Goofs for
Vertigo (1958) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: The ice cubes in Gavin and Scottie's drinks disappear.
  
  
• Continuity: The amount of sunlight/shadows in the alley behind the flower shop as first Madeleine and then Scotty walk towards the door.
  
  
• Continuity: The parked cars opposite the alley behind the flower shop change with the camera's point of view.
  
  

• Crew or equipment visible: As the camera moves away from Scottie standing at the edge of the tower, the shadow of the camera can be seen for a split second on the outer wall of the tower. On the Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection DVD, the image is cropped so the shadow cannot be seen.
  
  
• Continuity: The book display in the bookshop window changes between the entering and exiting shots.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Scotty and Judy drive through a grove of eucalyptus trees that is located south of San Juan Bautista on the way there from San Francisco.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scenes that follow Judy putting on the gray dress, the headboard light on her bed disappears and reappears.
  
  
• Continuity: When Scotty and Madeleine are on the coast, she's wearing a white coat with a gauzy black scarf. The scarf is arranged differently in different shots and sometimes is missing entirely.
  
  
• Continuity: As Judy packs to run away, the breast sections on Madeleine's gray suit in her closet are popped out in one shot and pushed in in another.
  
  
• Continuity: In Ernie's restaurant there are two famous profile shots of Kim Novak; in the second shot however (shot later in production) there is noticeably less background scenery visible.
  
  
• Continuity: As Scotty turns into the flower shop alley, the wall to his right has no windows. When he exits his car, windows have appeared.
  
  
• Continuity: While Scotty is spying on Madeleine in the art museum, the furniture and artwork in the gallery seen through the open doorway next to Carlota's portrait is rearranged between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Madeleine wakes up in Scottie's bed, there are two chairs on either side of the doorway as Scottie exits his bedroom. When he re-enters the bedroom, one chair is missing and the other has moved.
  
  
• Continuity: Before and after Scottie slides off the roof and hangs onto the gutter, there are two views of him shown 90 degrees apart, but in both cases the background view remains the same.
  
  
• Continuity: When Madeleine is in Scottie's apartment after he rescued her from the bay, he offers her two cushions to sit on in front of the fireplace. When he picks up the cushions, they are green. In the next shot, when the cushions are shown hitting the floor, they are gold. When the cushions are shown lying in front of the fireplace after Madeleine has fled, they are green again.
  
  
• Continuity: When the manager of the McKittrick Hotel is walking Scottie to Madeleine's room, the door is cracked open. A close-up shows the door closed and the manager proceeds to open it.
  
  
• Continuity: When Scottie and Madeleine are talking on the beach, there is a tree between them. Madeleine puts her left arm around the tree, but then, without her having moved, she has her back to the tree.
  
  
• Continuity: When Scottie gets out of his car in front of the hotel, his window is down. In the continuing shot as he walks away from the car, the window is closed.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Scottie (James Stewart) buys new clothes for Judy (Kim Novak) at Ransohoff's, Novak is shown trying on a pair of shoes. Due to the extremely low camera angle when Novak walks away from the camera, it's easy to see that the shoes are not new- their soles are heavily scuffed.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Madeleine arrives at Sottie's apartment to post a letter, the establishing shot shows only a few bushes by the metal railings. However, in the closer two shots, more bushes are can be seen against the railings.
  
  
• Continuity: When Scotty takes Madeleine out of water her shoe is off. When they have reached the pier Madeleine has both shoes again.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Gavin Elster mentions that Carlotta Valdes was 26 when she killed herself. However, her gravestone says that she lived from December 3 1831 to March 5 1857. That would make her 25, not 26.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the scene where Scottie is following Judy for the first time back to the "Empire Hotel," now "York Hotel," the traffic flow on Sutter Street (one-way) is heading toward downtown instead of away from it, as it does in actuality.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Scottie is following Madeline, while they are driving, Scottie's car turns a couple of seconds before his hand turns the steering-wheel.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the scene when Gavin is talking to Scotty in his office about his wife's unusual wanderings, Gavin mentions that "the speedometer on her car showed that she'd driven 94 miles". Speedometers measure speed of travel. Odometers are used to measure distance.
  
  
• Continuity: As Scotty parks alongside Madeline in front of his apartment, his car (actually the camera truck) cuts across several parking spaces. When the angle changes and Scotty is shown stepping from his car, it is parked within one parking space.
  
  

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