Near the beginning of the movie, when Uncle Ben is seen twice with his buckboard, his name is painted on the seat back as "McCandles". The end credits spell it "McCanles".
After Bowdre's whipping at the prison camp, Max runs into the water to save him from drowning. Max turns Bowdre onto his back so his face is up, out of the water; in the next shot, which is just a second later, Max pulls a face-down Bowdre out of the water by his feet.
When Max is wrestling with Jesse in the corral, they are on the same side of the fence. In the next shot, they are on different sides of the fence.
When he walks into the saloon in Abilene, Max is wearing blue jeans, which were not invented until 1890. Until then denim was used in overalls.
Prior to Levi Strauss' patent for copper riveted jeans in 1873, the term "blue jeans" had long been used for garments constructed from blue-colored denim.
Prior to Levi Strauss' patent for copper riveted jeans in 1873, the term "blue jeans" had long been used for garments constructed from blue-colored denim.
Despite having purchased a McGuffey Reader at the store, Max, being unable to read the instructions, would still not be able to learn anything from it. McGuffeys were textbooks meant to be used with an instructor, or tutor.
Which is how he used it, when Neesa Janet Margolin tutored him, teaching him to read.
Which is how he used it, when Neesa Janet Margolin tutored him, teaching him to read.
When Max Sand (pretending to be Tom Fitch) gets busted out of prison by Fitch's buddies, he climbs out of the busted jail window with his gunbelt on. If he was in a jail cell, he wouldn't have had his gunbelt with him.
Why ever not? Jails then were quite different from those of today, with different standards. They had his pistol, the gunbelt is mostly harmless - it wasn't like he was going to whittle a gun out of balsa wood.
Why ever not? Jails then were quite different from those of today, with different standards. They had his pistol, the gunbelt is mostly harmless - it wasn't like he was going to whittle a gun out of balsa wood.
Steve McQueen is clearly far too old to be a teenager at the beginning of the movie.
Actors frequently play characters outside their own age range. Steve McQueen, for instance, played a teenager in The Blob (1958) at almost 30 years of age.
Actors frequently play characters outside their own age range. Steve McQueen, for instance, played a teenager in The Blob (1958) at almost 30 years of age.
After waking up on the pool table, Smith is standing at the bar with his gun belt on his shoulder. In the next shot he has it strapped on.
After Max drew on Jonas and Jonas dropped the whiskey (0:30:50), there were an awkward scene cuts involving the bottle, his pistol and which hand he was using.
After waking up on the pool table Smith orders a drink at the bar. When the bartender pours the drink Smith puts his hand on the glass. In next shot Smith reaches to pick up the glass.
The scene in the swamp where the inmates are hauling logs out of the water shows Max on a welded steel barge. Welded steel barges weren't constructed until the advent of electric arc welding in the 1930s, and didn't appear in general use until World War II. The barge should have been a wood-hulled barge instead of welded steel.
When the cowboys are herding cattle at the ranch/rail yard, there are several modern box cars in the background. They are of steel construction with modern US Department of Transportation identification codes that did not exist during the era depicted by this film.
A version of the California state flag, not adopted by the state legislature until 1911, is flying with a US flag in the small gold mining town where Smith is arrested.
When Smith meets Jonas, he's asked to show his shooting skills. Smith holds the revolver in the "Weaver Stance" grip. This two-handed grip wasn't used at the time as it was developed in 1959.
When Max and Cord are splitting up, there is a cattle pen in the background. The pen has a loading chute for a semi trailer. The need for such a chute is years away.
When Martin Landau swings the chair at Steve McQueen as he enters the saloon bedroom, you can plainly see that a piece of plexiglas is in the door frame to protect McQueen.
Trivia entry says it was "a barrier of thick bulletproof glass".
Trivia entry says it was "a barrier of thick bulletproof glass".
As the three outlaws ride off after dragging Max down the river, they pass close enough to the camera that the horses splash water, which slowly drips down, revealing the presence of the lens.
Nevada Smith is working cattle at the railhead in Abilene, Kansas, and during that scene, snow-capped mountains are visible in the background. There are no mountains in Kansas.
It's actually Abilene, Texas. But it doesn't matter because snow-capped mountains are not visible from that Abilene, either.
It's actually Abilene, Texas. But it doesn't matter because snow-capped mountains are not visible from that Abilene, either.