Mistakes from the 50 best movies of all time

- Director: Elia Kazan
- Stacker score: 92
- Metascore: 97
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 122 min

Marlon Brando is widely considered one of the greatest film actors of all time, but that doesn't mean he was always the most prepared. During a poker scene in this 1951 drama, Brando's Stanley Kowalski can be seen mimicking Stella's lines with his lips as if trying to recall the script from memory.

- Director: Sergio Leone
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Runtime: 178 min

One of the best known Spaghetti Westerns, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" makes several major historical errors. In one scene, for example, the Union army flies a flag with 50 stars at a time when the U.S. was only comprised of 34 states. In another, Clint Eastwood and gang blow up a bridge with dynamite or TNT, neither of which were invented before the close of the Civil War.

- Director: Francis Ford Coppola
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 94
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Runtime: 147 min

Making this Vietnam War epic was an absolute nightmare for director Francis Ford Coppola, so it's no surprise that the film contains a reported 395 errors. During one of the movie's most iconic scenes, "Ride of the Valkyries" plays through aerial speakers as military helicopters approach a small village. A closer look reveals that the reel-to-reel tape never touches the playback head.

- Director: Asghar Farhadi
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 95
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 123 min

One of the major plot drivers in this Iranian film is the loss of a main character's baby after she's pushed down the stairwell by her employer. The two go back and forth over whether this event or another caused the loss, while seemingly forgetting that the mother-to-be visited an OB/GYN between the two events. A simple phone call to the doctor could have quickly resolved all the drama that takes place in the latter half of the movie.

- Director: Billy Wilder
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 95
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 107 min

In this classic film noir, insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) gets lured into a duplicitous scheme by Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck). Neff is supposed to be a bachelor, but MacMurray's real-life wedding ring can be spotted throughout the film.

- Director: John Lasseter
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 95
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 81 min

A major plot point in Pixar's breakout hit is that Andy and his family are moving in a matter of days. But once Buzz becomes Andy's favorite toy, Andy's mom changes the bedroom wallpaper from a cowboy theme to a spaceman theme. Couldn't that have waited until they arrived at the new house?

- Director: Akira Kurosawa
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 96
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 162 min

There's plenty of fighting in this 1985 film which is a sort of a re-telling of William Shakespeare's "King Lear." For many of the extras playing casualties of those events, shooting these elaborate conflicts had to get quite boring. In one scene it's evident that a guard had tired of lying on the ground and decided to watch the action instead—if you look closely, you can see him quickly close his eyes right before a volley of arrows fly by.

- Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 97
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 238 min

It might be the highest-grossing film of all time (when adjusted for inflation), but that doesn't mean "Gone with the Wind" isn't packed with its own share of mistakes. For instance, the film takes place before the invention of the lightbulb, yet a number of lamps in the film have either a cord or bulb.

- Director: Carol Reed
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 97
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 93 min

Elected one of the best British films of all time, "The Third Man" is a film noir set in Vienna during the start of the Cold War. Despite its greatness, the film isn't without its errors. For example, in Joseph Cotton and Orson Wells' first scene together, Cotton yells out his famous line "What kind of spy do you think you are, satchel foot?" but his mouth clearly isn't moving.

- Director: Isao Takahata
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 94
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Runtime: 89 min

A Studio Ghibli production, "Grave of the Fireflies" is an animated feature about two siblings, Seita and Setsuko, who are struggling to survive during the final months of World War II. As is the case with most animated films, the majority of mistakes are continuity errors. For example, in the beginning a kind citizen places a rice ball by sleeping Seita's head, but it disappears a half-second later.

- Director: Andrew Stanton
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 95
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Runtime: 98 min

This sweet, animated Pixar film about the blossoming love between a trash compactor robot named Wall-E and a high-tech probe named Eve is primarily set in outer space, and plenty of scenes are set against the backdrop of twinkling stars. While this provides a dreamy background for the budding love, it's actually the atmosphere between the viewer and the stars that cause them to appear to twinkle. In reality, the stars would appear static from the robots' perspective.

- Director: Jules Dassin
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 97
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 118 min

A French crime film, "Rififi" is best known for its intricate 30-minute heist scene that plays out in complete silence. While the jewelry store robbery goes off without a hitch, that wasn't the case for the on-screen rehearsal. In the scene where Tony and Mario time the escape drive, the license plate on their getaway car changes from 2126-DB75 to 3510-BU75.

- Director: Charles Laughton
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 99
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 92 min

The entire premise of this noirish drama is more or less built on an impossible scenario. While in prison for a misdemeanor, Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) shares a cell with a death row inmate, who mutters in his sleep about a stolen fortune. In real life, a man charged with a misdemeanor wouldn't be in the same facility as a death row inmate, let alone the same cell.

- Director: Orson Welles
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 99
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 95 min

This noirish thriller from Orson Welles opens with one of the most emblematic long shots in cinematic history. At the beginning of the famously extended sequence, a crew member is briefly visible in the upper lefthand corner of the screen. Of course, most eyes are on the bomb being placed in the trunk of a car.

- Director: Richard Linklater
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 165 min

Famously shot over the course of 12 years, Richard Linklater's film follows young Mason (Ellar Coltrane) as he moves repeatedly from one town to the next. Before moving to Houston, there's a bumper sticker on his mom's car that reads: "Atherton Elementary Honor Student On Board." Atherton Elementary is actually located in Houston.

- Director: Alfred Hitchcock
- Stacker score: 93
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 102 min

The brooding Hitchcock film centering on a government agent (Cary Grant) who sends Alicia (Ingrid Bergman), the daughter of a German war criminal, to go undercover and spy on a group of Nazis in South America has its share of kerfuffles outside the intricate plotline. In one scene, as Alicia realizes she's being poisoned, the cup she just drank reappears full.

- Director: Francis Ford Coppola
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Runtime: 202 min

Director Francis Ford Coppola made an intentional cameo in "Apocalypse Now," but his appearance in "The Godfather: Part II" was purely accidental. As young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) drives down the street, Coppola's reflection briefly appears in a car window.

- Director: Peter Jackson
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 92
- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Runtime: 178 min

If there's one thing Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy shouldn't screw up, it's the placement of the precious ring itself. Yet in this first installment, Frodo slips the ring on his middle finger to become invisible and then has the ring on his index finger just a few moments later.

- Director: Billy Wilder
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 121 min

This 1959 comedy classic set in 1929 delivers an array of choice musical numbers, including Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "I'm Thru With Love." That particular song didn't come out until the 1930s.

- Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 138 min

This timeless drama deals with the ins and outs of show business, so it's almost meta when Addison (George Sanders) slaps Eve and her head turns the wrong way. Actress Anne Baxter's minor blunder is otherwise known as a "stage" slap.

- Director: Akira Kurosawa
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 88 min

Set in the Edo period of Japan's history, "Rashomon," about a murdered samurai and the assault of his bride, is based on two stories from Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa. In one edition of the movie, there's a whole scene where the villain explains to the samurai where a cache of swords came from, but the words being spoken don't match the movements of the actor's lips.

- Director: John Huston
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 126 min

True to its name, this John Huston adventure takes place in the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico. But if that's the case, then why is there an Australian kookaburra making noises in the background?

- Director: Guillermo del Toro
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 118 min

Real life always has a way of ruining fantasy, even in magical films like "Pan's Labyrinth." In the scene where party guests are arriving at Captain Vidal's house, his men usher them in with automatic umbrellas. Unfortunately, these weren't invented until the '60s, and wouldn't have been available in 1944 when the movie is set.

- Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 113 min

Just as Italy's Fascist period was filled with violence, tension, and paranoia, so is Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Conformist." In one example of the brutality that defines the story, the film's main character, Marcello Clerici, attempts to murder a chauffeur who made a pass at him. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that before he even begins shooting, the squibs, or small explosive devices used to create the effect, are clearly visible on the walls of the room.

- Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy, Norman Taurog, Richard Thorpe, King Vidor
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 102 min

When Dorothy and the Scarecrow meet the Tin Man for the first time, they apply oil to his rusty joints so that he can move. There's just one problem: tin doesn't rust. While legions of fans will argue that the Tin Man probably contained metal parts, or that "rust" is being used colloquially in this particular instance, the scene nevertheless endures as a famous flub.

- Director: Luchino Visconti
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 186 min

An epic period drama set in Sicily in the late 19th century, "The Leopard" makes several historical blunders. One notable mistake comes early in the movie, when the Prince uses the word "mafiosi," which didn't enter the common lexicon until several years after the movie is set, thanks to the opera "I Mafiusi de la Vicaria."

- Director: Charles Chaplin
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 96
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Runtime: 87 min

King of slapstick comedy Charlie Chaplin resorted to a variety of cinematic tricks while executing this brilliant satire. When his character famously emerges from the giant machine, for instance, the footage is played backward. If not for the men behind Chaplin hammering in reverse, the audience would be none the wiser.

- Director: Stanley Kubrick
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 97
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Runtime: 95 min

Even renowned perfectionist Stanley Kubrick was prone to the occasional mistake, including grammatical errors. During the opening credits sequence in this dark comedy, the text reads, "Base on the book Red Alert by Peter George." The words "fictitious" and "occurrence" are also misspelled during the same credits sequence.

- Director: Fritz Lang
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 153 min

A pioneering movie in the science-fiction genre, the silent film "Metropolis" was one of the first full-length features to be set in a distant future. Although its events took place millennia after the 1920s, the creative team wasn't very imaginative when it came to illustrating what that future may look like. Characters in the movie still dress in top hats and coattails, phones are still clunky and corded, and cars haven't evolved at all beyond Model A's and Studebaker Dictators.

- Director: Alfred Hitchcock
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 136 min

The movie that arguably spawned the modern action genre also touts one of cinema's most well-known goofs. It goes down during a climactic scene inside the Mount Rushmore cafeteria, where Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) pulls out a gun and prepares to shoot Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant). Before the gunshot rings out, a young boy in the background is already covering his ears.

- Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 99
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 145 min

Loosely based on real-life stories, "Army of Shadows" follows members of the French Resistance as they fight for their cause in the face of almost-certain death. Uncompromising in its depiction of reality, the film took Jean-Pierre Melville 25 years to make. It's not surprising, then, that a few details slipped through the cracks throughout the process, including the day of the week on the closing card, which reads Sunday, Feb. 23, 1943, which was, in actuality, a Tuesday.

- Director: Alexander Mackendrick
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 96 min

This acclaimed drama depicts the fraught relationship between a columnist and press agent, so one might expect it to portray newspapers with a relative degree of authenticity. On the contrary, the film repeats certain paragraphs over and over when Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) peruses J.J. Hunsecker's (Burt Lancaster) Broadway column.

- Director: Ingmar Bergman
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 188 min

In Ingmar Bergman's "Fanny and Alexander," a semi-autobiographical tale of childhood and abuse, there's a major timeline error. Edvard tells his new wife Emilie that scientists have discovered the world is expanding, but red shifts weren't discovered until 1912 and Hubble's law wasn't published until 1929, long after the 1905 events of the film.

- Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Stacker score: 94
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 99 min

The final installment in the Three Colors trilogy, "Red" was reportedly the most difficult and complex movie Krzysztof Kieslowski ever made. Still, there are surprisingly few errors in it. One of the most commonly spotted mistakes comes near the beginning when the books Auguste drops reappear on the ground after he's picked them up.

- Director: Hayao Miyazaki
- Stacker score: 95
- Metascore: 96
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Runtime: 125 min

Another Studio Ghibli classic, "Spirited Away" is about a young Japanese girl who falls into the Kami, or spirit world, and must find a way to free herself and her parents before it's too late. Praised for its detailed animation, the film still slips a couple of times when it comes to continuity. For example, the smudge of dirt on Chihiro's face moves around and changes shape and size for the first third of the movie before sticking in one place.

- Director: Bong Joon Ho
- Stacker score: 95
- Metascore: 96
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Runtime: 132 min

Those who find it unbelievable that homeowners wouldn't notice an entire family living in their basement, will be even less likely to believe that they also wouldn't notice an entire couch missing from their living room. But that's exactly what happens in Bong Joon Ho's "Parasite." Mid-movie, one of the two couches the Parks have disappears and never reappears, and no one seems to think twice about it.

- Director: Alfred Hitchcock
- Stacker score: 95
- Metascore: 97
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Runtime: 109 min

Hitchcock's famous shower scene endures as a work of art unto itself, albeit one with a minor mistake. As Janet Leigh's character lies dead on the floor, her pupils are contracted when they're supposed to be dilated. After learning of the error, Hitchcock reportedly consulted with a handful of ophthalmologists, who recommended that he use belladonna eye drops when depicting murder victims.

- Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly
- Stacker score: 95
- Metascore: 99
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 103 min

The most famous scene in this acclaimed musical appropriately features Gene Kelly singing and tap-dancing in the rain. Keen observers might notice that the sound of tapping doesn't always match up to the movements of his feet. In fact, listen closely enough and one might hear the sound of tapping even after Kelly's stopped dancing altogether.

- Director: Peter Jackson
- Stacker score: 95
- Metascore: 94
- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Runtime: 201 min

The third installment of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy features a truly epic battle scene that required a slew of camera angles and tons of coordination. Because of all the complex camerawork, a number of the film's crew members can be spotted lurking within the orc army. Look for the people who aren't dressed to the nines in battle gear, and who don't resemble evil creatures.

- Director: Quentin Tarantino
- Stacker score: 95
- Metascore: 94
- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Runtime: 154 min

In one of this film's best scenes, a young man emerges from the bathroom and fires at Vincent (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson), but every shot misses. Before that bathroom door even opens, however, at least two bullet holes are already in the wall.

- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Stacker score: 95
- Metascore: 94
- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Runtime: 195 min

Steven Spielberg was striving for authenticity when crafting this award-winning drama, but he should've brushed up on his German before filming certain scenes. As an SS soldier drags a boy to an assembly area, he mispronounces the verb "schiessen," which means "to shoot." Instead, he says the verb that means "to defecate."

- Director: David Lean
- Stacker score: 95
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 228 min

Based on the life of T.E. Lawrence, a British officer stationed in the Middle East during WWI, "Lawrence of Arabia" takes plenty of liberty with the actual facts of its hero's story. It also takes plenty of liberty with Bedouin traditions, as demonstrated by one scene where Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) uses his left hand to eat food offered by his Bedu guide. This would have been a major taboo, as the left hand was used to clean oneself after using the bathroom and the right was used to eat.

- Director: Orson Welles
- Stacker score: 95
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 119 min

The most famous word ever spoken on film might very well be "rosebud," uttered by Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) before he takes his final breath. As reporters scramble to figure out the meaning behind the word, some viewers might wonder how those reporters heard it in the first place, as Kane appeared to be alone when he died. The most ardent fans argue there was a butler in the room, but to this day it remains unclear.

- Director: Alfred Hitchcock
- Stacker score: 95
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 128 min

Alfred Hitchcock's epic mystery-thriller is riddled with continuity issues—from Madeline (Kim Novak) losing a shoe in the water and having both on in the next scene, to a sailor walking by the flower shop twice in a row from the same direction. In another scene, as the camera pans away from Scottie (James Stewart) as he stands at the tower's edge, the camera's shadow appears on the tower's exterior wall (the scene was cropped for the "Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection" DVD).

- Director: Akira Kurosawa
- Stacker score: 96
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Runtime: 207 min

One of the most influential films in cinematic history, "Seven Samurai" is about a village of farmers who hire seven masterless samurai to protect them from the bandits who attempt to steal their crops each year. Groundbreaking though it may be, the film still contains several anachronistic errors, like the two back-to-back musket shots in the final battle that come from a single musket. At the time, muskets couldn't be reloaded that quickly, meaning such rapid fire would have been impossible.

- Director: Charles Chaplin
- Stacker score: 96
- Metascore: 99
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Runtime: 87 min

Admittedly, films like 1931's "City Lights" were shot in technologically humble times for Hollywood. Though Charlie Chaplin built his legacy in intended comedy, numerous errors slipped through the cracks of his movies in a more indirectly hilarious fashion. Despite a budget of $1.5 million, Chaplin and Co. struggled to fill a gallery of spectators for the famous fight scene. If you watch the back row, you'll notice nobody is moving due to the use of cut-outs, mannequins, and even painted-on people. You can actually spot the same mannequin of a man in a gray suit in several scenes in "City Lights."

- Director: Alfred Hitchcock
- Stacker score: 96
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Runtime: 112 min

Alfred Hitchcock was a master of suspense, but not necessarily a master of common sense. In this taut thriller, James Stewart's character is a professional photojournalist who is armed with a high-powered camera and a boatload of suspicions about his neighbor (Raymond Burr). And yet he never takes a single photo of the neighbor's potential misdeeds.

- Director: Sidney Lumet
- Stacker score: 96
- Metascore: 96
- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Runtime: 96 min

There are 12 angry jurors in this heralded drama, and all but one think the defendant is guilty as charged. The lone holdout is Juror #8 (Henry Fonda), who leaves the room to buy a knife and then introduces new evidence into the proceedings. In real life, these maneuvers would be grounds for a mistrial.

- Director: Michael Curtiz
- Stacker score: 96
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Runtime: 102 min

Inside Rick Blaine's (Humphrey Bogart) Moroccan night club, a now-famous piano player named Sam (Dooley Wilson) sets the atmosphere. Only Wilson didn't actually know how to play the piano. It's no wonder, then, that his hand movements don't match the music whatsoever.

- Director: Francis Ford Coppola
- Stacker score: 100
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 9.2
- Runtime: 175 min

The most egregious error in Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 masterpiece comes when Sonny (James Caan) attacks Carlo (Gianni Russo) outside some apartment buildings. In the midst of the beating, Sonny throws a whiff that can be spotted from a mile away, though it's portrayed as a direct hit. It might very well be the most famous "movie" punch in cinematic history.