Jack Benny's cameo role was originally offered to Stan Laurel, but Laurel turned it down. When his best friend and partner Oliver Hardy died in 1957, he pledged never to perform again. He kept that promise for the rest of his life. By the time this happened, a long shot of the character had already been filmed with a stand-in wearing Laurel's trademark bowler hat. This is why Benny is seen wearing a bowler hat despite never having worn one as part of his regular work.

When this film was made, there were about 100 stunt performers in the United States. About 80 of them worked on this film.

The scene where Melville accidentally knocks the blowtorch into the stairs with the sledgehammer took 86 takes to get just right.

Peter Falk improvised much of his dialog in the cab scene.

For the intermission of the premiere engagement at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, the filmmakers recorded messages supposedly sent over police radios describing what was happening to various characters. These messages were played not only in the auditorium during the intermission but at the concession stand and even in the restrooms.

Continuity

Pike and Sylvester are the last two digging up the money, but some shots of the crowd show Pike standing with them and looking down on himself digging the hole.

The wings of the Beech 18 change color between red and blue several times.

When the suitcase opens at the top of the fire ladder, all the money bills flutter all over the place, however when we see the money in the suitcase to begin with, it was all bundled. It's unlikely that all the paper bands would have snapped apart to make way for the loose bills.

Right after the firefighter on rescue ladder yells "One at a time!", the fire escape platform breaks free and Sylvester is clearly seen almost falling off. The next shot shows Sylvester standing in the middle of the crowd on the platform.

In the far shot of Colonel Wilberforce falling off the air traffic control tower, we see the microphone he was holding dangling about a yard below him. But in the close-up he is holding it again.



Factual errors

The police units (including Capt. Culpepper's black '62 Dodge) have private license plates on them (a year sticker is visible). They should have an "E" circumscribed by an octagon preceding six numerals (no letters). No year sticker for exempt plates on publicly-owned vehicles, such as police cars.

Palm trees the size shown grow at a rate of 1 to 3 feet a year, and fifteen years earlier would not have formed the same shape as shown.

As Meyer drives the man down the dirt road to the man's shack, his car hits a rock and the car gushes a trail of oil. Yet Meyer is still able to operate the car.

$350,000 in $100 bills would be 35 piles of 100 bills each. If it was assumed all $100 bills, 5 layers of 15 stacks, the result would be $750,000.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

When the Sgt. is updating Culpepper on the characters' progress, he mentions the Crumps set off the fireworks in the hardware store's basement. There is no way he could have known that. However, various units are keeping the people under surveillance and during the police radio calls played during the movie's intermission, it's expressly stated that the cops can hear what is happening via an air vent. Hence, they would have heard the fireworks and called it in.

In the State of California, broken white lines and, solid yellow lines were used on state highways until 1970, when the State Highway Commission (aka Caltrans) mandated yellow broken lines. Sometimes on roads with county maintenance, a solid white line denoted 'no passing', until yellow lines were mandated by the NHTSA in all states, in the 1970s for all highways.

In the final scene at the gas station, Pike backs up the truck into the water tower that falls on another structure. This structure is not the restroom destroyed earlier as the original poster believed. The restroom was located directly behind the garage and had a corrugated tin roof that sloped forwards. The structure destroyed by the falling water tower is a storage shed located to the side of the garage and had a wooden roof that sloped backwards.

When the Sgt. is updating Culpepper on the characters' progress, he mentions the pilot of the plane Ben and Dingy are in (Fitzgerald) has been knocked out, and the Rancho Conejo Control Tower is trying to talk Ben and Dingy down. There is no way he could know that. The cops know Dingy and Benji are in the plane and monitoring radio transmissions. As this was obviously an emergency, the cops would be aware of the situation.

When Culpepper leaves the park, at the bottom of the famous "California Incline" road, he turns right onto Pacific Coast Highway. The ocean can be seen to his left, meaning he's traveling north, and thus away from Mexico. This is not a goof; at this point in the story, he's not yet headed to Mexico, but rather to pick up Jimmy (Buster Keaton). After the meeting with Jimmy, when Culpepper makes his mad dash for the border, he's shown retracing his path in the opposite direction.



Revealing mistakes

When Pike destroys the restrooms to get at Ray and Irwin, it's clear neither restroom has a toilet stall or a sink.

The actions of the dogs with Culpepper are "looped", repeated forwards and backwards exactly.

When the migrant couple on their way to California are run off the road, as their truck careens down the side of the steep gully, a safety restraint attached to the rear tow hitch is clearly visible. It is also obvious the furniture in the back of their truck is being launched by pneumatic or spring-loaded mechanisms.

When Melville is driving the forklift into the storeroom, the stunt double is clearly visible driving.

When the cab driver lands in the arms of Abraham Lincoln, you can see that the hands are rubber.



Anachronisms

A closer inspection of the money as the suitcase is opened are $100 Federal Reserve Notes. As revealed in close-up, it shows them to be Series 1950, or possibly later. Since the movie takes place in 1963, and Smiler Grogan claims the money has been buried "15 years", the bills should have been older than 1950 (i.e., series 1934, which look different).

On the 2003 DVD's copyright bumper, the copyright date shown on the screen is ?2004.



Audio/visual unsynchronised

When Otto Meyer and the little kid drive down the steep hill, you briefly hear a car tire skidding on pavement.

Nobody keys the radio microphones correctly. In the beginning, when the cop reports the group pulled over to the side of the road, the other party speaks before the mic key is released.

After they found the money and left the park, the cabs pull over to see what Culpepper is doing. In the shot of Culpepper sitting at the stop sign, you can see everyone standing outside the cabs already before they actually get out.

The horn of Grogan's car at the beginning of the film has a Doppler effect, i.e., the pitch dropping after the car passes another vehicle. This is how someone in the passed vehicle would hear it, but the viewer is seeing the scene from far enough above that there would be only a constant pitch.



Crew or equipment visible

The film crew is reflected in the side of the car when Culpeper leaves the police station.

When Lennie pulls Ray or Irwin (stunt double) down from the ceiling, it soon collapses, exposing the crane and tether holding it up.

When Pike is destroying the garage, at one point Ray is hanging from a ceiling beam and Pike grabs his legs to pull him down. As he comes down the roof caves in revealing a crane with the ball and cable swaying from the action.

When Otto Meyer starts to drive his car across the river as the little boy guides him, the shadow of the camera can be seen on the side of the car as he drives by it.

When everyone is driving away from Smiler's accident, the camera and crew are reflected in the door as Pike gets out of his truck.



Errors in geography

When the cars are said to be turning south (right), they actually turn left.



Plot holes

When the Sgt. is updating Culpepper on the characters' progress, he mentions Sylvester, Hawthorne, and Meyer. But since all three of them became involved after the events were set into motion, there is no way the police could have known about them yet. Tracking them all, the police could know the names Sylvester, Hawthorne, and Meyer from their cars' numbers, as they've done with the initial strangers.

When Pike arrives at Santa Rosita, he says "yep, that's his car" in reference to Meyer. Though the powder blue convertible car belonged to the Nervous Motorist, Meyer was driving it when he passed Pike and the others in the tow-truck. [In other words Pike would have known the car had been driven by Meyer because Pike nearly fell out of the tow-truck screaming at Meyer when he sped by.]

When Pike arrives at Santa Rosita Park in the pick-up truck with the Marcus-Finch party, he is particularly seeking Mr. Meyer. When they pull up next to the pale-blue convertible that Meyer stole from Nervous Motorist. Pike says, "That's his car!" but he could not have known this as Meyer stole the car long after he parted company with Pike.

When Mrs. Marcus and the rest finally catch up with Sylvester, he says, "you mean it's true about the money being buried?" However, he would have no way of knowing it was buried, since earlier when Mrs. Marcus is trying to tell him about it, he isn't listening to her, and even if he were, she never told him it was buried.

With his dying breaths, Smiler Grogan takes great pains to explain where the money is located and it is obvious he intends for the group to find it. However, for some unexplained reason, his final instruction to look under a big "w" (repeated multiple times), is cryptic and vague, causing some confusion and in no way guaranteeing that anyone would find it. If he truly wanted the money to be found he could have easily told them to look in the park for some palm trees in the shape of a "w".



Character error

At the scene towards the end of the movie where Culpeper and the other two police cars meet at the beachfront, Culpeper tells the others he wants to handle it on his own. The other two police cars then reverse out and proceed straight through a red light.

When the group is trying to decide how to split the money, Melville says that Ding and Benjy get $97,000. 97 is not a multiple of 14, so they shouldn't get that much. They should get 98,000 because 98 is a multiple of 14, but 97 isn't.

Although both Emmeline's husband Russell and her mother Mrs. Marcus pronounce her name "Emma-line", her brother Sylvester pronounces it "Emma-leen" when talking with his mother on the phone.

Pike refers to the bike he has to ride as being for "a little girl," and while the bike's step-through feature would intend it for female riders, it's size would be much too big for a "little girl," but rather a teenager or woman.