Catch Me If You Can

Audio problem: Frank's mother spills some wine on the carpet, but the you can hear the sound one or two seconds before she actually did it. (00:12:00)

Dr Wilson

Audio problem: When Handratty is in France telling Frank that there are 20 officers outside, you can see when the camera turns to Frank, Handratty's mouth is still moving despite the fact that he is not talking. (01:55:40)

Audio problem: As Frank Jr. is being arrested in France, a choir is singing in the background. As the arrest takes place, the choir stops to follow the action however the song continues. (01:57:05)

Factual error: In a telephone conversation scene between Frank and Handratty, Frank is using a phone that has a plug type receiver. The phones in that era were all hard wired.

More mistakes in Catch Me If You Can

Paula Abagnale: Just tell me how much he owes and I'll pay you back.
Carl Hanratty: So far, it's about 1.3 million dollars.

More quotes from Catch Me If You Can

Trivia: The real Frank Abagnale Jr. was held in the French prison (Perpignan's House of Arrest) for approximately six months. His term was shortened from twelve months. When released (extradited to Sweden), he was ill because he had been forced to live in a damp, dark cell, naked and allowed only bread and water. In Sweden where he was tried and convicted he was kept in a comfortable Swedish prison. However, upon completion of his prison term in Sweden, he was next to be extradited to Italy. The Swedish government believed in prison reform and was afraid of the treatment he would receive in an Italian prison. As a result, Sweden revoked Frank's passport so it could intentionally have him extradited to the U.S. Once in the US, he was protected and couldn't be tried in the foreign countries where he perpetrated his fraudulent schemes. The book about his life contains a more accurate depiction than the film and was written 10 years prior to its release.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Incorrect. Abagnale served three months in a French prison, not six. He then served two months in a Swedish prison. He was ordered to recompense Swedish victims of his crimes but never did. The book about his life was published over 20 years before the film was released, not 10. The book and movie are both almost completely inaccurate; most of Abagnale's stories of his crimes and frauds were greatly exaggerated or completely made up. Journalists started discovering these lies in the late 1970s.

More trivia for Catch Me If You Can

Question: I may have missed this, but why does Frank tear the labels off bottles?

Answer: He was taking the labels off the bottles to make fake checks, using the logos as this is the one thing that he could not create on the checks. The MICR printer was only used to print the routing and account numbers and the emboss the checks.

Answer: He does it so he will have things in his wallet. As he has no identity of his own and steals or creates others, filling his wallet with labels is fulfilling a subconscious desire to be normal and have an identity.

Grumpy Scot

More questions & answers from Catch Me If You Can

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.