The Black Swan (1942)
Goofs
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Anachronisms (5) |
Audio/visual unsynchronised (1) |
Continuity (4) |
Factual errors (1) |
Miscellaneous (2) |
Revealing mistakes (2)
Anachronisms
The story is set in 1674, during the reign of King Charles II, but throughout the film the British flag is the familiar "Union Jack," not in use until the union of England and Scotland in 1707.
The ships are fairly authentic looking for the era, but they are being steered by a wheel. This came into fashion some 25 years after the story takes place. A common error in pirate movies.
In a scene of this movie, which is set in 1674, Jamie tells Lady Margaret not to be a snob. According to Webster's Dictionary, the first recorded usage of the word snob comes from 1781.
The plot is set in 1674 but the map of Maracaibo bears the legend "Plan by Thomas Canoys 1697" some 23 years later.
Approximately forty minutes into the film between scenes, a map is shown that locates the island of Tortuga south of the island of Curaçao. In reality, Tortuga is located off the northern coast of Haiti whilst Curaçao is located off the coast of Venezuela. The two islands are separated by a large distance.
Audio/visual unsynchronised
When Jamie slaps Lady Denby, the sound effect for the slap comes noticeably late - Jamie's hand is long past her face when the effect is played.
Continuity
At the beginning of the film, when Jamie is on the stretching board, the camera angle repeatedly switches from a close-up to a wide angle and back again. Every time the close-up is shown, Jamie is looking over his right shoulder. When the camera switches to wide angle, Jamie is always looking straight forward.
About 2/3 of the way into the movie, Jamie and Captain Leach are talking on the deck of Jamie's ship. Lady Denby opens the door to the cabin to observe. This door is then shown several times over the course of the scene and the door is closed. Near the end of the scene Lady Denby is shown closing the door, the same door which had just been shown several times as closed.
About 2/3 of the way into the movie, after Lady Denby exits the cabin to come out on deck, she is standing next to, and then directly behind Jamie. She is standing so close as to be touching him. The camera angle then changes to show her at least a foot behind Jamie, no longer touching him.
When Jamie Waring is eating in his cabin with Lady Margaret watching (after he abducts her), he is shown munching on a hunk of chicken. The size of the piece of meat changes between takes.
Factual errors
Although the story is supposed to take place in the 17th century, Lady Margaret has a medallion with a colour photo inside. You can clearly see it's a photo when Jamie first finds the medallion and then opens it. Photography was not invented until the 19th century.
Miscellaneous
(at around 45 minutes) During the carriage-ride scene, the carriage is passing under trees and shadows are cast on the carriage and its occupants. The shadows are going in the wrong direction.
After Jamie releases his crew from the hold to fight on deck he fights his way across the deck. Where he grabs a rope that he plans to swing to another location with, he takes on swing at it with his sword to supposed cut the rope. But it's obvious that the rope was just loose to allow it to appear that he had cut it.
Revealing mistakes
When the pirate ship runs aground in the climax, the island moves.
The movie is set in 1679, but one of the maps is mislabeled to indicate the year is 1697.
