the screen. This is the direction from which the train came, not the direction in which it continued to go.
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When the prisoners realize they are 20 feet short of the woods, one of them calls for thirty feet of rope. However, it was clearly mentioned earlier that they planned to dig thirty feet down first to avoid being heard. Therefore, they would have needed sixty feet of rope, not thirty.
• Anachronisms: The black car in the café scene in France is a 1947 Citroën 11 Légère 'Traction'. The movie is set in 1944.
• Factual errors: Group Captain Ramsey's bottom three service ribbons denote service during the first world war. (Correct order would be: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal). However, these three ribbons are worn backwards on his uniform throughout the film (Victory Medal, British War Medal, 1914-15 Star).

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Trivia for
Stalag 17 (1953)

• The movie was shot in sequence (i.e., the scenes were filmed in the same order they're shown). Many of the actors were surprised by the final plot twist.
• The uncredited soldier singing at the Christmas Party is Ross Bagdasarian, also known as 'Dave Seville' , the leader/creator/voice of 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' .
• Stalag 17 was not the inspiration for the TV series "Hogan's Heroes" (1965), despite the presence of a character called "Sgt. Schultz" and a somewhat put-upon Kommandant. The creators of "Hogan's Heroes" were sued over this very issue and were victorious.

• The role of Sefton was originally written for Charlton Heston. But as the role evolved and became more cynical, William Holden emerged as the director's choice. Holden was asked to see the play on which the movie was based. He walked out at the end of the first act. He was later convinced to at least read the screenplay.
• William Holden's acceptance speech for Best Actor was the shortest in Academy history. He said only two words: "Thank You."
• Kirk Douglas turned down the role of Sefton.
• William Holden did not like the part of Sefton at all as written in the script, thinking him too selfish. He kept asking Billy Wilder to make Sefton nicer and Wilder refused. Holden actually refused the role but was forced to do it by the studio.
• Billy Wilder filmed the movie at a studio-owned ranch in Calabasas, California. He wore his best shoes and made sure cast and crew saw him with those shoes on in the mud. Wilder felt he could not ask his co-workers to work in the mud unless they saw him do the same.
• This film was one of the biggest hits of Billy Wilder's career. He expected a big piece of the profits. The studio accountants informed him that since his last picture Ace in the Hole (1951) lost money, the money that picture lost would be subtracted from his profits on this film. Wilder left Paramount shortly after that.
• Cameo: [Edmund Trzcinski] the P.O.W. who receives what is obviously (to everyone but him) a "Dear John" letter.
• To improve the chances for commercial success in the West Germany Republic (at that time already an important market for Hollywood) a Paramount executive suggested to Wilder that he should make the camp guards Poles rather than Germans. Wilder, whose mother and stepfather had died in the concentration camps, furiously refused and demanded an apology from the executive. When it didn't come, Wilder did not extend his contract at Paramount
• Albert William LaChasse Sr., had a bit part in the movie. He was hired by Paramount Pictures to be in several films after WWII. They bought him a SAG card and gave him a few lines in each film. Back then, there was no Screen Extras Guild. The real reason they made him an actor was a cheap way to use him as an Assistant Production Designer. He was actually a Prisoner of War for almost three years in Germany after being shot down in his B-17 by German Messcherschmidt Fighter pilot, Otto Peter Stammberger. The production depended heavily on his recollection of how the prison camp looked. He said it started out as a "B" movie, but after "New York" saw the dailies they gave Billy Wilder Carte Blanche.

Goofs for
Stalag 17 (1953)

• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In at least two scenes, German solders are seen using US Browning 30 cal. machine guns; some still think of it as an error, but the use of captured enemy equipment was common by all sides in the war. A POW compound would be the ideal place to locate captured weapons, with a relatively limited ammo supply, while they still served to deter escape.
• Continuity: Just before Sefton reveals the spy, he throws an open jackknife onto the table and says, "Here's the knife to do it with. Only make sure you got the right throat." The knife quivers and barely sticks in the table. Shortly after, the knife is stuck firmly in the table, more upright.
• Revealing mistakes: When von Scherbach turns Price's bullet-riddled corpse over, it is obvious that Price is still breathing.

• Audio/visual unsynchronized: As the last seconds the film begins to fade out, you see Cookie whistling "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again", but the audio is not in sync.
• Continuity: Stanislas "Animal" Kasava is falling on his butt into the mud, but his white underwear isn't getting dirty. Two minutes later running to see the Russians girls, he falls again and then he's muddy all over.
• Errors in geography: Its a week before Christmas. Every morning at 6:00 it's roll call for the prisoners of Stalag 17. Although in the middle of December in southern Germany the sun will never rise before 8:00 the roll call in the movie is in full daylight.
• Anachronisms: The map hanging in Von Scherbach's office shows the 1937 German borders. The movie is set in 1944. Austria was annexed in 1938, as part of Czechoslovakia.
• Anachronisms: The map of Germany in von Scherbach's office would in 1944 not only include Austria and Sudetenland but also Gdansk and the Polish Corridor, large parts of western Poland and the Saarland, all considered ethnically German by the Nazis and incorporated to the Reich.

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Trivia for
Ice-Cold in Alex (1958)

• Several scenes had to be reshot after the British censor decided that 'Sylvia Syms' had too many buttons undone on her blouse, revealing too much cleavage.
• In the bar scene in Alexandria, John Mills was drinking real beer because ginger ale and other substitutes didn't look real enough on film. In the final cut (the 14th take) he actually was quite drunk.
• The ambulance used is an Austin K2, which saw widespread service with the British during WWII.

The version shown on US screens in 1961 was severely shortened to 76 minutes and dismissed as just another filler for the lower half of double bills.

Goofs for
Ice-Cold in Alex (1958)

• Anachronisms: In the very last scene, as Lutz is being driven away from the bar by the British military police, a Land Rover can be seen parked next to the bar. The first Land Rovers were produced in 1948, six years after the battle of Tobruk.
• Continuity: The level of beer in the glasses changes inconsistently between shots when they are finally drinking in Alex
• Revealing mistakes: When the ambulance encounters the second group of Germans, none of the Germans have magazines in their sub-machine guns.

• Miscellaneous: When Captain Anson tries to stop the runaway ambulance going down the hill - from the running board - there is clearly someone in the driver's seat in two shots.
• Continuity: The head on the beers at the end changes from a lot to very little and back again in nearly every shot.

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Trivia for
The Cruel Sea (1953)

• The Compass Rose was played by ex-HMS Coreopsis. She was given the number K49 in the film which was the number of HMS Crocus (sometimes wrongly thought to have been used in the film). The real number of the Coreopsis was K32.
• Dirk Bogarde claimed to have been offered a bit part in this film.

Goofs for
The Cruel Sea (1953)

• Continuity: All depth charges are clearly labelled "INERT FILLED."
• Revealing mistakes: After the British sailors have been depth-charged by HMS Compass Rose, the seagulls converging on the corpses can be seen flying backwards. This is due to the cameraman sailing towards the scene in error when it was shot; the film was simply reversed to give the required effect.
• Revealing mistakes: In the opening scene of the film where the captain joins the ship it is obvious that the paintwork is filthy and smeared with numerous oily hand prints where the door has been closed. In other scenes aboard "Compass Rose" the paintwork can be clearly seen to be chipped where it has been knocked. Unlikely in a brand new ship that has never left dock before!

[Ron Goldstein]

Hi all

You reminded me of a posting I made to the BBC WW2 site back in Jan 2004 about a goof in the film "Tea with Mussolini"

This is the very item:

Posted Jan 29, 2004 by Ron Goldstein - WW2 Site Helper

Last year my wife and I had a week in Florence. Amongst the local trips we made was one to nearby San Gimignano, a town immortalised in the film “Tea with Mussolini”.
When we returned home I thought I would have another look at the film, which I have on video. As I watched the re-run, I came to the scene near the end, where the Germans tanks re-enter the town, with orders to blow up the beautiful Collegiata church.

It was all very dramatic, but what completely spoilt it for me this time round, was the fact that the tank that they used was clearly a Sherman M4, albeit with a German Cross painted on the turret side.
Trust me chaps …..I’m ex 4th Hussars, and it WAS a Sherman and I’ve got comparative photos to prove my point.
The question, is did the director honestly think there was no one left alive who could tell the difference?
No prizes for the right answer but does anybody out there know of other films where they’ve not done their homework?

Ron