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Goofs for
"Columbo" Double Exposure (1973)


  • Continuity: When Columbo arrives at a back office with monitors, he's being tracked by a videocamera. He arrives and sees himself live on the monitor, filmed from behind. What he sees doesn't match with his actual position, judging by a hand resting against a wall.

  • Miscellaneous: Columbo had those photos of himself shot to splice them into the 35mm movie print, to lure out the murderer. The photos taken are 35mm slides (he shows them framed) and Columbo only stated that he had them processed and spliced into the film. Problem: Those slides would have to be converted into 35mm cine film frames. 35mm cine film runs vertical as opposed to the horizontal stills camera film. So the slides had to be rotated 90 degrees, reduced in size, the edges chopped to fit into the standard 35mm full frame "academy" aspect ratio (the movie shown was not wide-screen but rather "academy", similar to standard 16mm or Super8mm. In the 1970s, test screenings used a mechanically linked soundtrack (either 35mm or 17.5mm with 35mm sprocket holes, as opposed to the final optical (or magnetical) soundtrack-on-film, so the soundtrack and in-sync wouldn't be affected by the splice as long as no frames are missing. This all takes place in LA where all kinds of specialized labs are, but still, this is a very complex procedure involving highly specialized optical step printer facilities. Can't find those in a matter of hours, not even in LA.

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  • Plot holes: SPOILER: Since Keppel had to make the reel change at the Magnolia Theatre at 7:30 PM, he could not possibly have joined Columbo at the Keppel Institute's cutting room at 7:30 PM. Columbo's conclusion that killing the projectionist during the first reel would have given Keppel plenty of time to move from one place to the other is wrong.


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