Goofs for
Mommie Dearest (1981) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: Christina's hair when being cut off.
  
  
• Continuity: Joan decides to hack off Christina's hair with a handy pair of scissors, but it seems to restore itself immediately after several well-placed snips.
  
  
• Anachronisms: A plastic bottle of "409" spray cleaner is on the bar when Christina prepares one of her "Uncles" a drink; this brand did not exist at the time.
  
  

• Continuity: Joan is reclining on a chaise lounge near the pool and Gregg sits down next to her. As the camera cuts between Joan's face and Gregg's face, Joan clearly changes position. Sometimes she's facing forward, sometimes she's gazing up into Gregg's face.
  
  
• Continuity: As Gregg leaves the pool scene, he says goodbye to Christina, and Joan playfully challenges Christina to a pool race. Suddenly Joan is in the pool with her, bathing cap securely in place, and Gregg is still walking up the stairs to leave.
  
  
• Continuity: Carol-Ann seems to suddenly drop right out of the sky to oversee the pool race between Joan and Christina. You can briefly glimpse her while Joan and Gregg are having their previous discussion, over Gregg's shoulder when he says "Who calls, I run?", but in other shots she clearly isn't there.
  
  
• Continuity: At the beginning of the birthday party scene, Joan can obviously be seen riding the Carousel behind Christina. However, in a subsequent shot, she is no longer on the Carousel. In another shot soon thereafter, she suddenly appears on the Carousel behind Christina again.
  
  
• Continuity: The color of the gift wrap on Christina's floor changes between shots.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: Throughout the entire film, there are sequences (especially yelling and screaming sequences) where there are obvious echos of what they are saying.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Young Christina is obviously holding a wig on while Joan furiously tries to brush out her hair (before resorting to those effective scissors).
  
  
• Continuity: In the wire hanger scene, Christina's bed is mysteriously stripped of all its sheets and comforter.
  
  
• Continuity: In the bathroom cleaning scene, Joan has two rags in her hand. She pitches one to the floor, which Tina clearly does not pick up. Then Joan leans down to scrub the floor, and suddenly Christina has a rag in her hand.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: If you watch the scene where Joan cuts down her prize rose garden, you'll notice that she is photographed mostly in shadow. That's because, although we hear her muttering to herself on the soundtrack about being "box office poison," her mouth isn't really moving.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Joan lunges at Christina and tries to strangle her, the pre-shattered lamp comes apart before it hits the floor.
  
  
• Continuity: In the famous "wire hanger" scene, Joan can be seen pulling down some blankets from the top shelf in Christina's closet. In a subsequent shot, the blankets are back up on the shelf.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the nominees for best actress are heard over the radio, they are not named in alphabetical order, contrary to tradition.
  
  
• Continuity: During the bathroom tantrum scene, where Joan scatters scouring powder all over the room, the level of powder on the ledge behind Christina changes between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: Before baby Christina arrives at Joan's mansion, Joan has a conversation with Gregg at the bar. His position, and the position of his whiskey glass, changes several times between shots.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Diana Scarwid's stunt double's face briefly visible in a long shot during the choking scene.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Diana Scarwid's stunt double in the choking scene is clearly male - look closely at his legs - they're a shade darker than Scarwid's and more muscular.
  
  
• Continuity: When Joan and Greg are walking on the beach talking about adopting, her orange scarf changes position under her collar to untucked between shots.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: At Christina's birthday party, a camera shadow is seen against the backs of those watching the horse rides.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: A camera shadow is visible against the blue curtains (left side of the screen) when Joan Crawford rides the merry go round.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: At the pool when Joan says "Who do you think you're talking to, Missy?" her mouth does not match "Missy".
  
  
• Continuity: When Joan chops down the tree she gasps, and in the next shot the exact same gasp is repeated (noticeable by the odd cut in sound).
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: After Joan says to tear down the wall and put up a window in the apartment condo, she turns around and a camera shadow is cast across her back.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: After young Christina is defeated by Joan in the pool race scene, Christina's line "it's not fair to win twice" can be heard a second time underneath Joan's line "Ah, but nobody ever said..."
  
  
• Continuity: When young Christina fixes Mommie Dearest a drink when one of the "uncles" is visiting, the glass is half full of ice when she pours the alcohol. By the time she brings the drink into the room all the ice is gone.
  
  
• Continuity: During the bedroom scene when Joan is fighting with Greg and he shakes her, she loses a clip-on earring. The ear ring appears and disappears on Joan between shots.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: In a scene set in the late Sixties, Joan Crawford signs a stack of publicity photos that date back to her appearance twenty years earlier; in reality, Crawford always sent out current fan photos.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Joan Crawford substitutes for her daughter on a soap opera, producer of show gives her a pep talk during a commercial, indicating it was a live broadcast. In reality ‘The Secret Storm’ was taped and director later said Crawford's performance was so poor he had to patch it together in editing room.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Christina arrives home from her stay with the nun, the driver of the car opens his door and the camera crew is reflected off of the door.
  
  
• Continuity: Joan's assistant is lacing up the left ice skate when the production assistant knocks to say they're ready for her. You can clearly see Joan's right foot is bare. She says, "Let's go," and gets out of her chair with only one skate on.
  
  

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