Dumb TCM promo (2014)

This November (2014) TCM is running a promo for Plymouth Adventure, one of their new-style mini-documentaries they put together to plug an upcoming film. But the one for this film has a couple of fairly dumb mistakes.

First, the narrator states that there was a belief that the Pilgrims were sold out, expecting to land at the mouth of the Hudson River but taken instead to unsettled New England on the orders of the company supplying passage. This is indeed part of the film's plot, but in the movie the Pilgrims weren't looking to land at the Hudson, but in Virginia near Chesapeake Bay. Further, as the narrator says they were headed for the Hudson, a clip from the movie shows someone's finger pointing at a location on a map -- but he's pointing not at the Hudson, which is to the north, but at the mouth of the Delaware River, below southern New Jersey.

Finally, after the promo proper, as TCM shows the title of the film and what time it's on, the announcer says, "Spencer Tracy commandeers the Mayflower" in Plymouth Adventure. "Commandeers"? No, he's the Captain. He commands the Mayflower. He could only "commandeer" the ship if he mutinied or relieved a superior officer, neither of which he does.

Some of the staff at TCM need to (a) watch the movie, (b) learn geography, and (c) look in a dictionary. Not that we all don't make mistakes, but these are supposed to be educated people and competent professionals. Why set such a glaringly bad example?