Mary Poppins

Continuity mistake: The father tears the children's advert for a nanny up into 8 pieces, but when it comes out of the chimney it's in far more bits.

Continuity mistake: At the bank where the elder Mr. Dawes appears from the back room, he makes it as far as the edge of the step in that shot. In the next shot, he's back by the door walking again to the edge of the step.

Continuity mistake: When Uncle Albert, Bert, and the kids fall down from hovering on the ceiling, they're about to land on the chairs. But when the camera view changes, they land on the floor.

Continuity mistake: When the kids meet Bert as a pavement artist, he draws a road with a single-arched bridge on his drawing. When they jump into the drawing, the bridge is double arched.

Continuity mistake: At the end of the film, Mary Poppins flies away from the Banks's house (supposedly within a short distance of the City of London), however, she is then shown flying towards the City on a route that would take her over the Banks's house on the way, had she not already flown over it.

Mary Poppins mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Mary reads the measuring tape after measuring herself the message reads up and down (as shown to the audience), but then the camera shows Mary reading it side to side.

Gregg Jasper

Continuity mistake: When Mr. Banks begins singing "Let's Go Fly A Kite," Ellen the maid puts her left hand up to her cheek in surprise. In the very next shot, her hands are clasped in front of her.

Continuity mistake: The "Votes for women" band over the old nanny's shoulder swaps positions when the song about suffrage is about to end.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When everyone is on top of the roof, Mary Poppins powders her nose, which results in her nose being black with soot. The scenes following that, her nose is normal and never black as when she powders it.

Continuity mistake: When Mary Poppins just starts to sing "Feed the Birds", she sings "The little old bird woman comes" but if you look very closely at the end of this shot, you can see that her mouth does not finish the word "comes" (her mouth stops at come).

Movie_Freak 1

Continuity mistake: Bert makes a riddle about a short woman and her daughters behind laugh, lowering their heads and turning them around. A frame later, from a wider angle, they are repeating the previous movements.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: In the shot where Jane and Michael are looking out the window at Mary Poppins you can see Jane's fringe being blown to the right side of her forehead because of the wind. In the next shot they're combed perfectly straight again.

Continuity mistake: During the credits Mary puts make-up on her face and raises her umbrella and bag. When the angle changes they both disappear.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: During the first few scenes, you see Jane is missing a tooth but the tooth disappears and reappears throughout the film.

Continuity mistake: When Mr. Banks takes the children to the bank, and they meet the directors, first the children are standing close together, with Mr. Banks right behind them. Later, when the elder Mr. Doors is talking to them, Mr. Banks is next to Michael and the children are farther apart. Later still, when we see Michael close up, Jane is out of the shot altogether, meaning that she is even farther away from him than previously.

Continuity mistake: When Mary Poppins ascends to join the others for tea at Uncle Albert's house, she starts with her purse clasped in her hand. As she ascends, the purse is suddenly draped over her arm.

Continuity mistake: Bert introduces the Admiral, who stands by the end of the banister, next to the canon. A frame later he has moved about 5 meters to the left.

Sacha

Factual error: The Robin that comes along in the movie is an American Robin, not a British Robin.

More mistakes in Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins: We can't have them gallivanting up there like kangaroos, can we?

More quotes from Mary Poppins

Trivia: To celebrate the film's anniversary and release on DVD, there was a special screening of the film, at which Dick Van Dyke shared a humorous personal memory. On his way to the original premiere of the film, Dick Van Dyke's limousine ran out of gas not too far from the theater, so Dick himself got out and pushed the car to the red carpet.

Super Grover

More trivia for Mary Poppins

Question: The very last mistake listed for Mary Poppins says that you can see the lamp post coming through the bag and the table. I have watched this scene many times (in slow motion and otherwise) and I can't seem to find what you are talking about. Could someone please explain it's talking about?

Answer: There's no reason you shouldn't be able to see it, it's so obvious, unless you have the movie on DVD. It's possible they fixed the framing of the scene for its DVD release.

More questions & answers from Mary Poppins

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.