diff --git a/Lib/test/test_zipfile.py b/Lib/test/test_zipfile.py
index 50b8b36..bf7770b 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_zipfile.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_zipfile.py
@@ -42,6 +42,22 @@
     if os.path.isfile(zipname):
         os.unlink(zipname)
 
+
+# This test checks that the ZipFile constructor closes the file object
+# it opens if there's an error in the file.  If it doesn't, the traceback
+# holds a reference to the ZipFile object and, indirectly, the file object.
+# On Windows, this causes the os.unlink() call to fail because the
+# underlying file is still open.  This is SF bug #412214.
+#
+fp = open(srcname, "w")
+fp.write("this is not a legal zip file\n")
+fp.close()
+try:
+    zf = zipfile.ZipFile(srcname)
+except zipfile.BadZipfile:
+    os.unlink(srcname)
+
+
 # make sure we don't raise an AttributeError when a partially-constructed
 # ZipFile instance is finalized; this tests for regression on SF tracker
 # bug #403871.
diff --git a/Lib/zipfile.py b/Lib/zipfile.py
index b638592..5dedc1b 100644
--- a/Lib/zipfile.py
+++ b/Lib/zipfile.py
@@ -186,9 +186,23 @@
             else:               # file is not a zip file, just append
                 fp.seek(0, 2)
         else:
+            if not self._filePassed:
+                self.fp.close()
+                self.fp = None
             raise RuntimeError, 'Mode must be "r", "w" or "a"'
 
     def _GetContents(self):
+        """Read the directory, making sure we close the file if the format
+        is bad."""
+        try:
+            self._RealGetContents()
+        except BadZipfile:
+            if not self._filePassed:
+                self.fp.close()
+                self.fp = None
+            raise
+
+    def _RealGetContents(self):
         """Read in the table of contents for the ZIP file."""
         fp = self.fp
         fp.seek(-22, 2)         # Start of end-of-archive record