When Blair, Sackett and Frank are looking at the stepladder and see the dead cat, its body is shown next to the further foot of the ladder. In a later shot from a distance, the cat's body appears between the feet of the ladder.
Nick arrives drunk at home with no cigarette at all. When he appears indoors, he has a lit cigarette in his mouth.
Frank takes off his tie after getting married, but it is back on at the train station.
When Frank and Cora first leave Nick, Cora falls in the dirt to avoid being hit by a car. All she lands on is her bottom and her back, but the dirt keeps changing its location in different shots, being sometimes on her shoulders, on the front of her skirt, completely gone when she sits on the suitcase, then obviously applied to her bottom as they are returning to the diner.
The shadow of a jail bar falls on Frank's face differently between takes, showing that he changed position.
When Cora opens the cash register to leave a note, the bill in the register is a Confederate one-dollar bill.
This is not an "Anachronism", as Confederate money certainly existed in the 1940s, though it might be considered odd that the proprietor accepted it.
This is not an "Anachronism", as Confederate money certainly existed in the 1940s, though it might be considered odd that the proprietor accepted it.
A closeup of Cora's confession being typed is seen right before she mentions not knowing about the life insurance. Text visible at the top of the screen could be construed to resemble that part of her confession are already. However, the text is not specific, saying "... we didn't do it for that at all." The "that" could refer to insurance or it could refer to many other things. There is not enough text of the confession visible to claim it is a Goof referring to the life insurance.
When the three characters take that fatal drive, the direction sign reads Malibu Lake, which is actually spelled Malibou Lake. However, as there is a Malibu Creek State Park near the lake and "Malibu" is often used in place of "Malibou" (including on many on-line maps), this should not be considered a Goof.
The new sign lettering says Lunch, Breakfast. Dinner. Universally it's presented in proper order as it relates to dining: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.
This certainly isn't an Anachronism and, in fact, isn't a Goof. Restaurant owners are free to write signs any way they'd like regardless of typical convention.
This certainly isn't an Anachronism and, in fact, isn't a Goof. Restaurant owners are free to write signs any way they'd like regardless of typical convention.
(at around 14 mins) When Frank and Cora begin dancing to a rumba record that Nick puts on the jukebox, Lana Turner's face suddenly breaks into a huge, broad smile. Her eyes are looking into John Garfield's the whole time. Turner tries to control herself as they move into a shadow, but by the time she comes out of the shadow, she is obviously laughing at something, perhaps something Garfield has whispered. Turner definitely was not supposed to be laughing because, in the next cut, the pair have extremely serious faces again.
In the first scene in the new beer garden after the trial, Frank is shown holding a tray with two glasses on it. He then puts it down at such an angle that the glasses would obviously slide off if they weren't glued in place.
When Cora is calling for a taxi to leave for the last time, Frank walks in and grabs the receiver out of of her hand. Then the phone actually rings.
The postman might ring twice but when the hospital calls the diner with the news that Nick will be okay, the pay phone rings only once even though Cora takes more than ten seconds to answer it.
When Kennedy drives the trio of Arthur Keats, Frank Chambers, and Cora Smith from the courthouse to their restaurant, the interior of the car and the position of seats in it are deliberate altered to make a room the camera work and to make all the three characters of the trio visible.
At the start of the film, as the car rolls down the hill before Frank gets out, you can see the crew's reflection in the side paneling of the car.
When Frank makes the car tumble a second time, wires connected to the back bumper are visible.
When Cora is alarmed to see a drunken Nick almost colliding with a truck and trailer, she would not actually be able to see anything because the land to the left of the diner was covered in fruit trees; and furthermore, the clip shows both roadsides having palm trees which are not seen in any other views, so this clip was filmed on a different stretch of road.
At the start of the film, the narrator says that he was travelling from San Francisco to San Diego, which means that the Pacific Ocean would have been on the right hand side of the car, but in the clip of the motorcycle cop talking to the car driver, the ocean is on the left of the car, so the car was travelling in the wrong direction.
(at around 2 mins) The motorcycle officer pulls over the DA for "parking in the middle of the highway". He then tells the story to Frank, saying the DA lives just down the road apiece. If the cop were familiar enough with where the DA lives (He hadn't seen his license during their brief encounter.), he likely would have known the DA's car or, at least, what the DA looked like, so he wouldn't have been so insolent in his approach.