Before filming the scene where Hannay (Robert Donat) and Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) run through the countryside, Sir Alfred Hitchcock handcuffed them together and pretended for several hours to have lost the key in order to put them in the right frame of mind for such a situation.

The 62 imported sheep, upon arriving at the soundstage, immediately went to work on the bracken and bushes that had been brought with them. The infuriated crew had to replace the plants with ones hastily bought from a local nursery.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock always regarded this as one of his favorite movies.

During a private screening, Sir Alfred Hitchcock asked John Buchan, whose original plot had been used only very loosely, what he thought of the movie so far. Buchan replied: "Fascinating! I wonder how it will end."

In a 1985 interview, Peggy Ashcroft said, "My part took only four days to do. [Sir Alfred Hitchcock was] enormous fun. One laughed a great deal with Hitchcock. I've been told by other people that he wasn't always kind. I found him very kind."

Continuity

The hand firing the pistol in the music hall (putatively Annabella's) is wearing a short gray leather glove with a distinct pebbled grain. In subsequent scenes, her gloves are black fabric.

When Hannay and Pamela are hiding under the waterfall to escape the police, Hannay's free hand is in his pocket on the close-ups, but against the rock behind him in the long shots.

The sideways shots into the car that Richard and Pamela are travelling in with the detectives uses the same view across a loch, even though the following shots show they are nowhere near water.

The identical shopfront "G. McLennan & Co" is used twice in locations ostensibly over 400 miles apart. It is first used as Hannay is escorted out of the Assembly Hall, 40 miles from Inverary, and then again outside the London Palladium. However, it is possible that G. McLennan & Co may have branches everywhere.

In the Music Hall scene, Donat's stand-in is clearly sitting in his place in the audience on at least two occasions.



Factual errors

The newspaper Hannay looks at on the Flying Scotsman is dated Wednesday and tells of the murder the night before, and when Hannay is arrested Sheriff Watson says it's for the murder of a woman on "Tuesday last." But when Hannay is telling Pamela in the inn when he last slept, he tells her it was last Saturday.

When the protagonist (Hannay) is ushered to his hotel room with Pamela, the innkeeper's wife offers to get her another skirt. The same item of clothing is mentioned later in the same scene but it clearly be seen that the item is a dress. The fitting of a dress would prohibit removal due them being bound by handcuffs.



Revealing mistakes

The serial number of the autogyro has been reversed, showing that the stock shot has been reversed for effect.

Near the beginning of the film, in the scene with the Memory Man entertaining the audience by answering their questions, a woman yells out, "Who is the last British Heavyweight champion of the world?". Beside her is a man who mouths the woman's words in synch with her.

At the beginning of the film during the audience's reactions; you hear a baby crying. However, there is no baby in the audience and logically there wouldn't be a baby in such an establishment. This indicates that they overdubbed a prerecorded audience reaction track to the scene that contained the sound of a baby.

In the shot after the appearance of the aircraft when Hannay is running from the police; the film is sped up.

After Hannay leaves the crofter's house and is being chased by the police, he crosses a river and climbs a bridge. Just as he does that, somebody's hair blows in front of the lens.



Audio/visual unsynchronised

Crew or equipment visible Lights visible when police search the train.



Errors in geography

The train Hannay is on, the "Flying Scotsman", only ran from London to Edinburgh, but the movie shows Hannay continuing on the same train past Edinburgh to the Forth Bridge, which is North of Edinburgh on the line to Dundee and Aberdeen.

Hannay gets the train from London to Scotland, but the train on that journey is seen bursting out of Box Tunnel near Bath, which is nowhere near the line from London to Scotland. The locomotive changes from a London and North-Eastern one, with a prominent sign "Flying Scotsman" above the smoke-box door, to a Great Western one, with no "Flying Scotsman" sign.

Hannay is seen catching the train to Scotland from London Paddington. Trains for Scotland either leave from Kings Cross (eastern region) or Euston (West cost line). As a Londoner Hitchcock should have known this.



Boom mic visible

Shadow of microphone visible on wood panelling in hotel room.





Character error

During Mr. Memory's act at the beginning of the film, he gives an answer regarding the last British heavyweight boxing champion and then asks, "Am I right, sir?", but the question was asked by a woman.