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.
Mary Poppins (1964)
Directed by: Robert Stevenson
Starring: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns
Factual error: The Robin that comes along in the movie is an American Robin, not a British Robin.
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.
Trivia: The voice of Mary Poppins' parrot head umbrella is David Tomlinson (Mr Banks).
Trivia: This was Julie Andrews' film debut. Her role won her an Academy Award for Best Actress.
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.
Bert: Speaking of names, I know a man with a wooden leg named Smith.
Uncle Albert: What's the name of his other leg?
George Banks: Kindly do not attempt to cloud the issue with facts.
Mary Poppins: We can't have them gallivanting up there like kangaroos, can we?
Question: Does anybody know how they did the scene where Mary Poppins is doing a duet with her mirror image?
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.
Question: How did they film the shot with the different colour medicines coming out of the same bottle?
Answer: Most likely a variation on the "inexhaustible bottle" magic trick which has existed in various forms for hundreds of years - it relies on different chambers holding different liquids, and air holes in the bottle being covered or not change the pressure and allow the desired liquid to flow out. As the scene is one continuous shot with the entire bottle visible, this seems most likely - the air holes could be on the side away from the camera, with Julie Andrews repositioning her thumb for each colour. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inexhaustible_bottle.
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.
Chosen answer: They recorded her singing in two separate parts and fixed them together. The editors did a good job on it! It may have been made a long time ago but even then the technology was quite advanced enough to carry out that scene.