MISTAKES/GOOFS

• DATE: The word "puppeteer" wasn't coined until about 1915.
• FAKE: When West is shot in the opener he spreads his hand flat across his chest, presumably at the point of entry of whatever struck him. In the next act when he is aroused the doctor shows him a large long dart (comparable to a throwing dart) and declares that it was the dart that struck West. But nothing was sticking out of West's chest when he fell to the floor. Also, the dart was too big too have been fired from the bore of the puppet's weapon.
• FACT: The Supreme Court of the United States is, strictly speaking, an appeals court, and does not commonly pass verdicts in the ordinary sense of the word. Instead, it upholds or overturns the decisions of lower courts. While it is true that overturning Skull's conviction in a lower court would have nullified the death sentence, the Supreme Court did not pass the sentence, although both Skull and Justice Chayne incorrectly spoke as it this were the case. (The possibility also exists for the Supreme Court to overturn a sentence while upholding a conviction; however, cases such as these only affect a sentence already passed by a lower court, so even in these examples, it is also not accurate to speak of the Supreme Court "passing sentence").
• DATE: The marionettes are strung with monofilament fishline, a material invented in the first half of the twentieth century.

TRIVIA