Maybe it shouldn’t count, because Canadian Bacon was a comedy that made much of silly stereotypes, but when John Candy and the American invaders travel across the Niagara River to Canada, they’re greeted by a pair of red-suited Mounties on horseback.
First of all, the Mounties don’t ride horses any more, except on ceremonial occasions and in parades. Their everyday uniform is not the red one–that’s also only for ceremonial use. Nextly, and more importantly, the Mounties have no policing jurisdiction in Ontario, where Candy and his party landed. That duty is handled by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), whose shoulder patch can be seen on Paul McCartney’s uniform on the Sgt. Pepper Beatles album.
Toronto rarely plays itself in the movies, but Toronto is a popular location for film shoots, and I remember watching part of the filming for Silver Streak at Toronto’s Union Station. That station stood in for the Los Angeles train station, and Kansas City’s, and Chicago’s.
Fine, but when Wilder and Pryor are getting the shoe polish, hat, and radio from the shoeshine guy in the Kansas City station (remember, this is filmed in Toronto’s Union Station), they’re on the lower arrivals level of the station. They duck into the men’s room and … it’s the men’s room on the upper departures level (the shape of the urinals gives it away). And, given the layout of the lower level of the station, they duck into the actual women’s room.
Okay, Gene Wilder is now in blackface, listening to his radio, and he and Pryor are heading to their train. They go through the departure checkpoint–which is actually the exit for arriving passengers.
I lived in Toronto for over forty years, and I’ve taken many trains in and out of Union, and I know the station like the back of my hand. The editing of Silver Streak was done well, so that only Torontonians who are familiar with Union Station would recognize these little hiccups. At any rate, they don’t bother me; it’s an enjoyable film anyway.