Goofs for
The Black Dahlia (2006) More at IMDbPro »

• Anachronisms: The light switch on the wall next to Kay's sliding door is of a type not available in the 1940s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When carrying a box out of Bleichert's father's home, you can see a UPC barcode on the bottom of the box. Barcodes weren't commercially used until 1966.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Bucky Bleichert enters Sheryl Saddon's bedroom to get the suitcase, there is a postcard-sized picture of Bettie Page on the wall. Bettie Page did not start modeling until 1950 and The Black Dahlia (2006) takes place in 1946-47.
  
  

• Continuity: When Kay pours champagne at the dinner table, she fills Lee's glass twice.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The period shots of Los Angeles City Hall, supposedly happening in 1946-47, include modern railings added many years later.
  
  
• Factual errors: The first part of the movie shows cars with 1945/46 California license plates (black and white with a white strip on top) mounted on the front of the car. For those two years only, to save metal due to World War II, California license plates were issued singly and mounted on the rear of the car only.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Elizabeth Short's police booking photo from 1943 uses the typeface Eurostile, which was created in 1951.
  
  
• Continuity: When Bucky and Madeleine are talking at Buck's car, the bonnet is glittering with raindrops. A few seconds later, when they continue their conversation inside the car, the bonnet is dry.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Modern red-background STOP signs appear throughout the movie. Red-background stop signs were not standardized in the US until 1954. For many years after that, drivers' training manuals said that STOP signs could have red or yellow backgrounds.
  
  
• Continuity: When Dwight rips off the tablecloth to have sex with Kay, liquid clearly spills right where he lays her down. In the next shot, the table is dry.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During the scene in the theater screening The Man Who Laughs (1928), we see the beam from the projection room. It is shining out of a single window. In the '40s, theaters used two projectors and changed reels (alternating projectors) every 20 minutes or so, unlike modern theaters that use only one projector per screen. The back wall should have shown two projector ports, two viewing ports for the projectionist and a large port for the spotlight.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During Bucky and Lee's stakeout, when Bucky chases a portly suspect down the adjacent alley and tackles him, the stack of old tires that cushions their fall is clearly made up of modern, low-profile radial tires, including one 60-series sports tire in the center background that's so low and wide that it's standing up all by itself.
  
  
• Continuity: When Bucky is shot at, the bullet puts a hole through a windshield of the car. In the next shot, the bullet hole is gone.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In the diner scene the cash register shows a purchase of 4d which was the British symbol for pence, not something you're likely to see in LA.
  
  
• Anachronisms: At the beginning of the movie, Bleickert hands his father a model and says "C'mon Dad, you haven't finished this model yet." From the shape of the wings it is clearly a P-47 Thunderbolt, but the shape of the fuselage shows that it is the later 'bubble canopy' model P-47 G or H, which did not fly until late 1944. The Zoot Suit Riots, shown just before that scene, were in 1942-43.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Seeing Madeleine for the first time, Bucky observes that she is not the first Dahlia "wannabe" he's seen, but she is the best. The word "wannabe" did not come into usage until the mid 1980s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: A character uses the phrase "back in the day," which didn't come into usage until the early 1980s.
  
  
• Continuity: In the Linscott house, before Bleichert shoots the head off the statue, he cocks his revolver twice.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ramona Linscott pantomimes the clown's smile, she uses her index fingers. The next time she's shown, she is using her right index and left middle fingers.
  
  
• Continuity: Bleichert draws down on Bobby Dewitt, cocking his revolver for emphasis. In the following shots, however, his thumb is still on the uncocked hammer, as if he has yet to cock it.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ramona Linscott thrusts her utensils into her food, a small potato rolls onto the table and stops beside a glass. In later shots, the food has changed position and the wayward potato has disappeared.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In a voice-over describing attacks, one detective uses the phrase "senior citizens." That term was not coined until ca. 1955, and was certainly not part of common usage until the early 1970s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Handcuffs never had belt attached cases back in the 40's; they simply hung on the officer's belt. The cases used to carry them were introduced in 1960, and they were introduced in California before being used by police officers nationwide.
  
  
• Factual errors: Characters who knew Elizabeth Short refer to her as 'Betty' constantly. Though Elizabeth was known during her childhood as Betty by family and friends, she preferred to be called 'Beth' and nobody who knew her in Los Angeles knew her as Betty. It's unlikely that they would refer to her by this name.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Bucky finds the money under the floor in the bathroom, the bills are federal reserve notes. Until 1964, bills were silver certificates.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During Bucky and Lee's stakeout, a red and white 1960's-style caravan appears behind a fence.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During the pigeon-shooting sequence outside hotel near beginning of film, the Dr. Pepper logo stenciled on wooden crate is a latter day Seventies typeface not introduced until years after the 1940's, when the scene is set.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During the scene in the park when Bucky arrests the woman, in the first shot of the ice cream truck in the upper left corner is a 1980's white pickup truck, which is masked out in subsequent similar shots.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Elizabeth says she was engaged to an Air Force captain that was killed in WWII. However, the USAF was not formed until 1947. During the war, it was the Army Air Corps.
  
  
• Continuity: Position of Kay's hand changes between Dwight's neck and tie when she meets him in the doorway.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In a scene after the shooting at Nash's, when Lee is smoking a cigarette, the usage of a split field lens is visible.
  
  

• Continuity: SPOILER: When the coroner points out the laceration in Elizabeth Short's hand, he picks up her right hand. Later in the movie, her left hand is lacerated.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: Madeleine's eyes clamp shut just as Bucky shoots her, as if she knew it was coming. Her eyes are open in the next shot where she is lying dead on the floor.
  
  
• Plot holes: SPOILER: Elizabeth's friend, who acted with her in the lesbian movie just before Elizabeth died, has a fully developed copy of the movie. How did she get the undeveloped film? When did she get it? And if she had no money, how did she get it developed?
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: When Ramona Linscott is telling the story of how she murdered Elizabeth Short, Elizabeth's left hand did not have a wound at all before or after her death.
  
  

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