Goofs

The ladder in the library disappears and reappears throughout the movie, as do the pots on the stove in the Kitchen.

When Yvette, Mr. Green, Wadsworth and Mrs. White collide on the second floor landing, Yvette and Mrs. White and wearing high heels. When they are running down the stairs, they are wearing flats. When the action resumes at the bottom of the stairs, they are wearing heels again.

When Mr. Green is at the door, and although it's raining hard, Mr. Green isn't wet when he goes inside and he isn't carrying an umbrella.

When Wadsworth asks the ladies to open their purses at the climax of one of the three endings all are empty. Women don't carry empty handbags. In addition, Miss Scarlet is seen taking her cigarette case from her bag, so it at least should be inside.

While the glass didn't actually shatter when Mrs. Peacock dropped it, it disappears when Mr. Green takes Mrs. Peacock over to the couch.

In the last solution (see trivia entry) it is said that Prof. Plum killed Mr. Boddy/Wadsworth, however, when Mr. Boddy was supposedly killed, everyone ended up in the kitchen except for Yvette. But he was absent for about three minutes, which gave him time to do the murder.

One ending includes a reference to Perry Mason. While the TV series (Perry Mason (1957)) did not start until after the setting of the movie; the radio series, books, and movies featuring Warren William existed and were quite popular.

In the third ending, Wadsworth (in a voice over) speaks of Col. Mustard splitting up with Miss Scarlet prior to killing the motorist. The visuals show Col. Mustard engaged in an argument with Mrs. Peacock. This was to illustrate the part where Col. Mustard suggests they split up into pairs.

During the first ending, Wadsworth mimics Mrs. Peacock screaming about the poisoned brandy, shaking the glass violently and throwing it to the ground, whereas in reality all she did was drop the glass and start screaming. This scene is not a flashback, it is a reenactment which is prone to exaggeration and memory error.

Col. Mustard said that he stole essential Air Force parts during World War II. The Air Force became a separate branch of the military in 1947, two years after the end of WWII. During WWII, what became the Air Force was first known as the Army Air Corps, and then, the Army Air Forces. However, the branch was already informally known as the Air Force during the war, as they had established many of their own customs and identity to separate themselves from the traditional ground warfare branch of the Army.

After Col. Mustard and Miss Scarlet leave the lounge, one of the chandeliers crashes down from the ceiling in the hallway, yet the light level in the hallway never changes. This happens once again in the ending in which Ms. Scarlet is the killer, another chandelier in the hallway crashes down from the ceiling, yet the light levels in the hallway never change. The last chandelier was visibly on when Wadsworth shoots it.

The stunt double for Mr Green is noticeable during scene with the pileup on the landing; his hair is a lighter shade of blond than Michael McKean's.

Wadsworth tells the guests that their conversation is being recorded, but when Yvette is listening in the billiard room there is no microphone or other input connected to the tape recorder.

When Wadsworth is shouting "I'm shouting! I'm shouting!" and the candlestick falls off a door frame and hits him, the pin that pops out of the wall to knock the candlestick down is visible disappearing back into the wall.

When Miss Scarlet and Prof. Plum are at the door, they never ring the bell. But Wadsworth goes to the door to greet them anyway.

When Colonel Mustard suggests that everyone splits up, Professor Plum says if they go into pairs, one person will be left with a killer and Colonel Mustard replies saying the murderer would have to be murder victim's partner. Yvette and Mr. Green were partners, yet when Yvette is killed, no-one assumed it was Mr. Green.

In the "they all did it" ending, Wadsworth tells Mrs. White that while he was in the master bedroom, Mrs. White went downstairs, turned off the power, took the rope and then killed Yvette. This is highly impossible because when the power went out, Mrs. White was still upstairs, screaming continuously for help because she couldn't see anything and when Yvette went into the billiard room, the killer was already inside waiting for her.

When the guests are questioning Mrs. Peacock in the kitchen about when she dropped the knife in the study, she says "I don't know. Before I fainted, after I fainted, I don't know." However, Mrs. Peacock doesn't actually faint until later, when she encounters Mr. Boddy's body in the bathroom. On the other hand, this could have been a slip up by Mrs. Peacock, as she may have been planning to pretend to faint after "accidentally" coming upon Mr. Boddy's body in the bathroom, as indicated by one of the possible endings where Mrs. Peacock was the murderer.

During the cop's tour with Mr. Green, he inquires about what's going on in 'those two rooms.' When he does enter the first room, the first shot is of the record player, playing the song 'Sh-Boom' by The Crew Cuts (recorded/released 1954). The record on the record player is a Decca Records recording (label design is 1940s; 1950s label was different); the Crew Cuts were under contract to Mercury Records.

The house has a series of secret passageways linking the kitchen to the study, and the parlor to the conservatory at different compass points in the house. Not only would these passageways have to intersect in the basement and allow access to all four points at once, but the distance and access wouldn't have allowed the guests to pass through the house as efficiently as on the main floor.

Mrs. Peacock uses the word beatnik. This word only became common after the launch of Sputnik in 1957. The story takes place in 1954.

A caption at the beginning of the film states that it takes place in 1954. When Wadsworth informs the guests that their conversation is being recorded, the tape recorder shown is an Ampex 602 which was not available until the early 1960s.

The lounge, dining room and kitchen side of the house all have windows, but the exterior shots of the house imply there should more rooms beyond the wall.

Miss Scarlet's hairstyle is not at all indicative of women's hairstyles in 1954 (reference Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly and Donna Reed). Given the character's business and stature, image is extremely important, her hair would have been styled to the latest trends. The relaxed and tousled hairstyle was a popular style of the mid 1980's.

The exterior of the mansion doesn't match in different scenes.When Wadsworth drives up the driveway at the start, there seems to be a large tower rising above the rear of the main part of the house. However, when Miss Scarlett and Professor Plum are arriving, the tower has been converted to a shorter one and a large tower is now located on the left side wing and the chimney has changed position.

When everyone gangs up on Mr. Boddy.

At the beginning of the movie when Wadsworth drives up to the mansion, he drives in front of gargoyles which appear in front of him not behind due to a green screen mistake.

In the 1+1+2+1 etc scene, a large cardboard sheet can be seen at the bottom of the screen, on the hall floor. This is only visible on the Fullscreen VHS version of the film, which is presented with the widescreen mattes that were intended to hide the sheet removed.

A cop vehicle drives past in the rain, heading towards the house and passes a broken down vehicle. As it passes, there is a shadow of an arm that appears on the broken down vehicle. This actually occurs twice.

In the final ending, when Mrs White is throttling Yvette in the billiard room with the rope, you can clearly see the free end of the rope is held at a straight angle, and is being held by a member of the crew who then drops it. In the first ending, when Miss Scarlett is strangling Yvette, you do not see any crew and the free end of the rope is hanging down on the floor, as it would be in real life.

When Mrs. Peacock turns on the lights in the cellar and runs down, a modern pole for lighting or sound equipment can be seen on the left edge of the screen.

In the third solution, Wadsworth goes up the stairs with Miss White, and she trips and lands on the stairs while Wadsworth walks on and tells how Yvette was killed. As he does, a flashback is shown of how that happened and when Wadsworth has told how Yvette was killed, all of a sudden he stands in front of the door to the billiard room.

When Mr. Boddy instructs the guests to murder Wadsworth in the study, he turns off the lights and the room is henceforth plunged into complete darkness. A gunshot is heard, and when the lights are switched back on, Mr. Boddy is apparently dead, resulting in confusion over how he was killed (the bullet only grazed his ear), and who tried to shoot him. None of this would have been possible considering the fire burning in the fireplace would have sufficiently illuminated the entire room.

After Mr. Boddy shuts off the lights in the study, two loud thumps and a person groaning are heard before the gunshot goes off. This would suggest that someone was using one of the bludgeoning weapons (candlestick/pipe/wrench) before the shot was fired, but these sounds remained unexplained for the rest of the film.

Front door is locked when Mr. Body tries to escape, yet they later appear unlocked. It is never explained how they got unlocked.

According to the final ending it was Wadsworth's plan was to invite all the guests to the house in order to kill off all of his informants, but if that was so then he should have realized his plan had failed the moment he killed the singing-telegram girl, thereby leaving Mr. Green completely innocent.

After opening the doors to the lounge to let Col. Mustard and Miss Scarlet out Mrs. White says "How did you get in the doors were locked?" After this line, for the remainder of the scene, on the left side of the wall beside the chair the reflection of a crew member and the boom mic pole can be seen moving around.

When Yvette is showing everyone the open cupboard, a boom mic is reflected on the left side of the cupboard.

When Wadsworth is re-enacting Colonel Mustard's arrival at the mansion in high speed, a microphone is visible at the bottom of the screen. This is only visible in the Fullscreen version of the film, which has an incorrect "open matte" transfer.

When Wadsworth begins recounting the events of the evening he says, "I introduced Colonel Mustard to Mrs. White" but he never actually did. Colonel Mustard was pushed behind the door when it was opened, and Wadsworth only introduced Yvette and Mrs. White, noticing that they seemed to know each other already (they visibly flinched). Mrs. White and Colonel Mustard only said hello to each other after that when they saw each other.

During the re-enactment, Wadsworth tells Col. Mustard: "Yvette met you, and smiled, and poured you a drink." Yvette never noticeably smiled at Mustard when this event took place.

In Mrs. Peacock's ending, the FBI chief calls her "Mrs. Peacock" and she responds "how did you know my name?" even though the film established that "Mrs. Peacock" was not really her name.

(possibly deliberate by filmmakers) Differences in the actual events and the way the flashbacks depict them can be explained as differences in the way Wadsworth remembered them happening. For example; when accusing Mrs. Peacock of murder, he will imply her reaction to the (thought to be ) poisoned brandy (see entry above) was overreacting in order to destroy her credibility.

When the singing telegram girl is shot dead, her body motions as if she had passed out rather than fling backwards like someone normally would when shot dead.