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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In The Giant Mantis there are three consecutive shots of the same plane leaving the hangar (or off a ship, or whatever. It’s been awhile). I like this thread.
I always got a laugh out of how many times the planes changed shape in “Jungle Goddess”.
All of the individual continuity errors I’ve noticed have been mentioned. But I’d argue that that TISCWSLABMUZ is one big continuity error, as are Red Zone Cuba and Beast of Yucca Flats. :|
“I think it was very nice of you to give that dead woman another chance.”
Hard to beat a continuity error that brings a person killed in a plot point back from the dead.
Uh, regarding the ‘Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster’ example cited above, I’m pretty sure that was just an example of bone-headed American producers editing a later scene into the opening. In other words, it’s the same name because that was the same boat and the same storm scene from later.
Space Mutiny dead woman FTW.
Cave Dwellers: Ator is just about to land his hand glider in a field,but in the closeup on top of the castle..Pod People: movie frequently jumps back and forth between day and night,sometimes in the same shot.
Zombie Nightmare: A tennis ball disappears from the floor during the tennis game..After Suzie and Peter finish their tennis match,as Suzie walks across the court to Peter,her hair gets messier between shots..After Suzie gets out of the hot tub,her pants become dry instantly..there are a few more,but thought I’d stop there.Thanks IMDB!!
Another great moment from SKYDIVERS: When the wife is trying to fly the out-of-control plane, which is shown rolling down the runway. The husband runs over to save her, and when he reaches the plane and pulls the door open, the plane is obviously standing still.
Similarly, when they’re flying to Cuba and we keep hearing thunder and rain hitting the windows, only to cut to a shot of the plane flying through a clear, sunny sky.
One that always gets me is in This Island Earth when the main characters are X-rayed, they both have the same skeletal structure (the woman’s is just slightly smaller than the man’s.) Men and women have different skeletal structures, and both skeletons shown are male. Maybe madame doctor has something “she’s” not telling us…?
#45:
Especially since Nick could theoretically wait until after the quarter is over to do his planning, then go back to the beginning and leave the necessary documents in his own house. Sure, this would cause an ontological paradox, but that’s the least of this movie’s problems.
Shall we examine the serials Commando Cody and the Phantom Creeps? Lets;
I’m not sure if this qualifies or not but that plane crash from the PC seemed to take weeks to crash, literally. When it finally does crash it merely belly flops and stays in one piece and people actually walk away from the crash.
The Commando Cody serial always omits a critical jump cut out each episode. I love the tunnel of lava where the lava overwhelms the camera from the victims POV, next week a jump cut is spliced into the footage to show CC and SK Ted casually walk out a side exit.
Oooooooo…. I gotta good one. I’ve been waiting for this topic to come up. Watch Daddy-O closely during the car race through the park. At one jump cut the girl is suddenly driving the car in the right hand seat. Obviously they turned the negative around to have her driving in the correct direction. And, when Phil is walking to his apartment and the girl is driving along side him, you can see a boom mike in a couple of frames in the upper left corner.
“Sir…”
“I think it’s really nice of you to give that dead woman another chance.”
Also, wasn’t there an issue with the end credits of “The Brain that Wouldn’t Die”? Either they called it “The Head That Wouldn’t Die” or “The The Brain that Wouldn’t Die.” It’s one of those, but I’m too lazy to check.
“Horror of Party Beach” is supposed, one assumes, to take place during summer (when one might host such a party at the beach). However, the first scene outside the scientist’s home are clearly in very early spring (no leaves on the trees), and the night scene with the two unfunny drunks features shots of Forsythia in bloom, which suggests early April. The Fingal’s Quarry scenes also appear to be in late winter/early spring/late fall, due to the leafless trees that abound.
Yeah, it’s The Head That Wouldn’t Die in the end credits. The doubled “the” comes from the opening title card to The Eye Creatures. Some genius figured he’d add an “Attack of the” to the titular monster, just like Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and a hundred others, apparently not noticing that the name of the monster already had “the” in it.
There are a lot of weirdly retitled movies in the MST3K cavalcade. Bride of the Monster was supposed to be Bride of the Atom (a phrase uttered by Dr. Vornoff in the movie.) Then there were all those Film Ventures International rereleases with new titles and credit sequences from other movies, e.g. Marooned‘s rerelease as Space Travelers. And the retitled failed TV shows. And the foreign imports…hell, if you think about it, probably a good half of the movies in MST3K aren’t given their original titles.
Yeah, nerd side kicking up. But the boat at the beginning of Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster is the same boat from later in the film. The US distributors thought the audience needed to see the shipwreck that stranded the main characters brother. They just took the same shots and put it in the beginning of the movie.
This Island earth: In the scene were the spacecraft avoids the blue asteroid, the asteroid, on their monitor, goes to the left. But when it cuts to the exterior of the spacecraft, the asteroid “magically” appears on the right.
The Horrors of Spider Island:
1. The movie begins before Mike and the bots get a chance to sit down
2. There is the famous plane crashing scene were it shows the plane falling then cutting to one of the models’ close-up screaming into the camera then cutting bak to the plane crashing.
3. That really weird fight scene. One guy, who is in daytime, throws a big rock to the big guy, who is in nighttime, who then punches it back to the other guy who then falls down and with the rock suddenly gone.
4. The movie ends “Sopranos” style. But its probably due to a glitch instead of on purpose.
The brain that wouldn’t die: “HELP; I’M IN ANOTHER DIMENSION!!!”
Invasion of the neptune men: Blowing up one of the buildings twice.
The undead: “My glasses popped on!”
Merlin’s Shop, like Monster-a-go-go, is a giant continuity problem. The director decided to splice in some of his old movie into his new one. That and there is the “mouse under my bald wig” line.
My favorite is the magic pencil in “Bride of the Monster”. Now you see it. Now you don’t! :shock:
Stacey # 42 – That Corman one is right on! I always wondered why they didn’t cut out a few frames so they aren’t just standing there for awhile. I mean, how long would it take to edit that out, 5 minutes? (even considering it was before digital editing) Didn’t that movie also have a character appear on the other side of the street because he just walked through the back of the set, and Crow mentions it?
Also in Gunslinger the door that opens out, so that the guy is actually in the hall!
Many great moments have been mentioned, including my favorite – the dead woman from Space Mutiny. I’d just like to add that I am always amused at Bert I. Gorden’s use of the same backdrop footage in Beginning Of The End everytime there is a scene with characters driving in a car. The same cars go by again and again, often on the same drive, even on the road that was closed to traffic by the military. Not really an error, more of a strategy, I suppose.
I remember watching MST3K: The Movie and being very surprised that they didn’t comment on Ruth’s dress changing. I saw the uncut version on AMC a few months (years?) later, and discovered the continuity error was the result of how the Brains cut the movie: it’s two scenes spliced together.
In Girl in Gold boots there is the bit where they are at a party but it’s clearly three different rooms. One room is slightly darker with only white people while the bongo playing guys are in a completely different room and then there is a third room that seems to be it’s own dimension. Also the bit where buzz and harry blat pull off that drug heist is seems odd that the officer doesn’t notice the extra guy who walked in off the street to take out prison garbage or barely accknowledge his leaving. Then again I’m not sure why he didn’t just teleport into the cell take the drugs and leave. I mean it’s impressive.
I was always amused during MST3K-TM when Mike and the ‘Bots are wandering through Tom’s room and you can see Trace’s hand working crow.
How about when Joel Hodgson suddenly becomes Joel Robinson…and I think he was still played by the same guy.
Skydivers – #609 – (my all-time favorite episode) – When the goofy guy who “feels real free in that wide blue sky” is skydiving alone, his helmet changes back and forth from a plain white one to a white one with stuff written on the front.
But…it IS a Coleman Francis movie, so what else can you expect?
During the climax of Bride of the Monster, when the Designated Hero is pushing the boulder to knock over Bela’s stunt double, the lighting is daytime in the close-ups and Hollywood Darkness in the wide shots.
Ahhhh continuity errors… No crappy movie would be complete without them. If Ed Wood and Coleman Francis cared about continuity, we wouldn’t have the cheese we have today. :mrgreen:
Not really a continuity error, but anyone else remember the scene in Mitchell– he’s having dinner with Martin Balsam, and you can totally see the boom mic in the shot? Joel calls them on it. “Boom mic! big time!” and points at it. Then there’s the whole John Saxon character, disappearing out of the movie, explained away by a random radio broadcast on Mitchell’s radio. In the un-mystied version, there’s a long and pointless dune buggy chase, where John Saxon is killed in a spectacular explosion.
I think movies like Future War and Space Mutiny count as just one giant continuity error. ;-)
Leave us not forget another, un-riffed upon(!) error in Space Mutiny: when 3rd Engineer Steve Codell is “helped” over the railing by Calgan and his goons, his glasses fall off, then appear back on his face as they T-P him.
Space Mutiny, hands down. “I think it’s very nice of you to give that dead woman her job back, sir.”
Most of Corman’s films are a continuity mess, Edwin. I watch ones that never even made it on the show and you still spot things in the frames that shouldn’t be there. I can’t count how many time I see the mic in the shot. I know Corman always prided himself on being below budget, but you think he should have been paying closer attention. The Edgar Allen Poe’s are truly his one masterpiece.
My fav was already mentioned. The Space Mutiny oh hey, your back to life trick. To go a little off topic CT’s “Doomsday Machine” the spaceship changes constantly in exterior shots (I’m not sure they use the same shot twice), not to mention Bobby Van is replaced by a totally diff. actor that’s taller and has a voice that’s not even close to similar in the ending. Continuity who needs that. :shock:
Thought of a couple more that haven’t been mentioned. Hercules & the Captive Women- Herc swims from Atlantis to the boat… and he’s completely dry when he climbs aboard.
Pod People- The changing climate over the weekend. “Go inside, you drove two seasons to get here.”
Oh, and come the Atlantians couldn’t remember the day was dedicated to Hercules’ anu…. Sorry, never mind.
In RZC, there is the soldier that is shot and then given a job a a guard. Sadly, he is killed again during the escape.
In a number of films the narrator and/or character repeatedly
insist that it’s night when it is clearly daytime. Perhaps the
most flagrant is in the movie starring that magnificent bastard Patton.
They could at least have darkened the lens, but I suppose “they
just didn’t care”. :sad:
In “Beginning of the End” Audry Ames puts her camera in her car at the Army checkpoint, then has to retrieve it later because she tells the Colonel it was taken away from her by one of the soldiers.
Actually that Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster thing isn’t really a continuity error. The U.S. version was, like most Godzilla movies from that time, edited in someone way. The people who edited the U.S. version wanted the Sea Monster to make a appearence much eariler in the film, so that kids wouldn’t start thinking “when’s a monster going to show up?” since it is a while in that movie before a monster pops up, so they took the scene of the Yahlen being destroyed and moved it to the beginning (since the boat isn’t destroyed in the Japanese version until about a good 10 or 15, if not more, minutes in).
Oh, and my favorite error is the scene from Space Mutiny when that woman who was killed comes back to life somehow. “Sir, it was good of you to give that dead woman another chance.”
#24:
David Lynch knew what was up; MST3K was the unacknowledged inspiration for Lost Highway, where Bill Pullman changes into Balthazar Getty and back.
No one should ever have to change into Balthazar Getty and back.
Space mutiny is just a giant continuity mess.
Characters returning from the dead minutes after death [“ok look alive everybody, oh sorry Susan”], random actors playing multiple roles [rick astley cant decide what side hes on], shots of previous explosions, parties [“theyre having the same party”]
Tom: “Uh, continuity Bev Wilbringham, can she be legally arrested now?”
#87: In RZC, there is the soldier that is shot and then given a job a a guard. Sadly, he is killed again during the escape*.
*Maybe he’s related to the chick in “Space Mutiny?”
Again, off-topic: Check out Ed Wood’s “Night of the Ghouls,” There’s a door that shows up in the police station scene and later in the haunted house scene–the same door! Plus if you look closely, you can see a sign from the police station scene in the background when they walk through the door at the haunted house! Again, if Ed Wood cared about continuity….
#89: In “Beginning of the End” Audry Ames puts her camera in her car at the Army checkpoint, then has to retrieve it later because she tells the Colonel it was taken away from her by one of the soldiers.*
*Actually, that’s an editing error. If you have the Rhino double-sided DVD, in the standard version, there is a scene where Audrey is trying to take a picture of the town and gets her camera confiscated by a soldier. It was cut in the MST version.
I’d like to mention the scene in Space Mutiny where the girl comes back to life…huh? it was already said? Like 16 times? Ooops, my bad.
Should also note the scene in WEREWOLF where the security guard morphing into a wolfman drives past the same gas station three or four times.
Of course, my all time favorite non-MST3K continuity error is in the Doris Wishman classic GENTLEMEN PREFER NATURE GIRLS. Ms. Wishman was famous for her ‘Plot, shmot, you’re all just here to see tits,’ attitude towards her films, many of which were made so quickly she had to film the scenes, then write the script around what she’d shot, dubbing in the dialogue later. In one amazing scene, we see an empty field while two off-screen voices deliver completely unrelated dialogue. A couple seconds into it, we suddenly realize she’s keyed up the tape to the wrong scene. A moment later, she realizes it too. The voices come to an abrupt halt and –This is what makes her a legend– we actually HEAR THE TAPE REWINDING. A few seconds later, the proper scene with the dialogue appears.
The watch landing in the water part from ‘Danger! Death Ray!” One minute is falls in the water. Final shot, shows someone holding it and THEN putting it in the water. Serious WTF moment there.
SOULTAKER – My fave continuity error is in the “Marlboro brand” gas station, Tommy grabs a Coke and smashes the bottle to the floor, it changes to a Pepsi label….if you slow-mo it….there is already cola liquid on the floor BEFORE impact. A two-fer!
Speaking of SOULTAKER – I like the poor editing, where Robert Z’Dar keeps blinking in and out of the scene. HE…hmmm? Supposed to be like that? Well, okay, I’ll retract it. But it sort of makes me rethink Buzz from Girl in Gold Boots in the diner. Was he supposed to be a soultaker?
My suspicion is that the arrival of Buzz in the diner wasn’t cut from the film by collectors/scavengers, but to repair the print that was used to make the master copy the MST3K guys used after it got damaged. There appears to be some film damage around that spot; my guess is that the film broke there, and the projectionist cut out the damaged bits, spliced it together, and either didn’t notice, didn’t care, or couldn’t do anything about the resultant continuity error.
Ditto with the later sudden appearance of the dune buggy guy, and his equally sudden disappearance.