Goofs for
Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

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• Anachronisms: In the scene with the TV set, the opening sequence shown for "I Love Lucy" (1951) (with the heart) was used only when the show was in syndication. The original opening sequence featured advertisements for a cigarette company.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Katherine Watson gives Joan Brandwyn the Yale Law School application, "juris doctor" is misspelled as "jurus doctor".
  
  
• Anachronisms: Law schools started awarding "Juris Doctor" degrees in the 1960s. Before that, they awarded "Legum Baccalaureus" (LL.B.), or Bachelor of Laws.
  
  

• Anachronisms: The place setting Nancy Abbey uses for her etiquette class was not manufactured prior to or during the 1950s. Although the china ("Prince Regent" by Royal Worcester) is inspired by an 1811 pattern privately commissioned by George IV as Prince Regent, it was not produced for public sale until the 1990s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: At about 23 minutes into the movie, during a game, you can see a modern supermarket shopping kart.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Katherine Watson tells her class that Vincent Van Gogh never sold a painting during his lifetime. He actually sold one painting, to his brother Theo, for 5 francs.
  
  
• Anachronisms: One young woman holds up a blue plastic diaphragm case. In the 1950s, diaphragm cases were cloth or rubber. Plastic cases appeared in the 1970s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The turntable tonearm is of late-1960s vintage
  
  
• Factual errors: When Doris Day's "Secret Love" plays, the record has a 1960s RCA Victor classical label. The album was produced by Columbia Records.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Betty is typing her editorial against the school nurse, she narrates it as: "... has been willingly distributing..." but when we see what is being typed, she types "disb" as the start of "distributing."
  
  
• Continuity: During Katherine's talk with Stan, her drink alternates between being nearly full and almost empty between shots.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: At the Adam's Rib party, Giselle is sitting in the window, with her hair parted in the middle and her forehead visible. In the next shot, when she moves into the room, her hair is parted on one side and sweeping across her forehead.
  
  
• Continuity: When Katherine is walking along the outdoor corridor with the tile floor and columns before Bill gives her the belated Christmas present, the tile floor clearly has water puddles along it. When the camera moves to the close-up view and Bill gives the gift to Catherine, the tile floor is completely dry.
  
  
• Continuity: The "AR" (Adam's Rib) party is supposed to be at 5 PM, and it's winter in New England, yet it appears to be broad daylight outside the windows.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: During Betty's wedding reception, the band plays a rousing number. The sound from the trumpets is what would be produced with a metal mute, but the trumpets have no mutes.
  
  
• Continuity: At a table scene with Katherine, Nancy and Bill during Betty's wedding reception, Nancy walks into the scene twice to see if Katherine wants anything to drink.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The slide of the Sistine Chapel in Katherine's Christmas present is a photo of the Chapel ceiling after it was restored in the 1990s.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Early in the film, Giselle is running. At one point, you can clearly see the microphone taped inside her shirt.
  
  
• Continuity: At the beginning of the movie, when Katherine is getting off the train, the lady in gray standing behind her is not the same lady who touches her shoulder and says "Excuse me."
  
  
• Errors in geography: When Katherine visits Joan's house to show her law school brochures, there are palm plants in the front of the house. These plants would not survive in the climate of Massachusetts where the film is set.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The film was set in 1953, but the girl group was singing "Sh-boom" by the Crew Cuts, which came out in 1954.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Katherine is showing the first slide of the Advertisements, we hear her say "slide", but her mouth is clearly not moving.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: During the wedding reception, when Nancy explains to Katherine that her husband didn't die in the war, a slow song is playing. For a second, the people in the background dance very quickly.
  
  
• Factual errors: When President Carr is dictating the invitation for Katherine's return to Wellesley, her secretary is writing in shorthand that makes absolutely no sense. The only correct word is the first, which reads "Dear".
  
  

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