Glaring Film Gaffs! (Or: The Dry Look in 1917?)

[Edward]

Hi Folks,

Hollywood never manages to get guitars placed properly in time. I can't count how many 1880s movie cowboys I've seen strumming bronze-stringed guitars with tortoise-shell pickguards and Shaller or Kluson tuners.:eusa_doh:

Atticus

Ain't that the truth....

In Back to the Future, during the dance sequence in 1955, Marty McFly plays Marvin Berry's guitarist's red Gibson semi (was it an ES-345? Can't recall...). The guitar onscreen is clearly loaded with humbucking pickups, which weren't available until 1958. More glaringly, the Buddy Holly Story, which if memory serves was made in the late 70s, features Buddy playing a CBS-era Fender Stratocaster with the big CBS headstock - blatantly wrong. Not obvious to a non-guitar player or someone who is not say a hardcore Holly fan, but still it seems that in the past Hollywood simply hasn't bothered to get these things right when it would have been so easy to go the extra mile. Look at Grease - so so many of the clothes worn in that are as glaringly un-fifties as that awful Bee Gees number that was added in for the film. To be fair, I doubt the average punter these films are aimed at actually notices the difference either, so the studio might argue there's no ponit gonig to extra hassle and expense, but still.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

That's a 1960's off-the-rack wool job in a film set around 1900.

Um ... it's not exactly wrong for the period.


Rex Harrison used his own personal wardrobe in "My Fair Lady," and he was especially partial to wearing wool trilby hats. However ... those hats actually did exist in the early 1900s. I've seen photos and illustrations of them in catalogues from that era. I'll try to find a pic.


.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Most of the men's and women's hairstyles in "The Sting" and "The Godfather, Part I." Many of the hats and suits in "The Sting" and "The Godfather, Part I." ("The Godfather, Part II" had much more authentic costumes and hairstyles.)


.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Faye Dunaway's hair in "Bonnie and Clyde".

Ohhhh....Faye Dunaway! I saw that when it came out in '67; Faye Dunaway would've looked good even with a shaved head and a propellor beanie. Of course, at the time I wasn't looking for period authenticity, I can tell you that!

-dixon cannon

 

[scotrace]

However ... those hats actually did exist in the early 1900s. I've seen photos and illustrations of them in catalogues from that era. I'll try to find a pic.


.

This is surprising. His still seems very much from the time of filming, rather than the time of the film.

 

[staggerwing]

Not much of a movie buff here - the last one I saw was star wars when it first came out. However, a while back my wife brought home The Aviator on DVD. She said she heard it was pretty good. I couldn't get past the fact that in one scene the computer-generated airplane had the canopy open, and in the very next it was missing entirely. Also, from some angles the "airplane" was clearly out of proportion.

 

[marquise]

Excellent observations on the profusion of beehive hair. Also in Zhivago-- Lara's peach-toned matte lipstick. Horrifically 60s.
Now, I do love me some Chinatown, and the attention to detail involved, but there is a moment I simply can't deal with. When Jake gets all roughed up by the Okies, and finally comes to, there's a shot of his expression seeing Evelyn bending over him, through the window of the farmhouse, leading into the kitchen. Where one can make out a 1970s fridge like the kind my parent's had in their NY apt in the early 80s. Takes me right out. I literally close my eyes for a moment.

 

[GeniusInTheLamp]

Here's a musical anachronism I noted, and in a classic movie no less:

In THE GREAT ZIEGFELD, snatches of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" are heard during the "Love Is a Beautiful Woman" production. Here's the problem: Ziegfeld and Anna Held were still in their relationship in that scene; that means the production couldn't have happened after 1913 (when they broke up). "Rhapsody in Blue" wasn't written until 1924.

 

[WH1]

buscadero style gunbelts in almost every hollywood and television western made from 1930 to 1999 especially the stupid rig Costner wore in Wyatt Earp, which the director had him wear even though he knew it wasn't authentic because he "liked the way it looked".
Interestingly John Wayne usually wore a period correct rig in his movies.

 

[Teekay44]

White Christmas

When they take the train from Florida to Pine Tree Vermont the show a Santa Fe silver diesel pulling the train. A west cost railroad. :eusa_doh: Kind of blows it momentarily for me

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Of course, you could probably watch most any western movie from the 20's on and see actors wearing so-called cowboy hats that were not in existence in the 19th century. Usually, they were in the style of whatever was popular at the time the film was made.

karol

 

[Benny Holiday]

buscadero style gunbelts in almost every hollywood and television western made from 1930 to 1999 especially the stupid rig Costner wore in Wyatt Earp, which the director had him wear even though he knew it wasn't authentic because he "liked the way it looked".
Interestingly John Wayne usually wore a period correct rig in his movies.

Please tell me they got it right in "Tombstone"!

 

[CharlieH.]

I just remembered....
There's a recurring blunder that always gets in my nerves, and that's the telephone cords. Many a period film set before the late 40's has at least one phone with a modern, plastic-wrapped spiral cord instead of the correct, straight, cloth covered ones. Really ruins the ambience for me.

 

[dostacos]

all the older movies where the cowboys carried 37shooters, I want a gun that never needs reloading

In Raiders of the lost Ark, when they swing over the pit they are going the long way, but when Indy is hanging on the ledge he is seen from below hanging on the side

At the end of star wars when luke climbed out of his fighter {IIRC} Luke yells out CARRIE instead of Leia


John Wayne has a bullet in his SIDE and it causes him to have his HAND paralyzed. Ooh, sorry that would need to be C7 or above.

I get a little peeved at medical errors.


then another whole can of worms is all the semi Historical movies is when they are about 180 deg. out of phase with reality when it would be such a simple thing to be accurate:rage:

 

[scotrace]

Sixties hair showing up all over human history is still the worst. Cleopatra is rife with goony costumes and hair.

 

[CharlieB]

The seen in Bonnie and Clyde where they drive off the road into a field has tire ruts from previous takes. Didn't anyone bring a rake?

 

[Atomic Age]

I beg to differ mac, that guy's hair style is actually somewhat correct for Zhivago's early 20th century period... (click)

Now for some glaring boners on film, I can remember....
- Modern cars in Chinatown
- Missing trolley wires in Who Framed Roger Rabbit
- Very modern diesel train in The Majestic
- Suits with low you-know-whats in The Aviator
- Very low trousers in A League Of Their Own
- 1950's fashions in The Benny Goodman Story (plus some mildly anachronistic train footage)
- Records spinning at 33rpm in O Brother Where Art Thou? (and "You Are My Sunshine", which not only hadn't been written in the film's timeframe, but is refered to as old timey music...)
- Afrika Korps and a 1938 Zeppelin flight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (But still very exciting)

- Blatantly modern ships in Pearl Harbor

Where are the modern cars in Chinatown? I've seen the film probably 20 times and haven't spotted them.

Doug

 

[Atomic Age]

I just remembered....
There's a recurring blunder that always gets in my nerves, and that's the telephone cords. Many a period film set before the late 40's has at least one phone with a modern, plastic-wrapped spiral cord instead of the correct, straight, cloth covered ones. Really ruins the ambience for me.

The western electric model 302 telephone was originally issued with a cloth covered straight cord, but a rubber covered curled cord became available in the early 1940's. It wasn't widely distributed however until after the war. So while they would have been rare in the early 40's, its not inaccurate for them to be in a film set in that era.

The one that gets me is model 500 phones in films set in the 50's or 60's, that have a modular jack in the hand set. Good example is Catch Me If You Can.

Doug

 

[LizzieMaine]

Very, very few period films showing characters listening to radio ever match the broadcast recordings on the soundtrack to the actual period being shown. I was very irritated by the recent remake of "The Untouchables," when Eliot Ness in 1931 tuned in on Amos and Andy -- and the broadcast heard, complete with live audience, was from 1952. (Had they asked, I could have provided them with an actual 1931 excerpt....)

There are also more films than I can mention that show fifty-star US flags flying in scenes set before 1960. That's got to be the easiest gaffe to avoid, given how easy it is to find a 48-star flag, but too many filmmakers just don't care.

And if I see one more period film with signs or newspaper headlines set in Helvetica, I'll scream. Loudly.

 

[Atomic Age]

I've seen a couple of westerns (and other period films) with jet contrails up overhead.

Avoiding contrails is impossible. And its only been recently with the advent of computers that they can be removed. So I tend to give filmmakers a little slack in this area.

Doug