see the journal Alfred HITCHCOCK - MASTER of SUSPENSE for a list of all Alfred Hitchock's movies


Alfred's movie BLOOPERS for NORTH by NORTHWEST (1959)


Alfred's movie BLOOPERS for THE BIRDS (1963)


Alfred's movie BLOOPERS for TORN CURTAIN (1966)


Alfred's movie BLOOPERS for the film PSYCHO (1960)


?Continuity: As Marion approaches the restroom at California Charlie's used car lot, the door hinges on the left with the doorknob on the right and has dark (painted?) glass in the upper half. In the interior shot, the hinges and knob are just the opposite and the door is a solid slab. In the exterior shot as Marion exits the restroom, the door is not seen, and hinges are back on the left and latches on the right, consistent with the original view.


?Continuity: While driving in Bakersfield, no car dealership can be seen through the windshield as Marion turns off a major road onto a wide, unlined street. The next exterior shot shows her car turning off a four-lane, lined street into California Charlie's used car lot.


?Crew or equipment visible: The shadow of the camera falls on the lady examining the pesticide can in Sam's hardware store.


?Continuity: When the police officer backs in behind Marion's car on shoulder of the highway, no tire tracks from his vehicle are visible in the soft dirt.


?Continuity: At the car dealership, the same extras (people on the sidewalks) are seen repeatedly, walking in different directions


?Continuity: In the hotel at the start of the film, Sam sits with his arms outstretched. In the close-up of Sam, the towel has moved across to his right though he hasn't yet moved his arms.


?Continuity: When Norman is making his way from the house to the hotel office to greet Marion, it is pouring rain outside. However, in the next shot when he's in the hotel office his suit is completely dry.


?Crew or equipment visible: When Marion first gets out of her car and meets the salesman at the used car dealership, a crewmember is reflected in the car door. Part way through the shot, he suddenly crouches down.


?Crew or equipment visible: When Lila and Sam are walking from their motel room to the office, the reflection of a crew member can be seen in the window between rooms 1 and 2.


?Continuity: When the cop awakens Marion in her car, the driver's side windshield frame has dozens of grimy handprints and fingerprints from everyone whose touched it while setting up the shot. As she pulls into the car lot the grimy hand prints / smears are shown to be all over the door panels also.


?Continuity: During the shower scene, the placement of the curtain rings varies multiple times.


?Continuity: Det. Arbogast phones in about the Bates Motel and Norman. Later, he returns to the motel to investigate. There is a reaction shot of him looking at the Bates house. The sky in the background is clear and uniform. Arbogast glances behind him to make sure he isn't shadowed and then starts out for the house. Now, the sky in the background is obviously cloudy.


?Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Marion drives away from the police officer, the unmistakable sound of a 1957 Ford starter can be heard, but she doesn't reach for the key (which is left of the steering wheel on the dashboard), or make any visible movement to use the shift lever.


?Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The title card of the film fixes the date as December 11, but when Marion is deducting the cost of the car from the $40,000 later that same night, the last date in her bank book is shown as being January 20. People often "backdate" checks.


?Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Norman first meets Marion his first words to her were an apology for not hearing her on account of the rain. He then asks her to accompany him into the office. His lips don't even move during this scene and he gestures with a hand signal for her to go inside instead; the audio must have been added later in post-production.


?Revealing mistakes: When Janet Leigh is in the car dealer bathroom getting the cash, as the envelope is being returned to her purse the top couple bills fold back revealing a $1 bill, not another $100 as the stack is expected to contain.


?Revealing mistakes: When Norman drags Marion from the bathroom to wrap her in the shower curtain you can see that she is wearing panties.


?Revealing mistakes: When Marion Crane leaves town and it becomes dark outside, the rear shot of the car driving into a cloudy night shows very noticeable white scratches in the sky. Apparently, a scratched image of the dark cloudy sky was placed above the footage of the car driving to make it appear as though the car was driving in the night.


WARNING: Here are the Film Spoilers
Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.

?Incorrectly regarded as goofs: SPOILER: There are persistent reports that Marion swallows after she is dead. The story originated in a newspaper article in 1973, but has been misremembered and misreported by subsequent generations of goof fans. The original story said that Alfred Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville, spotted the post-death breath shortly before the film was released and told her husband in time for a correction to be made. According to Janet Leigh, it wasn't a breath at all, but a blink, and it was, indeed, edited out. However, watching the shower scene on the Collectors Edition (ISBN 0783225849) appears to confirm that while Leigh does not actually blink, there is a very slight twitch of the eye that can be spotted by watching the reflection of light. Also, Leigh does indeed appear to have a contraction in the throat at the very beginning of the shot, visible in the upper left of the frame; not an obvious gulp or swallow as has been reported.


?Continuity: SPOILER: In the shower, Marion's hand changes from thumb down to thumb up when she grabs the shower curtain and then pulls it down.


?Continuity: SPOILER: When Norman comes to clean the evidence of Marion Crane's death, there is blood on the floor. In the immediate capture, there is seen less blood in the same spot. Norman couldn't have mopped the blood away that quickly.


?Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: When Norman is walking through the ground floor of the house shortly before the shower scene, he grabs hold of the giant, wooden stair banisters, which wobble unnaturally.


?Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: When Marion is lying dead in the shower, an extreme close-up of her eyes is shown, which shows her pupils to be narrowly constricted. A dead person's eyes are fixed and dilated. (There is probably nothing Janet Leigh could have done about this, especially since the bright lights used in filming would cause her pupils to naturally constrict. However, the extreme close-up makes this point particularly noticeable, and Gus Van Sant made it a point to digitally alter Anne Heche's eyes in Psycho (1998) so that they are dilated.)


?Incorrectly regarded as goofs: SPOILER: Lila and Sam are able to sneak into Cabin 1 just by pushing an unlocked door. A sane, caluclating criminal would have locked it to avoid someone discovering evidence of Marion's murder, but Norman is not sane by any means.


?Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: When Norman has pushed Marion's car into the swamp you can hear that the sound of the bubbles creates echoes. The scene was probably shot in a studio.


?Plot holes: SPOILER: Mother is depicted standing full-figure in front of the second-floor front window. However, the arrangement of the furniture in Mother's room establishes that there is a large desk in front of the forward-facing window, which would prevent a full-figure glimpse of anyone at that window.


?Continuity: SPOILER: During the shower scene, when Norman is stabbing Marion, his right arm gets completely wet but when he walks away, it's dry.


OTHER BLOOPERS

- NORTH by NORTHWEST (1959)

- The BIRDS (1963)

- TORN CURTAIN (1966