Goofs

Revealing mistakes: When William is reading the newspaper, the same sentences are printed repeatedly on the page. (It’s been suggested this is a reference to The Shining, but it’s also a common art department shortcut, so seems more likely to be a goof.)

Continuity: The distance between Marion and Dr Bill changes when they are sitting down and talking.

Crew or equipment visible: When Alice goes to the bathroom cabinet, you can see the camera reflected in the mirror when she opens the cabinet door. It and the cameraman are hidden under a white sheet, with just the black, square lens showing through. (Freeze-frame recommended.)

Crew or equipment visible: In the overdose scene in Ziegler’s bathroom, reflected in the chrome (reports are the video transfer has made this less obvious).

Continuity: In the orgy scene, as Bill (in a mask) stands and watches, a masked man and a fully nude woman (also masked) enter behind him. But in between shots, the woman’s pubic hair changes.

Continuity: When the masked woman walks up to Bill Hartford with the other masked man, her hair is initially in front of her but in the next shot her hair is now behind her.

Continuity: Bill Harford arrives at Rainbow Fashions by taxi from the Sonata Cafe and as he talks to Milich, Gillespie’s Diner can be been seen across the other side of the street. Later in the story we discover that Gillespie’s is next door to the Sonata Cafe so there’s no way he would have taken a taxi just to cross the street (not even in NYC).

Continuity: Dr. Harford talking to Victor Ziegler at pool table, position of cue and balls change and the chalk moves.

Continuity: The position of Alice’s nightshirt strap on her right shoulder during the discussion with Bill where she tells him about the sailor.

Continuity: When Bill is going to the room where Marion is, we can see two tables in the corridor, with a sculpture on each one. When Carl arrives some minutes later, the sculpture on the first table has disappeared.

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The maid addresses “Carl” as “Mr. Thomas” when he enters the apartment. Thomas Gibson plays Carl, but presumably this means the character is “Carl Thomas.”

Continuity: When Bill and Alice discuss her near-infidelity, the ashtray they were using when smoking the joint appears and disappears from the bed, the tapes and CDs are in different positions, and Bill’s hand jumps off Alice’s hip.

Errors in geography: When Bill Harford is reading the newspaper about the drug overdose, the headline actually reads “drugs overdose” (UK usage) instead of “drug overdose” (USA usage).

Continuity: When Bill arrives at orgy mansion on first visit his taxi approaches from one direction, but when he returns, he arrives from a different direction.

Continuity: When Bill enters the temple, there is a laptop PC to the right of the pianist on a black box. From the other side we see the black box but the PC is gone, only to return shortly after when we see him from the other side again.

Continuity: The toilet paper in Victor Ziegler’s bathroom.

Continuity: Ziegler’s hand positioning is inconsistent between shots in the Mandy Curran overdose scene in his bathroom.

Crew or equipment visible: When Milich opens the door to the room where he find his daughter, you can see the the legs of the steadicam operator.

Continuity: When Bill is reading the newspaper, the small pictures behind him change.

Continuity: The same graffiti-covered mail collection box appears in multiple scenes, in different locations. And when Bill is purchasing a copy of the New York Post while being followed, there are three mail collection boxes visible at the same intersection, which is, at least, unlikely.

Continuity: When Alice Harford is doing math problems with her daughter, a blue bottle appears among the liquor bottles on a table in the background.

Revealing mistakes: The corner ceiling of the set appears missing in the toy store.

Errors in geography: There are many instances throughout the movie of UK road signs and road markings which break the New York illusion and inadvertently reveal the shooting locations.

Crew or equipment visible: Reflected in the bedpost during the love making scene.

Continuity: When Alice is talking to Bill on the phone while he is in the prostitute’s apartment, the number of cookies in the box in front of her goes from five in the first shot to six in the second.

Continuity: After being followed while walking, Bill enters a restaurant. As seen from outside, the street is completely deserted. But from inside, as Bill enters, you can see people walking by outside the door.

Continuity: When Doctor Harford is in his office sitting at the desk thinking, late at night, there is only a pen in the middle of the desk. A moment later there is also an elastic band.

Continuity: When Bill bought the newspaper at the newsstand, the headline on the newspaper read “LUCKY TO BE ALIVE”, and was folded with that headline facing out. When he walked into the restaurant, the headline was folded in.

Continuity: In the orgy scene, when Bill enters the room where there are several people on the long table, we see two people in cloaks (one standing and one sitting) obscuring the camera’s view. In the reverse shot of Bill, these people are no longer there in the background. These people were added virtually in post production, following the death of Stanley Kubrick and the movie’s subsequent NC-17 rating.

Revealing mistakes: The same gang-”tagged” mailbox is used as a prop on several different back lot “streets”.

Continuity: When Dr. Harford presents his doctor’s license to Milich, his finger partially covers the license in one shot and not in the other.

Continuity: While Dr. Harford is arguing with Alice on the bed after smoking a joint, his hair is sticking up in one shot and is flat in the next.

Continuity: When Dr. Harford returns to the mansion in the country, it is summer with leaves on the trees behind him.

Continuity: In the orgy, the girls in the ring change places between shots: The ones to the left and right of the girl who eventually chose Dr Harford leaves before her. When she is called to leave, there is suddenly another girl beside her.

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Alice is telling Dr. Bill her confession about the naval officer, the audio has her saying “you and I made love” while her lips move to say “we made love”. In the context of the following sentences it’s clear she was making love to Dr. Bill, but from the preceding lines her “we made love” could have ambiguously referred to her and the officer.

Continuity: When Alice is lying in bed telling Bill her dream, first we see the blanket is moved down exposing her hip, haunch, and thigh. Immediately afterward, the blanket is covering her up to her waist.

Continuity: When Bill goes to the Sonata Jazz Club, outside of the club are pictures of the four guys in the band with their names. It lists Larry McVay as the drummer and Kip Fleming as the bassist. But inside the club, after the band is done playing, Nick (the piano player) introduces the band, and says, “Larry McVay on bass and Kip Fleming on drums.”

Boom mike visible: In the poolroom scene with Bill and Victor, you can see the boom reflected in the green light when Victor says “OK, he had a bruise on his face.”

Continuity: In the pool room scene, the red ball changes places three times to right in the middle in front of the pocket and to either side after that.