Goofs

When Oscar runs through the leaking barrel on the bridge, his clothes are completely dry afterward.

The "I am very proud of you" note written by Ness's wife is shown in three separate scenes and is a different prop in each.

When Capone's man comes to Ness's office to bribe him, Ness throws the money envelope back at him. The envelope bounces off the man's shoulder and continues off camera (presumably to the floor). Less than two seconds later, however, Ness picks the same envelope up from his desk to push it and the man out of his office.

At his house, Malone's shirt alternates between being buttoned and being unbuttoned when talking to Ness.

In the post office raid, Stone cocks his shotgun twice; when Malone tosses it to him, and just before Malone breaks the door open.

The prosecutor is called a "district attorney." District attorneys are state prosecutors, but federal crimes, such as income tax evasion, are prosecuted by federal prosecutors, not state prosecutors. Furthermore, Illinois has state's attorneys, not district attorneys.

In the movie Ness is portrayed as married with children. In real life, Eliot Ness was a young bachelor living with his parents when he was hired as a prohibition agent and used political/family connections to get his Chicago assignment.

At the rendezvous at the Canadian border, the Mountie officer is a captain. The RCMP uses British-style, not American-style, police ranks; he should be an inspector.

The judge presiding over Capone's trial orders that the jury be switched with the jury in a divorce case being tried in another courtroom. Capone is on trial for federal tax evasion, while divorces are state cases, so there could not have been a divorce trial taking place in the same courthouse as Capone's trial.

Frank Nitti was more of a decision-maker for Al Capone, and he made these decisions behind a desk, he hardly took part of any of the field work, such as executions. Nitti also never carried a gun because he had bodyguards constantly at his side.

While the judge at Capone's trial should have allowed the defense to examine and approve the new jurors when the jury was exchanged, the defense objected and was overruled, so this would be a point for appeal. Also the jury switch is almost exactly how it happened in real life, except that is was prior to the trial, Al Capone was found to have bribed the jury.

Although the name "George Stone" does not translate to "Giuseppe Petri" in Italian, the character didn't necessarily directly translate his name. The Petri part - "Stone" - is correct, however "George" in Italian is "Giorgio". Giuseppe is actually "Joseph".

Even though the film is based on historical characters, the end credits include the statement "The persons and events in this motion picture are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons or events is unintentional." While Eliot Ness, the Untouchables, and Al Capone were real, this story is highly fictionalized and contains much that deviates from that reality.

When Stone shoots the Bowtie driver, there is much blood on the wall behind his head, even though there is no entry wound on his head/face and it's quite high to be in his chest. However, upon close inspection, Stone shot the Bowtie driver in the mouth when the driver uttered "Two" in which blood/gore exited out of his head on the wall behind him.

Although Malone's address is given several times as 1634 Racine, the number that appears above the doorway about 20 feet from where Malone is sitting at home is 2034 .

The four agents are shown skillfully riding horses during the bridge scene. The chances of even one urban law enforcement officer having the ability to ride that well are slim. The chances that all four would be able to do it are almost non-existent.

When the photographer takes the shot of the four untouchables seated at the table, his flash is positioned to the right of the camera lens, this would cause the resulting shadows to fall on the opposite axis. But the shadows in the photo indicate the flash was positioned to the left of the lens. When we again see the photo towards the end of the film, the shadows have moved and are now indicating the flash was placed directly over the lens, revealing that it is a completely different photo.

When Ness arrives home for his daughter's birthday, Nitti makes a threat against him from his car and then speeds off. Ness rushes into the house and runs upstairs, opens the little girl's bedroom door, only to find her not in her bed. Panic ensues, but then the camera pulls back to show the little girl standing at her dressing table. Ness is relieved. However the hinging of the bedroom door is incorrect for this scenario to work. The way the door is hinged, Ness could not miss her at the dressing table. In fact, he would notice her there, before he would see the empty bed, as he opened the door. But the scene would have been correct had the on set carpenter team hinged the door the other way. In that case, Ness would notice the empty bed first. Pushing the door wider open would then have shown the little girl. But not the way the door was hinged and the scene shot.

When the knife man is walking along the ledge outside the apartment, all the windows appear to be closed due to the reflection of the light. The last one, in the kitchen, first appears open and you can hear Malone pouring whiskey. The light, however, still reflects on the window indicating a closed window.

Ness states that "a convoy of between five and ten trucks will be delivering the whiskey", yet only four trucks actually show up.

The RCMP officers are wearing campaign hats, which are the correct cover for that uniform and service, but Canadians, and all other British Commonwealth subjects who wear campaign covers because they're in law enforcement or working in Scouting, wear hats with dents to the front and back, and on the sides. The hats these Canadians are wearing are American style hats with the creases in front and back, and on the sides, instead of the dents.

After Ness threatens Capone in the lobby of the Lexington Hotel, as Malone is dragging him to the revolving door, several 1980s vehicles are visible across the street, most prominently a white van.

At the Canadian border, a white '80s style car can be seen driving by in the background.

Cellophane tape, invented in 1937, holds up the Crusader Cop headline in 1930.

The maple leaf has been a recognized symbol of Canada since the 1850s. However, the maple leaf on the liquor crates during the raid is the stylized 10-point leaf designed for the modern-day Canadian flag, which first appeared in 1965.

Ness stores his news clippings in a folder with a Treasury Department seal that was adopted in the 1960s. In 1929-30, the seal's inscription was in Latin.

When Ness says the line, "You tell Capone... I'll see him in hell," his teeth are firmly clenched, and his lips are not moving. There is also a clearly audible difference between this "looped" line and the rest of the scene.

When the knife-man is sneaking into Malone's apartment, a camera and operator are reflected in the window.

During the shoot out on the bridge, there is a person running behind Ness and Malone. This person is clearly not one of the Untouchables, nor is he a member of the Mountie forces. It's unlikely that either Ness or Malone would allow someone to get behind them, to prevent an attack from the rear.

After Ness and Malone chases their respective members of the Capone gang, this mystery man has totally disappeared.

The film shows a bridge over a small river in apparently Western high-desert terrain. The bridge has no customs-immigration stations. In fact, there is no river (or water) boundary between the US and Canada between Lake of the Woods, MN and Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast. Bridge border crossings in Northern Minnesota and Michigan cross much larger rivers, connect two towns and are in forested areas.

At about the 35 minute mark, in the street outside the Post-Office raid: there is a London-type double-decker bus, with right-hand-drive.

When Capone's man Overcoat Hood makes his report that Ness got the shipment of booze, not only is he not disheveled in any way, but he apparently made a journey of several hundred miles out of the wilderness of the Montana/Canadian border all the way back to Capone headquarters in an inordinate amount of time.

A street shot of Malone's house shows the crossroads are Racine and Harrison. Harrison is an East/West street and has a designation of 600 S. The address of the house shown in the film is 1634 Racine. More accurately, it should be listed in the upper 500s or lower 600s, as in 602 S Racine. Or alternatively, the cross streets should have been shown as Racine and W 16th Street.

When Ness goes to Malone's apartment for the first time, Malone moves towards a bookcase. The boom mic is reflected onto the glass front of a police officer's picture on one of the shelves (0:24:40 into the DVD).

At one point Eliot Ness says that drinking alcoholic beverages is illegal. Drinking itself was never illegal during Prohibition. The 18th Amendment only made the manufacturing, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages illegal. People who had bought alcohol before January 16, 1920, could and did continue to drink and serve it privately.

At the very end, before the credits roll, an extra trips and almost falls as he crosses the street.

Ness is right-handed throughout the film, except during the Canadian border scene, where he holds his shotgun left-handed.

Sean Connery portrays an Irish cop even though he has a Scottish accent. Scotland and Ireland are two separate countries and each has their own distinctive accent. It would be like confusing an American accent with an English or an Australian one.

St Michael the Archangel is the patron saint of police officers, not St Jude as Sean Connery's character claims.