During the opening credits, a helicopter fly-by shot zooms in on the PT-73, showing McHale and a seaman (in blue shirt and white sailor hat) at the helm. In the next shot, as the PT-73 pulls up to an island dock, McHale and Ensign Parker are at the helm.
McHale, and all officers in the film (Ensign Parker, Captain Binghampton, and Lieutenant Carpenter) wear brown low-quarter uniform dress shoes. This is incorrect, as traditionally, only naval aviators (flyers) wear brown shoes. The U.S. Navy has always differentiated between the "black-shoe" (ship and submarine officers and men) and the "brown-shoe" (naval flying officers and men) Navy(s).
Several sailors have petty officer insignia on the wrong sleeve of their dress white uniform; the correct sleeve is the left. Some sailors correctly have service stripes on their left sleeve but then incorrectly have petty officer insignia on the opposite sleeve.
When shown in close-up, the cockpit of Captain Binghamton's observation plane has no Plexiglass. Plexiglass would likely have reflected the studio lights.
Obvious dummy for Binghamton when the taxi crashes into the produce stand.
About halfway in, when Binghamton (on foot) is being chased by the jeep, the table of fruit tips over actually right before the jeep runs into the table. Someone pulled the cable a bit early.
When Seaman "Happy" Hanes meets some Marines, he greets them by saying "Which one of you is John Wayne?" This movie is set in 1943. However, John Wayne didn't portray a Marine until 1949 in "The Sands of Iwo Jima".
In the closing credits, Bob Hastings is listed as playing the character Lt. LeRoy Carpenter. It should be Lt. Elroy Carpenter.
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