Goofs

When Det. Brown leaves to get breakfast the first morning, he straps on his shoulder holster, which has a strap clearly going across his stomach. A minute later, after little Tommy tussles with him, he puts away a handkerchief while getting a drink of water, and when he opens his coat, there's clearly no shoulder holster.

When Detective Brown and the hit man Joseph Kemp are trying to board the train in Chicago, a young couple - a man in a trench-coat and a woman in a floral hat, holding his arm - walk down the train platform together. A minute later, this same couple is seen a second time, walking down the same section of the platform in the same direction.

The first two scenes of the locomotive pulling the train are of Pennsylvania Railroad's famous #3768, a K-4 class 4-6-2 engine temporarily streamlined by Raymond Loewy. It operated only on the Broadway Limited, which ran between Chicago and New York. The later scenes of locomotives are of Southern Pacific GS-4 Daylight 4-8-4 engines, which at least served Los Angeles (but not La Junta).

The train route is that of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe through La Junta, Colorado, the route of the Super Chief, but the locomotive shown is a Southern Pacific GS-class.

Detective Kemp goes to the end of the sleeper car and turns a corner into a second hallway. Railroad cars are narrow and have only one hallway with no corners.

In the train near the end, as the newspaper reporters try to squeeze by Sam Jennings, the folder rack in the wall contains a TWA flight schedule instead of a railroad timetable.

When Det. Brown returns to his berth after refusing to sell his extra ticket, the process photography out his window is running backwards. You can tell by the automobile running backwards.

There are palm trees at the Denver train station.

Two scenes show a Southern Pacific Daylight locomotive which ran along the California coast, not Chicago to Los Angeles.

The sound of the Pennsylvania Railroad steam locomotive whistle is heard, but PRR was east of Chicago, not west between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Gangster Joseph Kemp is shown looking for mob witness Mrs. Neale in the upper berths of the sleeping car, but these could only be dropped using a Pullman berth key. The car porter is unlikely to have lent his work tool to a passenger.