Goofs for
Kelly's Heroes (1970) More at IMDbPro »

• Revealing mistakes: When Kelly and the guys pick up the boxes of gold at the in the bank, the boxes appear to weigh nothing at all. The boxes can be seen being tossed around as if they were empty.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the Tiger is shooting up the city at the end there is a clear gap in time between the sound of the cannon and the actual explosion. At that distance of next to nothing it would have been almost simultaneous.
  
  
• Continuity: The scene where the squad attacks the Germans at the mine field Kelly is carrying an M1A1 Thompson submachine gun that is different shot to shot. One has rear sight guards and the other doesn't
  
  

• Factual errors: The German said there were 14,000 gold bars. Crapgame says that's "$16 million". When Kelly breaks open the box, it appears there are 12 bars per box (three wide, stacked four high) As they load it Crapgame says the 12 remaining men get 125 boxes, at $8,400 a box, totaling $10.5 million. But it's $84,000 per box. Also, at 12 bars per box, 125 boxes is only 1,500 bars. The errors go on from there (the boxes should weigh 146 lbs each) even if the value is about right for 200 troy ounce bars of gold.
  
  
• Factual errors: Near the end of the movie when Crapgame asks Fisher to compute the amount of gold left if there are 125 boxes left each containing $8,400. The reply is $10,500,000. This is incorrect this would total $1,050,000. For 125 boxes to total $10,500,000, each box would have to contain $84,000.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Kelly and the others go through the town/village at the crossroads and are firing their Thompson machine guns, in several cases there's sound coming from them but no rounds or fire from the barrel.
  
  
• Factual errors: The number and type of mortars used for the bombardment on the crossroads would not cause the amount of damage depicted.
  
  
• Continuity: speaker: When we first see Oddball's tank, it's on the right-hand side of the tank. In every other shot later on, its on the left side. The dents come and go from the bell of the speaker horn as well.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: German tanks of WWII indeed had hydraulic turrets, but no diesel engines. There were only some prototypes with diesel engines.
  
  
• Continuity: When fighting the Germans at the mine field, you can't hear Kelly's voice over the gunfire but Big Joe's is perfectly clear.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The typefaces used in the "liberation" signs for the town weren't available until the late 1950s.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Oddball's hair style and beard are non-regulation for the era. But he's not real big on following regulations, and those are the least of his infractions.
  
  
• Plot holes: Big Joe drives off to try and get some "dirty movies" to entertain the men. He returns with a chaplain, goes inside, and gets distracted by other developments. No further mention is made of the chaplain sitting outside, presumably needing a ride back to HQ.
  
  
• Continuity: When Oddball's Sherman is in the alley behind the second Tiger tank, Kelly fires the Sherman's machine gun at the Tiger to keep the crew inside. The amount of ammunition in the feeder box of the machine gun increases/decreases between shots.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Camera shadow visible on men as they walk out of mine field.
  
  
• Continuity: When Kelly goes to see Mulligan to arrange the artillery bombardment on the crossroads, he is carrying the bottle of whiskey that Crapgame gives him a few scenes later.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: One of the German soldiers that disembarks from the truck during the minefield sequence appeared earlier as one of the soldiers atop the train during the train station sequence.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The sniper rifle used in the church bell tower is a Russian made Mosin Nagant 91/30 with a 3.5X power side mounted telescope, which is correct for the rifle and time period. However, the rifle fires Russian ammunition, in a caliber unique to the Russian military, which would not have been available to U.S. soldiers in WWII. The 91/30 sniper rifles were however imported in great quantity after World War II by many U.S. importers, and would have been readily available to serve as props in movie making. New England Firearms and Remington Arms, both U.S. companies, fulfilled U.S. contracts to produce approximately 2.8 Million 91/30 rifles after WWI. Both Remington and Winchester produced ammunition for these rifles. While it is highly unlikely that a U.S. soldier would use a 91/30, it was possible. However, no U.S. company made any PU scopes. The acquisition of some of these rifles was possible by U.S. troops in the ETO at the time.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In Crapgame's supply tent, there is a box of Almond Joy candy bars. This movie is (obviously) set in World War II and the Almond Joy candy bar was not introduced until 1946.
  
  
• Continuity: At the beginning of the movie, when Kelly drives the jeep through enemy lines, there is a hole in the back of the canvas. Shortly afterwards, there is no hole.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: Cowboy's words do not match what his mouth is apparently saying when he crashes through the wall in the beginning as the Germans are approaching.
  
  
• Continuity: The 50cal MG on the half-track changes throughout the film. It's shown at some points to have a perforated barrel jacket (like on an M1919A4 30Cal), and then at other times seen to have a normal barrel
  
  
• Continuity: While Kelly is driving around in the jeep, the ammunition belt hanging from the Browning .30 changes length from shot to shot.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The song Oddball plays during the tank attack on the railway yard ("All for the Love of Sunshine") was not written until 1970.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Many of the girls in the celebration crowds are wearing short skirts and leather boots, a fashion combination that wasn't in vogue until 1970.
  
  
• Continuity: At the initial meeting with Oddball, Kelly walks outside to inspect his tank. Oddball's name tag chain clip alternates when he is inside to when he goes outside.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In the scene played in the railway station you can read "JZ" on the side of a train. JZ means Jugoslovanske Zelenznice (Jugolavian railways).
  
  
• Continuity: In the openings scene, when Kelly is driving his Jeep through the bombshelled field, the top of his Jeep appears and disappears between inside and outside shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Kelly, Big Joe, Oddball, and the German Tank Commander enter through the blown up bank door, the other soldiers pour in from adjoining rooms. The front door was supposedly the only entrance into the bank and one of the reasons for enlisting the help of the German Tank Commander.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Major General Colt is wearing the ribbon for the National Defence Service Medal (with one service star), which did not exist until 1953 and was first approved for wear for service during the Korean War.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the Sherman first rolls into the back of town, they stop while Kelly scouts ahead. Oddball climbs down the front of the tank and grabs the main gun as he jumps. When he does this the gun barrel moves several inches up and down. This is impossible on a real Sherman (or any other tank).
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: As Kelly and Big Joe retreat across the bridge, leaving the Kraut Colonel behind, rain can be seen spilling off the camera guard.
  
  
• Continuity: When the soldiers are leaving the mine field, one is carrying a .30 Cal machine gun on his shoulder. The end of the barrel is smooth and has a very small hole, indicating it is a Blank Firing Adaptor, used to fire blank rounds. A minute later, Don Rickles exits the mine field, also carrying a .30 Cal. The barrel bushing in this case has a much larger hole and a vertical slot used for disassembling the weapon. This would be the correct bushing for firing live ammo.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Following the retreat from the barn / death of the German Colonel, while the men are resting alongside the convoy, Stuart Margolin's jeep is followed by a Willys M-38 Jeep which wasn't produced until 1950.
  
  
• Factual errors: Several of the people in the town square are waving small German flags.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the final attack scene in the town of Nancy. One of the American soldiers with a red scarf takes position in a window looking out at the German barracks "The Brown Building". When the surprise attack begins he is shooting at German soldiers as they leave the building's doorway. Some of the Germans peel out flat on the street and now the soldier is in a gun fight with automatic weapons. He reloads as bullets hit all around and behind him. What looks like a G.I. 30 caliber BAR light machine gun he is firing is actually a Polish Browning wz.1928 or IMG 28. This is a Polish copy of a American BAR rifle. The give away is the pistol grip and large vent ribs on the barrel. The director did his best to cover this by filming the scene of the soldier with the red neck scarf as if we were looking down the gun's barrel.
  
  
• Factual errors: The sniper rifle used by Pvt Gutowski in the bell tower is a Moisin Nagant 91/30, with the correct PU scope. During several scenes, the view is featured through the scope, showing a graduated full crosshair reticle. PU scopes actually featured a heavy, three-post reticle.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: During the final battle scene where a German tank fires a round at Crapgame, Cowboy and Pvt. Willard, the round knocks debris from an archway as they flee from the tank. Crapgame is knocked unconscious to the ground. The very next scene shows Cowboy and Willard stopping, then turning around to retrieve Crapgame. Pvt. Willard momentarily backs up against what is supposed to be a brick and mortar wall and the wall ripples, obviously constructed of fabric with material painted over it.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: The German "Tiger" tanks shown in the final battle scenes are what appear to be Soviet T-34 tanks that have been modified to appear similar to a real Tiger. The giveaway is the drive gear, which is at the rear on the movie tanks - actual Tigers have a front gear drive. Tigers also have a stacked, alternating bogie wheel arrangement, not the inline bogies of the movie tanks. Only five or six real Tiger Is survived the war, and most of them are inoperable.
  
  
• Continuity: When Kelly pulls back the canvas to reveal the boxes of gold in the bank, a large shard of glass lands on top of one of the boxes. A moment later he lifts the box up in order to drop it, but the shard is gone.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Kelly and the guys ambush the German patrol after leaving the minefield, A grenade is thrown into a group of enemy soldiers firing from across the road. We then see the grenade land, and finally detonate. The problem is that when the grenade explodes, we see the plume of smoke and debris, but we also see that the "can" is dislodged from the ground and visible. When the pyrotechnical experts set a charge for a movie set, it is loaded into a metal or thick cardboard canister and buried just below the surface, and the location carefully marked for the benefit of the actors safety. This separates the explosive compounds from ground moisture and errant spark or flame from filming any action scenes. In this case, the detonation of the charge lifted the can partially out of the ground and into camera range.
  
  
• Continuity: During the battle at the minefield, 2 soldiers were left at the field because there was no time for them to join Kelly and the rest of the troops at the other side of the rock wall. While Kelly and his troops were engaging the enemy in front of them, the two soldiers left at the minefield were also firing their weapons towards the enemy and Kelly's position.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the briefing between General Colt and his aids, when he is informed that the Germans are bringing fuel up to their stranded tank companies, he angrily replies that the Air Force has standing orders to knock out all of the bridges. In reality the General would have stated that those orders were given to the Army Air Corp. The United States Air Force wasn't created until the years immediately following WWII, and up until that point, with the exception of the flying units of the Navy, Marines and Signal Corp, the bulk of equipment, bases and personnel that dealt with flight were simply a part of the United States Army.
  
  

• Continuity: SPOILER: When Pvt. Grace steps on the land mine and flies through the air, his helmet comes off, but when he lands on the ground, his helmet is on.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: When the "Tiger" tank fires its cannon at the door of the bank so the men can get inside, only the door is destroyed - realistically, a high velocity 88mm HE round would have obliterated anything inside, including the stack of gold boxes only a few feet on the other side of the door. Additionally, when Oddball fires the Sherman tanks shell at the tail end of the Tiger tank (even if the shell is merely filled with paint in order to make "pretty pictures"), there would have been significant damage to the Tiger, especially considering that where the shell strikes is simply a thin metal protective covering for the tanks exhaust that runs up the back of the Tiger's exterior. The paint filled shell would also still have had a projectile end, just as a normal shell, or else Oddball would have not made the mistake of loading that instead of a normal high-explosive round.
  
  

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