West Side Story (1961)

◄ West Side Story (1961)

Audio/visual unsynchronised

There are several instances of gang members (most notably the Jets) mouthing the wrong words during the songs.
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When Doc says, "What are you doing there?" after stopping the Jets from taunting Anita in the drugstore, his lips actually mouth, "What are you doing now?" which was the line in the original stage script.
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Continuity

Maria's necklace jumps about between shots as she leans over Tony's body.
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Tony's arm jumps up from his side between shots at the end of the balcony scene.
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Riff changes position in his chair between shots when the Jets and Sharks are sitting down for the War Council.
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In the final scene there is a male onlooker dressed in blue on the left near Schrank's car. In the next wide shot he is standing on the right near the uniformed police car
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At the beginning of the movie, behind the first close-up of Riff on the playground, snapping his fingers, you can see a young boy riding his bike behind Riff, the boy wasn't there in the previous shot (from above).
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In the final scene, they show Maria, then pan over to the Jets and Sharks. When they come back to Maria, a large portion of her hair has magically come out of place.
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The length of Riff's cigarette in the lead up to the Jets song/dance. It starts out short and stubby, and just before they start singing and he flicks it away, it is much longer.
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After the war council, Schrank says that he rebuked the Jets the same day. That means that all events before the war council were on that day too. The dance started at 10 PM, and that leaves very little time for America, the balcony scene and the war council.
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When the Jets and Sharks are chasing each other around the city, members of the Sharks pour yellow paint on three Jets from a scaffolding. One of them is Baby John. In a following shot, it shows Baby John, graffiti-ing the Sharks' wall, and his shirt is completely clean, with no trace of paint.
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Miscellaneous

The Jets sing "The Jets are gonna have their day tonight. The Jets are gonna have their way tonight". One of the voices sings "way" instead of "day" in the first line, so the result sounds like "dway".
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Revealing mistakes

At the end of "America" the top of the backdrop can be seen in the upper right corner of the screen.
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The door of Doc's store has a screen to keep out thieves, but the windows do not.
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Near the end, when Maria yells "Don't you touch him!", two different voices can be heard at the same time in the first half of the phrase (in fact, this is singer Marni Nixon overdubbing for Natalie Wood).
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Spoilers

The goofs below may give away important plot points.

Continuity

During the rumble (the big fight between the Jets and the Sharks), Bernardo gets cut in the back by Riff. During the fight, there is no cut on the back of Bernardo. Whilst lying on the ground after he's killed, there is a big cut across his back.
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