Goofs
Anachronisms
- Take note to the helmet of the SS man that Schaffer pushes out of the car. Their is no liner-securing rivet in front of the SS decal, just a little dent. Definitely a post-war reproduction!
(Not confirmed) - Also notice the strange way the the flaps are sewn back when worn in the down position.Presumably to show the actors faces more clearly.
(Not confirmed) - The German Army private that wakes up Major Wilner in Italy has no breast eagle on his tunic.
(Not confirmed) - Just before Smith jumps to the other cable-car, it’s obvious that it is just dubbed into the scene and their are not even any cables above it. (Not confirmed)
- The German Army officer that tries to call the Oberhausen Airfield is wearing an infantry cap but artillery shoulder-boards.
(Not confirmed) - When Schaffer and Mary fire their MP-40’s at the control tower, it is obvious that there is no real damage being done, inside or out. Just a string of squibs mounted above and below the windows. (Not confirmed)
- In Zum Wilden Hirsch, the bar band playing is ”synching” to a recording . (Not confirmed)
- In the scene where Richard Burton fires a silenced pistol at the chair post of the imposter General Jones, the pistol fires and a piece of the upper chair post gets shot-off, however, in the next scene Richard Burton is seen re-cocking the hammer of the pistol. This is incorrect as the pistol will either be automatically re-cocked or the firer will need to manually re-cock the pistol. (Not confirmed)
- After Schmidt and Schaefer are captured they crash the car and dispose of the bodies. Then they push the car off the side of the road – Notice how with a gentle push the car crashes through the guard rail (with an enormous crash),
- Auto Scene where Clint Eastwood and Richard Burdon are being ”escorted” by Nazi Security guards. In this scene, Clint Estwood is in the front seat of the Nazi automobile and Richard Burton is located in the back seat. A quick eye contact between the two men indicates a move is afoot. Clint Eastwood bends over and the German guards yells ”Halt”, Eastwood says to the guard ”its only my shoelace” (as if to retie it), Eastwood amkes a move to open the auto’s door and a successful melee ensures and our heroes arise victorious from the Nazi security agents. Trouble is, Clint Eastwood is wearing German boots that jave no ”shoelaces” thus the invalidity of the line quoted. (Not confirmed)
- In the scene where schaefer and smith are captured the car is still in a forward gear when they push it backwards to get it over the cliff. Unless the driver shifted gears right before the crash they wouldn’t be able to push the car in reverse. (Not confirmed)
- Smith to Turner: ”We took the precaution of removing the firing pin” … CLICK !…
”Put it down Colonel” …he puts it down…and then Schaffer grabs the gun in a hurry.
Schaffer should have picked his own gun once he heard the firing pin CLICK!!! …Not the useless gun that was dropped on the floor. - The bus the team drives away in near the end is a 1952 Steyr built bus, a design that did not exist at the time. (Not confirmed)
Audio/visual unsynchronised
- After Smith and Schaffer push the car over the
edge it explodes for no reason from within the
cockpit. - When Christiansen fires at Smith through the roof of the cable car, he fires five shots yet the pistol can be heard to click empty on the fifth.
(Not confirmed) - When Smith shoots the radio operator twice in the back, the second blood bag fails to go off in sync with the gunshot. (Not confirmed)
- When Smith leaves the cabin in the raging blizzard, the sound of the wind howling contrasts with the view of large fluffy snowflakes calmly floating gently to the ground. (Not confirmed)
- Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the bar, we hear background music played by piano, bass, and violin, but the band that is seen consists of a bass and an accordion. (Not confirmed)
Continuity
- During their escape from Schloss Adler, when Shaffer starts the cable car and runs to it to jump on himself, it doesn’t actually start moving until he is nearly aboard!
- When Burton gets Thomas to climb out on a rope from the radio room, Thomas is not wearing an overcoat. The Germans then burst into the radio room and notice someone climbing down a rope out of the window. When the German officer shoots Thomas with a machine gun, he is still not wearing an overcoat. The last shot showing Thomas falling to his death after being shoot suddening shows him wearing the same type of overcoat that the others wear later in the fim.
- When Clint & Richard get off motorcycle & sidecar, as Clint lifts up his leg to get over the seat, the rear of his pants are water soaked from the snow on the motorcycle seat. In the very next shot, as they are walking into the shed, you see the rear of Clints pants, as they are now dry! (Not confirmed)
- After the fight on the cable car, the cable car explodes from the inside despite Smith (Richard Burton) setting the explosive on the roof of the cable car. (Not confirmed)
- Refer to the scene in which Clint is in a gunfight in the hallway just after that uber-scene in which the master plot is uncovered in front of the fireplace and Thomas, Berkelely and Christiansen are led away. There are several camera changes from Clint’s perspective and then the Germans’ perspective. In the first couple of shots from the Germans’ perspective, there are, say, 10 bullet holes on the wall behind Clint. Then there are several dozen shots fired by the Germans, which should have caused several dozen additional bullet holes. However, when the camera goes back to the Germans’ perspective, there are FEWER bullet holes than in the prior shot, not dozens more. (Not confirmed)
- As the group heads for the airport in the bus, the weather is varying from one scene to another. Bright and sunny, and grey and gloomy, bright and sunny…and so on.
- In the scene that takes place in the great hall of the castle where Richard Burton is ”explaining” that he is is really with the SS, he has a pistol with a silencer. He shoots the chair that the fake general is sitting in and when the scene cuts back to him, the silencer is missing. The next shot of him has the silencer back on the gun, but it is shorter and slightly smaller (screwed in all the way this time, perhaps?). (Not confirmed)
- When the group first parachute into the high alpine pasture in Bavaria, the weather conditions keep changing. When Burton and Clint are taking off their parachutes, in some shots the sun is shining on the snow. In others it’s Snowing..!!
- At the end of the movie, when Richard Burton is driving the bus, the close ups of Richard Burton show a black steering wheel and no horn ring, but when he is filmed from behind, it’s a red steering wheel with a horn ring. (Not confirmed)
- When Smith is explaining the plot to Col Turner on the way home he pronounces Admiral Rolland’s name two different ways, first with a long ”o”, as in ”snow” and second with a short ”o”, as in ”drop”. (Not confirmed)
- When Smith is driving the bus to the air-field%2C there is a bullet hole in the glass which is in front of him. The germans were only shooting at the group when they were behind the bus! (Not confirmed)
- Take note to the little silver buckle on von Hapen’s leather cross-strap! It likes to slide up and down on it’s own! One second it’s in the middle of his chest,the next it’s high on his back near his collar!
(Not confirmed) - Take note to the motorcycle and sidecar that Smith and Schaffer first steal as they drive away from the chaos that they have caused. It is not the same one that they are on when they arrive at the bus garage after planting the charges on the poles. (Not confirmed)
- Take note to the edelwiess (alpine flower) badges on the sides of their M-43 caps. They move around a lot on their own. Sometimes they disappear altogether and then come back seconds later. When the pull-down flaps re worn down,the badges jump to the side of the cap body,itself! (Not confirmed)
- The bundle of dynamite that Schaffer tosses into the AA-gun site is in a different place,later,just prior to explosion! (maybe a disgruntled SS man moved it to the top of the ammo pile)
(Not confirmed) - Scene: Clint Eastwood has secured all doors in the corridor leading to the cable car room. Our heroes depart the Schloss Adler for the last time via cable car, and the germans are using sledgehammers to break down the door. While the germans are pounding away, two different doors are shown. Before the door hinges are pounded out of the wall one scene depicts a door without a blinking light above it, the following shows a door with a blinking green light. Why are there two different doors for the same scene?
(Not confirmed) - When Burton and Eastwood are starting to walk over the bridge at Werfen, Eastwood is quite obviously about six inches taller than Burton. However, for the frontal close-up of them on the middle of the bridge, Burton is the same height as Eastwood. At the far end of the bridge, they are their normal heights again…. (Not confirmed)
- When Colonel Kraumer calls Major Wilhelm Wilner in Italy, Wilner answers the phone as ”Major Wilmer”. Apparently, he is so sleepy that he has forgotten his name is spelled with an ”n” instead of an ”m”. (Not confirmed)
- When Smith kicks Christiansen in the face on the roof of the cable car, there is already blood on Christiansen’s face. (Not confirmed)
- When Major Smith goes into the Zum Wilden Hirsch, he is wearing an officer’s peaked cap. He takes it off and places it on the table and we never see it again. (Apparently, it was stolen from the set during the lunch break.) (Not confirmed)
- The bullet holes in the back of the bus appear then disappear during the final chase. (Not confirmed)
- When Major Smith drives the captured German Alpine Post Bus toward the line of planes at Oberhausen Airfield, you can see that the horizontal stabilizer (small wing at the tail) of the first plane has already been destroyed, probably from a previous take. (Not confirmed)
- When Mary Elison climbs out of the river, her hair is wet/dry/wet between shots. (Not confirmed)
- When they prepare to leap into the river, the cable car appears to be over the middle of the river, perhaps even a close to the far bank. But when they do leap, the first jumper lands close the near bank and the cable car moves over the river once again. (Not confirmed)
- As Major Smith and the group walk past the wood shed at Werfen their shadows disappear between shots. (Not confirmed)
- Smith radios HQ and tells them he is…”effecting entry within the hour.” At HQ, Smith’s transmission of ”Broadsword calling Danny boy” is heard at a significantly faster rate than Smith spoke it into his radio. (Not confirmed)
- After Smith and Schaffer initially climb into the Schloss Adler, Schaffer puts on a cap and Smith doesn’t have one as they walk out the door of a room and into a hall. Less than a minute later, both of them are walking down another hall, and Smith now has a hat similar to Schaffer’s. (Not confirmed)
- The scenes showing the escape out the window shows the stunt people rappelling normally with full rigging in the long shots, yet in the close up shots the actors are just holding onto the rope and they were not shown rigging the ropes for rappelling and did not show the use of any ”D” rings or other rappelling gear. (Not confirmed)
- When escaping the castle, Smith helps Mary down from the roof of the cable car and then follows her into it. Between shots the chain blocking the entrance to the cable car disappears. (Not confirmed)
- When Mary is escaping the castle on a rope, through the window, she moves backwards down the window sill to the edge of the wall. Both her hands are in front of her, holding the rope. The next shot shows her (stunt double) abseiling down the rope with one hand behind her back (the correct way to do it, the back hand is used as a brake). (Not confirmed)
- The post bus used in the final escape has a black painted radiator with a silver circular badge on it when seen in the garage. However, when it is seen outside, the radiator and badge are painted red. (Not confirmed)
- When Major Smith is shot in the left hand closing a door behind him towards the final sequences of the film, he bandages the hand. This bandage and the blood on the bandage and his hand, disappears and reappears throughout the cable car
scenes.
(Not confirmed) - After the swim in the river all four heroes are soaking wet. Yet when they are in the plane, Major Smith produces an immaculately dry notebook with the incriminating evidence. No wet pages or blurred ink. (Not confirmed)
- As they are beginning to cross the bridge into the town a car comes down the road into town and the men all move to the right, except Christiansen who moves the left, to let it pass. In the next shot all of them are on the right as the car moves forward. (Not confirmed)
- As Smith and Schaffer walk down a steep bank to observe the castle, their MP40 submachine guns have the folding stocks extended, then retracted, then extended again. (Not confirmed)
- With the Germans approaching the wood shed, Major Smith sets trip wire explosives and tells Lt. Schaffer to go out the window. Lt. Schaffer opens the window and begins his exit by straddling the window sill. In the next shot he is seen with both knees on the sill and he is backing out the window. (Not confirmed)
Crew/Equipment visible
- When Smith first leads the company into town (after the train goes by), they pass a building with windows. If you look quickly, you can see a line of people reflected in a window, presumably the film crew.
- Near the end of the film when the group arrives at the airport in the bus, they are pursued by Germans in small jeeps. When the jeeps are shot at and flip over, you can see the cable that helped them tip over being pulled rapidly off to the side.
Factual errors
- The Luftwaffe did not fly American Bell 47 helicopters during the second world war, yet we see one landing in the castle square. (Not confirmed)
- In both the final castle scenes and the highway chase toward the airfield, you will note that some SS soldiers are wearing German Army-decaled helmets. (Not confirmed)
- German hand grenades–the famous ”potato-mashers”–actually had four-second fuses, same as American and British hand grenades. Schaffer should not actually be able to toss a grenade back with impunity. In fact, earlier in the war, it was British ”Mills bomb” hand grenades which were easy to throw back–they had seven-second fuses, and Germans were quite adept at throwing them back during the Battle of France, 1940. (Their fuses were changed in time for North Africa in 1941, and this no doubt led to some very surprised Germans until the word got out!)
(Not confirmed)
- Smith is wearing an Iron Cross 1st class on his
tunic, but no ribbon for the 2nd class award. One
could not be awarded the 1st class unless he
already held the 2nd class. However, they could be
awarded together. In truth, though, during the
war, german uniform regulations were regularly
ignored – especially in the SS. The wearing of
decorations was generally up to the descretion of
the individual. (Not confirmed) - Major von Hapen and the men of his command, as
seen in Zum Wilden Hirsch,are wearing the black
SS uniform. The wearing of this uniform ceased at
the beginning of the war, (around the same time
that Hitler stopped wearing brown and started to
wear grey) when the SS went to field-gray.This is
pure Hollywood, as the opportunity to show the
striking and sinister black SS uniform is too good
to pass up. The same goes for ’Hogan’s Heroes’. (Not confirmed) - Schaffer’s firing a machine pistol in each hand simultaneously would require almost superhuman strength. (Not confirmed)
- During the briefing, early in the movie, the team is told that General Carnaby had been on his way to meet with his Russian counterpart regarding D-Day plans and that the meeting place was to have been Crete. That would be impossible as Crete had been seized in a German airborne assault in the spring of 1941 and remained in German hands until the war ended.
(Not confirmed)
- Early in the film, Christiansen makes reference to a ”Pathfinder squadron… with ten-ton bombs”. The film is set some time before late 1944 which is when bombs of this size were developed, and the first wasn’t dropped until March 1945. Also, the role of Pathfinder squadrons was marking targets, and they wouldn’t have carried the bombs themselves. (Not confirmed)
- At the beginning of the movie Colonel Turner introduces Schaffer, saying something like, ”Lt. Schaffer needs no introduction, you will all recognize his shoulder patches of the Rangers Division.” There were no Ranger divisions, only battalions.
(Not confirmed)
- In the flashback scenes in British H.Q., Lieutenant Schaffer is incorrectly wearing his paratrooper’s wings over the right breast pocket flap of his dress uniform coat. U.S. Army qualification badges are always worn over (or on) the LEFT breast pocket flap.
(Not confirmed)
- When Colonel Kramer introduces Major Von Hapen to General Rosemeyer, he states that the Major is Gestapo. The Gestapo were secret police and came under the control of Himmler’s SS. The black SS uniform was not worn by Gestapo agents and
so Major Von Hapen would not be wearing an SS uniform – he’d be wearing civilian clothes (if he was even at the Schloss Adler, which is unlikely). Further, when General Rosemeyer states that he would prefer to keep the interrogation of General Carnaby a ”strictly Army matter”, he’s already talking out of school – Colonel Kramer is in the Waffen-SS, not the Wermacht. (Not confirmed) - Apart from wearing a black Waffen-SS parade uniform, von Hapen’s outfit has several other discrepancies, most notably a standard Nazi party armband (the one worn with the Waffen-SS parade uniform sported black stripes along the upper and
lower edges), and a close combat clasp in gold above the left breast pocket, an award worn by soldiers with extensive front line experience, not the Gestapo. (Not confirmed) - At the beginning of the film, during the initial briefing for the mission, Clint Eastwood is wearing the same colored green necktie that the British are wearing. Members of the U.S. Army wore khaki ties during that period. (Not confirmed)
- Both Turner and Smith discuss the scandal to MI6 should the scandal of his treason get out. However, in 1939 the Nazis exposed MI6’s networks in Europe, and the Special Operations Executive took over its functions in wartime.
(Not confirmed)
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
- When Smith and Schaffer climb out of the hut after setting the explosions, if you look carefully on the right side of the window there is a poster with ”warning” written in English despite the move being set in Nazi Germany.
Plot holes
- Although several stylish call signs are used in the radio transmissions (”Broadsword”, ”Danny Boy”, ”Father McCree”), most of the other operatives and Colonel Turner, as well as the team’s location, are referred to by name in open transmission. (Not confirmed)
- With the action in the latter half of the movie taking place more or less in real time, it is never explained from where the Junkers Ju52 operates, and how Colonel Turner could get on board on such short notice. The only country from which he could’ve flown is Switzerland, and somehow it seems unlikely that the Swiss authorities would’ve allowed British uniformed personnel operating in Switzerland, much less allowed operations from her territory. (Not confirmed)
Revealing mistakes
- When heading for the airfield in the old bus our heroes block the road with a large tree. The nazis blow the tree up and some motorbikes pass it. In this scene you can see what is still standing of the tree and it is very clear that it has been ’cut clean off’ (to use another Eastwood phrase) with a chainsaw – not an explosion.
- The first ”Broadsword calling Danny Boy (x2) over!” is said very slow, and received very quick! (Not confirmed)
- When clint eastwood is looking through his binoculars at the castle, and the major walks down in the snow behind him, eastwood turns around and you can see that his arms and elbows in the snow don’t move and are fake along with the fake hands under the gloves.
- Just before they all jump out of the cable car into the river Smith unscrews the light bulbs to turn off the light. But he’s turning them clockwise – which screws them further into the holder and would not turn them off!
- When Smith removes the radio codebook from St Harrods tunic. Watch the dead Harrods eyes blink ! (Not confirmed)
- When Eastwood and Co climb out of the castle window and scale down a rope, you can see that they are just sliding down a rope which simply slides through their hands, but in the ground shot looking up, it’s quite clear that the ropes are properly fastened for abseiling down the wall. (Not confirmed)
- As colonel Kramer is shot, you can clearly see the bag from which the blood is coming. The jacket of his SS-uniform is not able to hide it. (Not confirmed)
- During the scene in the bar in Werfen, the sound track of background bar noise is played twice. The same high pitched laugh from a bar girl can be heard twice. Once during the walk in to the bar, and the second when the two girls are walking up the stairs. (Not confirmed)
- When Eastwood is looking through his binoculars at the German training camp, two lorries drive around the edge of the far side of the scene. You can see that they have the tops of them cut off in the frame. This is because the image has been superimposed over the snow scene. Look carefully as it only happens for a second or so. (Not confirmed)
- After landing in the high alpine pasture, it is clear that several members of the group do not have helmet chinstraps fastened under their chins. (Not confirmed)
- During the classic corridor shootout between Schaeffer and the Nazis, the soldier who gets hit lying at the other end flies backwards before the ricochet charges in front of him go off. (Not confirmed)
- When the metal canisters which landed by parachute at the beginning of the film are first seen, there is an obvious trail through the snow leading into the far trees, indicating the canisters were placed rather than parachuted into position. (Not confirmed)
- When the Nazi car (after Smith and Shaeffer’s arrest) is pushed into the ravine, it explodes without apparent reason before touching the ground. The same happens to the planes of the airfield being lightly hit on the tail by the German Alpine Post Bus. (Not confirmed)
- Near the end of the corridor firefight, Schaffer retreats into the room and a German soldier throws a grenade through the door. In the widescreen version you can see the grenade strike the door frame and bounce back at the actor’s feet, yet there is an explosion inside the room where the grenade would have landed. And grenades do not explode in a fireball as shown in this, (and other) movies. (Not confirmed)
- When Maj. Smith discovers the body of Sgt. MacPherson and rolls him over on his back, you can see the actor’s eyelids moving slightly. (Not confirmed)
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