Goofs for
The Long Gray Line (1955) More at IMDbPro »

• Factual errors: According to the plot line of the movie Martin "Marty" Maher retired from the Army in the 50's (Eisenhower was President), in real life Maher retired from the Army in 1928 and stayed at West Point as a civilian employee in the athletic department and retired from that in 1946. He died on Jan. 17, 1961, at the age of 84 and is buried in the West Point cemetery.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Red's Medal of Honor that Kitty shows to Marty and Mary is the current design that goes around the neck. In the story, Red earned it during World War I and at that time the Medal of Honor was on a suspension ribbon like most other US medals. It wouldn't be redesigned for around the neck wear until 1944.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film, Mary O'Donnell Maher dies sometime before Christmas 1944 while World War II is still raging. In real life, according to her headstone at the West Point cemetery, she died in 1948.
  
  

• Continuity: In the scene where Martin meets Mary outside the gymnasium, he is carrying an armful of boxing gloves, and drops one or two. The dropped gloves change in number and position on the floor as the scene progresses, even Mary gets in the act, changing her position on the floor and relative to the gloves on the floor, and the hat on her head changing its tilt and position from scene to scene.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: On Armistice Day, when the cadets are celebrating the end of the war, all of the surrounding trees are full of green leaves. On November 11 in West Point's location, there would have been some combination of fall colors and already-bare trees.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Cadets are building the bonfire and celebrating the Armistice ending World War I, the background landscape is lush and green - not likely for November 11th.
  
  
• Factual errors: Cadets and officers are shown at chapel on December 7, 1941, a Sunday. An announcement is made that Japan has bombed Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was attacked at 7:55 AM, Hawaii time, which is 12:55 PM New York time, with chapel services already having concluded.
  
  

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