Movie error???

Tom Hoczyk

PCS Past President
Not procar related, but just this afternoon we went to watch "The Artist", with a treasure trove of '20's and '30's automobiles. Interestingly, when the silent movie listed the "year" as 1932, a gorgeous 1935 Cadillac was in the scene, and shown quite a few times thereafter. Did anyone else notice this, or any other discrepancies? Tom
 
Whenever I watch movies I always try to find errors like this and have found quite a few over the years. They figure people either dont no model years of dont notice them.
 
When I worked on the movie "We Are Marshall", the uniforms they had for us had patches with a Star of Life on them. I pointed out to the costume folks that the movie takes place in 1970, but the Star of Life wasn't invented until 1973. They thought about it, and discussed it, and decided, "Oh well." OK, I pointed it out, but it's their movie.

Turned out, you couldn't see it close enough to matter anyway.

I also saw a movie (can't remember the name) set in the 1970's, but with a 1980's van ambulance in it. I posted that "goof" to IMDB, nobody else had noticed.
 
While I still think THE ARTIST deserved its Best Picture Oscar, don't get me started on how many movies put a car in a period scene before it was actually built! Though I'm a big Martin Scorsese fan, the one that always gets my goat is that scene in GOODFELLAS where Ray Liotta & Joe Pesci are leaning on the trunk of a 1965 Chevrolet Impala as the legend "NEW YORK CITY - 1963" flashes at their feet! And this from a director whose costumers seem completely obsessive about period perfection when it comes to necktie patterns or the widths of jacket lapels!

Of course, having been on the receiving end of several rather frantic phone calls from picture car companies seeking and old hearse or ambulance for something that's filming TOMORROW, I shouldn't be surprised they settle so often for something close so much of the time. Period costumes, after all, have to be custom made for the acting leads, where the picture car coordinator is typically on the same level as the greensmen grooming trees and shrubbery on the set.
 
Having worked extensively at all the studios in and around L.A. I was amused that they used the same three streets of Paramount's New York Street area, shot from different angles to look like different streets. In one of the location shots, you can see the address of the actor's home painted on the curb, also incorrect for 1932.

That said, I loved the movie. I loved "The Descendents" more.
 
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