Corrected entry: While Joan & Betty are in the kitchen, we see a phone hanging on the wall. The girls are called out of the kitchen & Spencer says he just got a call and has to be in NY the next morning for a meeting. At no point during the time the girls are in the kitchen do we hear the phone ring and there was no such thing as cell phones at that time.
Corrected entry: When the Wellesley College boss dictates to her secretary the key letter offering Julia Roberts a new contract but with teaching/artistic conditions which lead to Ms Roberts leaving, the secretary uses Teeline shorthand. The film is set in 1953/54, Teeline was invented by one James Hill in 1968. (01:43:00)
Correction: The secretary is using Gregg shorthand, first publicized in 1888.
Corrected entry: Julia Roberts arrives at the school by train and the next scene is in cap and gown at the school opening ceremonies. The next scene shows her looking for lodging (wearing what she wore when she arrived by train). She then teaches her first class and is called in to see the president and goes to see her wearing something different. In the next scene she's back at the house where she's staying, wearing what she wore when she taught her first class. A plot hole continuity mistake?
Correction: She just moved 4,000 miles, and since she didn't have an address yet when she arrived, she couldn't even arrange to have her belongings shipped out from California until around the time those scenes took place. All she would have with her at that point was whatever she'd carried along on the train. It's perfectly believable that she would only have a few dresses and would have to wear the same ones in rapid succession like that.
Corrected entry: During the shot to Kirsten Dunsts' character, Betty Warren, where she is narrating whilst she types, her typing (she is not in the shot, this shot is only of hands typing on a typewriter)the words narrarated: "...recently learned that Amanda Armstrong, our school nurse has been distributing contraception...." this shot cuts right as there is a TYPO made for the word distributing, the actual type reads: 'disb' & the shot cuts away...this would actually be typed as dist with a 't', not a 'b'.
Correction: I don't think that's necessarily a mistake because the character was likely typing in shorthand to be edited later before printing..besides, a person typing can make a typo, it doesn't mean it's a movie mistake, per se.
Correction: There were no cell phones at that time, but it was certainly possible to have more than one phone line installed in a house. Spencer may have had a second phone line put in on the pretense that it was for his "work" but to cover up his extra curricular activities, and to keep his wife from listening in on an extension. It is also possible to turn the ringer off on phones, even back then. They may just have preferred not to have the kitchen extension turned on.
raywest ★