As I was watching “Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster” this last week, I noticed that the boat that the hero commandeered was named the Yahlen. Now that must have been a popular name for the Japanese or there was a continuity error, since the ship that was destroyed in the opening scene was also named the Yahlen. This started me thinking that the subject of continuity errors or goofs in the films MSTied might be a good weekend thread topic. My wife and I came up with about a half a dozen just off the tops of our heads. But, it might be interesting what our other erudite MSTies have discovered.
My all-time fave continuity error is in episode 423- BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, in which two characters have a conversation. When the one of the actresses is shot from one side she has a pencil behind her ear. When shot from the other side, she doesn’t. The pencil appears and disappears repeatedly as the scene goes on.
Other picks?
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Got to be Space Mutiny (820) where a character is killed and then shows up later, in the background, perfectly fine.
In “Girl in Gold Boots”, there is a scene at a restaurant where Buz suddenly pops into the picture; that seems to be the one everyone remembers. But that’s a lost piece of film, not a continuity error. The real continuity error from that movie is where Buz’ sister is sitting at her dressing table with her hair up. When she turns to Leo to mooch some happy pills, her hair is suddenly down.
Whoops….
The most obvious is the “I just teleported here! It’s impressive” moment from The Girl In Gold Boots. It looks like a chunk of the scene was lost over the years, probably due to vandals or collectors. Though why anybody would want the Icky Elf’s entrance and a random chunk of Critter and Michelle’s conversation, I have no idea.
Also, the “time warps” from The Beatniks, where characters suddenly change position in mid-scene. For example, when the hotel detective (check her out, WHOOO!) confronts Moon and Tony in their room, Moon’s posture completely changes when they cut from the closeup of Moon and the detective to the establishing shot of the room. One minute, Moon’s sweaty mug is right up in the detective’s face, and a split second later he’s leaning back, arms folded all casual-like.
Damn! Skunked by MPSh because I had to mention The Beatniks!
I may be cynical after working at Universal and hearing those stories time and time and time and time and time and ti (slap) … sorry. What was I saying? Oh, um. I love continuity errors!
I love it when Servo and Crow complain to Pearl as Mike constantly trips over to the small continuity blip of the “Same shot used twice”
for “Final Justice”. Look! Mike’s tripping!!
…oh, we can never forget the popular “strange watch shot” from “Danger Death Ray” LOL
Would Yuri’s ever-changing hair color/style in “Werewolf” count as a continuity error? “Error” implies a mistake, and that one is so blatant I can only assume they actually meant to do that.
And, from the same movie, I guess the sudden, simultaneous double-scream from Paul’s initial victim counts.
The time of day/position of the sun changing from shot-to-shot of Paul “lycanthropizing” in his room during Werewolf. It’s so blatant that Mike & the bots have no choice but to note it.
Here’s an obscure one cause I just watched Gorgo – A diver has 2 oxygen tanks on while he’s in the water, when they haul him into the boat he only has one.
The fight scene at the end of Future War, where the shirtless hero has a scratched chest, and then doesn’t, and then does…
…Also, the door to Bela Lugosi’s Bride of the Monster House, which alters noticeably when it’s opened.
Wharewoof-During the labor relations meeting between Yuri and the workers. As the fight progresses Yuri’s shades appear than disappear but his hat stays on tight.
Blood Beast, the photog walks up to Steve twice.
“Future War”–When Runaway, Sister and Ann and the cops find the dinosaur at the warehouse, Sister Ann takes off her jacket. The scenes cuts away, then cuts back and she takes off her jacket again.
“Angels’ Revenge”–Terri drives her motorcycle into the pool and saves April. A few minutes later Terri is bone-dry while April is still sopping wet.
“Final Justice”–the scene where murdered cop slides down the wall over and over again.
There is a brief moment in Time Chasers when Nick and Nick and the CEO of Gencorps are in the year 1777 and a school bus is visible in the background. It’s only a couple of frames, and it’s when one of the Nicks is climbing on the wing of the CEO’s plane.
Manos is a continuity mess through and through, but Margaret’s scarf is especially annoying, since she’s wearing it, then not as she fusses about Torgo, then it’s on again and she’s calmly talking with Mike while Torgo’s behind her.
In Mitchell during the car-chase, the red car gets its passenger-side headlight knocked out about 3 times.
In This Island Earth, they do a “day for night” blue filter shot when the professor, Cal and whatever the lady doctor’s name is leave the house to escape, then completely forget that it’s supposed to be night in all of the subsequent shots.
In the first five seasons of MST, they refer to the host as Joel but then in subsequent seasons they refer to him as Mike. Has anyone else ever caught this?
Also in This Island Earth, when the Cal, the professor and lady doctor go into the basement, the lady doctor has a completely different dress on than the one she’s wearing after the cutaway to the Metalunans.
And before anyone comments- the Joel and Mike thing was indeed a joke.
Herk vs Captive Women-at the end, Herk’s son, Timotheus and captive women are escaping on a ship and Herk has to swim to it. On the back light film you can see Herk swimming up to the staged ship. As backlite Herk disappears behind the ship’s wall, he suddenly pops up and climbs on board completely dry! By the blood of Uranus he must be a god!
Swamp Diamonds-Touch Connor’s city girlfriend is killed by crocs that jump into the swamp while she screams in terror while in someones backyard pool. Cleverly covered up by neck breaking jump cuts.
Attack of the The Eye Creatures- the title card and the blaring daylight during the many night scenes. I can go on and on on this one and others but I’ll shut up for now.
from She Creature – “Shazzam my pipe’s gone!”
Can’t resist adding one more, the car chase scene in Daddy-O where Dick Contino’s shirt suddenly changes, briefly and distinctly.
Definitely the Ford that “changed into a Plymouth” in The Sinister Urge. I’m not a good car spotter so I don’t know if Mike’s riff is 100% correct but it is plain that, when Lt. Carson gets into the cop car to go to the park at the start of the movie, he gets out of a car with a different front bumper and tail fins than the car he got into.
Another continuity error, although it’s bad writing to blame and not forgetful editing, in the same movie is that in one scene Johnny Ryde goes from distrusting Dirk Williams and telling Gloria that she shouldn’t employ him because of “that knife of his” and, a few scenes later, Ryde’s boasting to Gloria that he knows how to handle Dirk and has apparently forgotten his own advice from earlier.
There are so many amusing errors in Bride of the Monster. I love how Dr. Vornoff has a window with an underwater view but a door right next to it that’s open to the air. Actually it seems to open into the fourth dimension, a popular location in Ed Wood movies. And there’s that wretched final fight. Cambot’s “edit” probably isn’t all that far from how Ed Wood filmed Bela Lugosi’s reaction shots. Also “Bela”‘s screams at the end are exactly the same as the fallen hunter’s screams at the start of the movie.
In the first five seasons of MST, they refer to the host as Joel but then in subsequent seasons they refer to him as Mike. Has anyone else ever caught this?
David Lynch knew what was up; MST3K was the unacknowledged inspiration for Lost Highway, where Bill Pullman changes into Balthazar Getty and back.
Plan 9 From Outer Space – You never know whether it’s night or day from one second to the next!
I have to go with Werewolf as well. That guys ever changing hairstyle was the funniest thing in that episode!
Most of the “famous” errors haved already been noted so I won’t repeat them here, but let’s not forget another great continuity error from Space Mutiny. A female character is killed, then later clearly seen sitting alive at a computer console later in the movie.
Teenagers from Outer Space, Betty speaking to Derek,: Where did they go? What happened to them?
Film skips a few frames.
Servo: Who took the frames out of the film?
Not really a continuity error but it’s perfectly timed.
Early on in Hercules and the Captive Women they’re a scene in the boat, then a shot of a boat at sea, then another shot of the boat and Servo riffs “Meanwhile in the very same scene”.
Let’s not undersell the error in Space Mutiny–the dead woman is back at her station not some 30 minutes later, but in the next scene.
I think Laserblast and Hobgoblins both had cars that changed into different cars just before exploding.
One of my favorites is a subtle one in Time Chasers. When Lisa first comes up to Nick, he mentions that he’s teaching physics at the college and is out for the summer. Then, when Lisa tells him to take them 50 years into the future, he starts at September 24, 1991, and enters September 24, 2041. That’s some summer break.
There’s another “resurrection” of a dead character in TISCWSLABMUZ wherein the carnival barker appears a few scenes after he’s killed. Crow simply says, “Hey, that barker’s supposed to be dead!” and it’s not nearly as milked as the dead lieutenant in Space Mutiny.
There’s a whole sequence of scenes in Future War that makes no sense at all. Dinosaurs attack their house, and two characters escape. There’s still a child inside the house being attacked, but as soon as they’re outside they forget about that and go on with their evening’s plans.
They ride a freight train all night and end up in the same neighborhood they left (Oh, and the nun has a car at the beginning and end of the movie but not here). A cop picks them up for no reason at all and takes them into a building where a dinosaur has killed another cop, then arrests the guy after he kills the dinosaur for them. And Fred Burroughs explained everything!
Also, Monster a-Go-Go is one big continuity error.
Another day for night….
Horror at Party Beach “The sun burned out between frames.”
Goes back and forth between day/dusk/pitch black several times in the thrilling conclusion.
The best is the Space Mutiny resurrection as previously noted…
The double appearance of the “Yahlen” is a bit of editorial monkeying about by the distributer of the American television release, not actually a continuity error. This scene from later in the film was shifted to the front of to provide a “teaser”, I guess. In the original Japanese version, there is no repeat of the footage.
Tony Travis’s tie in the hotel room scene where it’s there one minute,then it’s gone and back again..The pencil behind the lady’s ear in Bride of the Monster that keeps appearing,disappearing and reappearing..When it’s suppose to be night in Attack of the the Eye Creatures that’s almost through the whole movie..What about in Red Zone Cuba where they’re in the air,then they’re on the ground and back again???
Wild Rebels — “Well I’ll take the guit.. huh?!”
In Robot Monster (107) Ro-man goes to tie Alice up, but decides it will take too long, so he knocks her unconscious. He answers his message, and then turns around to see a fully conscious Alice tied up.
Also in Beast of Yucca Flats, during opening car chase, scenery changes from desert to forest to mountains repeatedly. Just pick a Coleman Francis film and there’s bound to be plenty!
#30: Actually, at our local technical school, which is on a quarter system, fall classes do indeed begin in late September.
#34: “The double appearance of the ‘Yahlen’ is a bit of editorial monkeying about by the distributer of the American television release, not actually a continuity error.”
Yeah, I’m not terribly surprised. It’s impossible to know, especially with the Sandy Frank edits of entire television series, how many of the inconsistencies in the Japanese “movies” were actually original to the material. For instance, Rocky goes in Fugitive Alien from hating Ken to trusting him, then back to mistrusting him in Fugitive Alien II. Is it the TV show’s fault or Sandy Frank’s?
Although that reminds me of another Fugitive Alien II moment, when the Cesar guard warns Col. Yurulen, “One more step and I’ll shoot!” then shoots Yurulen immediately afterward. “What the hell, is he a Chicago cop?” Joel wonders. But it might be the fault of the dubbing that made it look like the guard fired immediately after shouting.
Re: #18 from Steve Vil
The one you cited might not be a continuity error. They cut a whole lot out of the original movie for MST3K-TM, so it might be a case of where they put together two different scenes and made it look like one sequence. It’s been a while since I saw the unMSTed movie, so I’ll have to check.
I blame Universal/Grammercy for that one.
2 of my favorits that I don’t think have been mentioned yet:
Hobgoblins: Kevin shows up at his house when the hobgoblins are attacking and seemingly teleports from his car to the front door!
Final Sacrifice: Rowsdower’s white pants are extremely dirty when he and Troy show up at Pipper’s house, bt when they leave that are completely clean and white again. Unless of course Pipper really does do a good load of laundry…
The swimming pool in Swamp Diamonds. The woman is suppose to be in a swamp with a gator attacking her, but she is swimming safely at the local Y. The begining of Gunslinger where no seems to move as the camera is rolling. Corman knew how to make a film on a shoe string budget, but his film are flawed.
If we’re going to talk about Werewolf, how about the ever-changing appearance of the title character? He’s a cat hand-puppet, he’s a guy in a bear suit, he’s Liev Schreiber, he’s Robin Williams… I guess that’s really more under the heading “crappy SFX”.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned the creepy I-am-going-to-give-Dad-a-shave scene in “Eegah!”, where Arch Sr. is nearly shaven, but then has a face full of foam in the next shot. Joel even takes the trouble to explicitly take the continuity person to task for that one.
#38: Even with the quarter system, classes would be about to start, or have just started. Nick says “we’re out for the summer” like they just got out, or least has weeks to go before classes start again.
Of course, if you’ve invented a time machine, prepping for next semester/quarter isn’t going to be on the top of your to-do list.
I completely forgot what movie this is from (Wild Rebels?), where a guitar is see laying in the back of someone’s truck. Crow mentions, “I’d like to have a guitar like that.” Then, suddenly the guitar disappears in the next take, and Crow goes, “WHAT?!”
At the end of The Killer Shrews, the girl only loses one of her boots to the shrews, but when she gets out to the water, she’s completely barefoot.
In The Creeping Terror when the police approach the spaceship right after it lands, the narration claims it is 5:30 a.m. but the sun is directly overhead.
This one is easy: The Sky Divers. The boat that The Broad and Chicken Guy are riding in changes from a motorboat to a sailboat.
Not really a continuity error. But, in the Hobgoblins bar fight scene, a background character turns over his own table 3 times in a row. It’s more a result of how cheep the film was by using a shot over and over to fill space. I think they could have at least spaced it out a bit more so it wasn’t so obvious. But, that’s what you get in low budget fight scenes. Also, noticed reused shots a lot in Cave Dwellers.
Great topic! I’d like to see this expanded to include all film errors. Sound drop offs, coustume errors [Attack of the the eye creatures] flubbed lines, foot slips, bad science, plot holes. My all time favorite is the giant hypodermic needle from War of the clossal beast. Why design it for a giant hand? Those finger loops are like a foot and a half wide. Just plain stupid looking.