Goofs

When Frank Green comes to pay Easy a visit at his home, they begin to fight in the doorway, and Easy punches Frank in the back of the head several times, knocking his hat and Frank onto the floor. When the scene changes, and Frank hops back up with his knife, the hat is back on his head.

When the police are questioning Easy at the police station, one of the cops slaps Easy's head but the slap clearly misses.

After Easy gets into the car when walking home, the car starts heading in the opposite direction of which Easy was walking. After Easy gets out of the car, he continues walking the same way the car was heading, rather than back to where he came from.

It's supposedly May 18th, but when Easy goes to meet Dewitt at 7:00 pm, the sky is completely dark. Sunset in Los Angeles on May 18th isn't until 7:50pm.

Mayoral candidate Todd Carter drops out of the mayor's race, fearful his romance with a woman of black descent could be exposed. At the end of the film he re-enters the race - but this would not be permitted in real life.

After Easy and Daphne left McGee's house (where they find his body), Easy pulls into his driveway and gets out of the car. He looks left and sees a gray convertible on the street. When he comes to his front door, the view changes and the same car with a (hard top) can be seen over Easy's left shoulder. After the people in the house leave, the car is once again a convertible. Clearly they used two identical cars, one convertible and one hard top.

Easy has a telephone, which makes it very easy for him to communicate with various other characters in the movie. How does an unemployed black man in 1948 Los Angeles, who is two months behind on his mortgage payments, has other debts, and can barely afford a loaf of bread at 15¢, afford to keep up his payments on a telephone (still a fairly expensive luxury in 1948)?

As indicated in the beginning, Easy had just lost a pretty good paying job which makes it very likely he had the phone installed when he first bought the house. Being two months behind in a mortgage means finances are stretched, but doesn't doesn't mean utilities are being shut off. After all, Easy was still spending money drinking in a bar.

When Mouse is driving Ezekiel's car while they're taking Joppy to the cabin, the turning knob on the steering wheel is on the left of Mouse's hand, then to the right, then back to the left.

Due to turning the wheel while steering and/or moving his hands.

Towards the end, Easy is reading a newspaper with a headline saying Carter is a "Shoe-in" in the mayor's race. The proper term is "shoo-in". A newspaper wouldn't make that mistake.

The date of the newspaper Easy gets want ads from is Saturday, May 18, 1948. In 1948, May 18th was a Tuesday. Also, his narration states that it's summer, but on May 18th there's still more than a month of spring left. The people outside seem to be dressed appropriately for springtime, but Easy is wearing a tank top while sitting near a wide-open window. The high temperature in Los Angeles on 5/18/48 was 60 degrees.

When Easy and Mouse question Dupree, Mouse pours a glass of bourbon for him and screws the cap back on. Corks were still being used in 1948, and the screw cap was not in use until the 1970s.

Towards the beginning, when Easy is paid by Albright, the bills should have been Silver Certificates; instead the top $20.00 is a Federal Reserve Note with the signature of Nicholas Brady, who was Secretary of the Treasury under President George Bush. The bill is from the late-1980s.

When Easy and Daphne enter Richard McGee's house at around 4:00 a.m., the sound of a sitcom is heard from the TV in the background. At the time a night back then, all stations were off the air.

Several of the cars used in the background are post-1948 models including one with fins.

At the beginning, Easy is sitting at table in the bar reading a newspaper and smoking, with a pencil resting on his ear. The pencil has an eraser top. These pencils were not invented until 1958 and were not commonplace until the 1960s.