filmmakers have been twisting and collapsing geography (to set a mood, or work around restricted locations) since the origination of movies.
You mean,
Fred Ott's Sneeze wasn't actually filmed in New Jersey?

The wiki entry is interesting, but there are zero citations and, anyway, motion pictures began well before the 1920s. The examples given are pretty mundane. What we're taking about is verisimilitude; taking time to get the details right, so that dramatic license can be excused. For example, the first
Star Trek movie had NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory experts who helped the production team get most of the astronomy and other scence right, so that the audience can excuse dramatic license. The reboot
Star Trek films have virtually no scientific accuracy whatsoever. Most don't mind. Some of us do; it's the difference between science fiction and fantasy.
But we're all getting pretty off-topic here. Maybe we should start a film criticism thread? I'll do so in a day or so if no one else does.