Goofs for
The Sting (1973) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: In the brothel, Snyder starts moving twice after he refuses the drink.
  
  
• Continuity: In the warehouse, Agent Polk leans forward twice to talk to Johnny.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The 43rd Street 'L' platform shows "A" and "B" stops, not introduced until WWII, and employs the Helvetica typeface, designed in 1957.
  
  

• Anachronisms: The hundred dollar bills shown in the suit case were modern Federal Reserve Notes (with a 2-line legal tender notice and no on-demand clause), which were not printed until 1963.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In most every scene in the diner, ketchup bottles can be seen with "lug" type caps that were not invented until the late 1960s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: There's a double yellow line in the street outside the merry-go-round, just after Hooker arrives in Chicago.
  
  
• Anachronisms: As Hooker flees Snyder under the El, a modern car and box truck can be seen in the distance ahead.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Just before hooker meets Billie, the camera crew is reflected in a passing vehicle.
  
  
• Continuity: When Lonnegan receives the first call, the outside shots of the drugstore show radically different sunlight. Hours have passed instead of just one minute in the narrative.
  
  
• Continuity: When Snyder chases Hooker at the 'L' station, the weather changes from bright sunny to overcast in an instant when they reach the platform.
  
  
• Continuity: When getting shot, Salino's right hand changes from being at the side in the long shot and reaching for the gun in the close-up.
  
  
• Continuity: Radically changing shadows throughout the scene where Hooker and Coleman fools the courier.
  
  
• Continuity: When Gondorff is sobered up, his hair, position and the state of his soaked pants change between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: The person that manipulates the cards on the train has noticeably longer nails than Henry. (See Trivia)
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Beer bottles that the waitress serves at the poker game are empty.
  
  
• Continuity: When Hooker gets in the car with Lonigan and his torpedo to go to the Western Union office, he gives 110 South Wabash as the address. They pull up to the office and the address is 118, not 110.
  
  
• Continuity: After Synder smashes his gun through the phone booth and hits Hooker on the side of the face, Hooker's hat falls off to the right and Hooker's traps the hat between his head and the inside wall of the booth. In the next shot, Hooker is wearing his hat as if it never fell off.
  
  
• Continuity: When Lonnegan goes into the drug store, the "penny scale" to the right of the door shifts to the opposite side when Lonnegan leaves to place his wager.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the second test of the wire system, they choose to bet on Wrecking Crew who is getting off at odds of 3-1. After the race they announce that he paid $6 to win. However, in real paramutuel betting, a 3-1 winner would pay at least $8 for a $2 bet; $6 for the wager plus you get the original $2 bet back.
  
  
• Continuity: During the scene in the alley where Hooker, Luther and Erie Kid are playing a con on Mottola, Hooker is "fighting" with Erie Kid while Mottola watches. Mottola's hat falls off his head to the ground, but in the next shot, his hat is back on his head.
  
  
• Continuity: During the poker game, the jacket on top of the seat behind Floyd changes between close-ups and long shots.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Even though Clemens calls the poker game as "table stakes" Lonnegan goes to the bank for more money in the final hand. Clemens is not one to challenge a man such as Lonnegan over a breach of etiquette though.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Regarding the money that Hooker and Luther switch away from Motola. When Hooker goes to open the envelope in the alley, it is not sealed. It was sealed by Granger in the office before being given to Motola.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the bathroom scene Hooker can be seen saying "He didn't tell me you was a fuck-up either". This has been looped to replace it with the less profane "He didn't tell me you was a screw-up either". (The grammar error is scripted).
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the scene where the banker is ordering props for the betting parlor, the prop salesman's sentence "If you want a counter and bar..." is obviously dubbed over. His mouth is completely off.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Hooker wakes up in Loretta's apartment, the scar on Redford's temple is peeling off.
  
  
• Factual errors: The poker scene takes place aboard the 20th Century Limited, a luxury train that ran between New York and Chicago from 1902 to 1967. Arrival times in Chicago varied over the years, but they usually were between about 7 and 9 a.m. The train would not be arriving in Chicago in what appears to be the middle of the night, as happens in "The Sting."
  
  
• Anachronisms: The deck of cards Henry uses when showing Johnny his shuffling ability were the 1970s-style Bicycle brand cards that would not have been available in the 1930s.
  
  

• Crew or equipment visible: SPOILER: When Cole chases Hooker into the dead-end alley and is subsequently killed by Salino, the trigger for the squib can be seen in the actor's left hand. You can also see how he uses his thumb to operate it.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: In the scene where Salino is killed, the weapon she was going to use is a revolver with a silencer. Since the cylinder of a revolver does seal against the frame of the gun, a large amount of gas escapes and render the silencer mostly useless. Anyone looking to minimize noise would not use a revolver.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: In the scene where Salino is killed, it is very noticeable that the bloody "bullet hole" which appears on her forehead is actually paint being squirted by someone standing beside her.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: In the alley, before Salino kills Cole, we very clearly hear male footsteps which is designed to make the audience think that Salino is a man. But as we saw earlier in the bathroom scene, Salino is wearing high heels.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: SPOILER: In the scene where Salino is killed, as the gloved man runs toward Hooker, someone appears on a rooftop in the background and witnesses the murder scene.
  
  

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