Goofs for
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: During the courtroom scene, there is a closeup of Atticus seated at his table during the prosecuting attorney's questioning of Mr. Ewell. In this shot, the film image is reversed (Atticus' hair and the position of the spectators behind him reveal this). In this same shot, the light at the back of the courtroom is turned on; both before and after this shot, it is off.
  
  
• Continuity: The law books disappear from the mantelpiece when Scout returns from walking Boo Radley home.
  
  
• Continuity: After Atticus shoots the dog and rides away in Hec's car, the children watch him go. Scout's hair has a side part, but in the next shot she has her usual full bangs.
  
  

• Continuity: When Bob Ewell is on the witness stand and Atticus asks him if he ran for a doctor, Atticus is hovering over Ewell and his visible shadow behind Ewell reflects this. When the camera shifts to Atticus, he is a good 10-15 feet away. When the camera returns to Ewell, Atticus' shadow is still there.
  
  
• Continuity: While Atticus gets his papers together in the courtroom after the verdict you see a water glass next to the pitcher on the judge's desk. In the next shot, as he walks out, there is no glass, just the pitcher.
  
  
• Continuity: Mayella Ewell's hair alternates between neatly brushed and messy and back again between shots when she gets up to go to the stand in the courtroom.
  
  
• Continuity: Scout steps up with both feet to stand on the tire swing to look up into the tree. The next shot shows Scout standing on the ground and stepping up into the tire swing again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Atticus shoots the mad dog, it is obvious its hind legs are jerked from under it to make it fall.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Scout and Jem are debating Jem going back to retrieve his trousers from Boo Radley's, Scout can be seen mouthing Jem's lines.
  
  
• Continuity: While lying unconscious in his bed after Boo Radley carries him back home, Jem's head is seen in several different positions.
  
  
• Continuity: While Atticus is questioning Mr. Ewell in the courtroom, Mr. Ewell has his left arm draped over the back of the witness chair in some shots and by his side in others.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: During the opening credits, when the marbles are rolling, several members of the camera crew are reflected in the marble.
  
  
• Errors in geography: There isn't a mountain within 200 miles of South Alabama where the film takes place. However, mountains are clearly visible as part of the landscape in several shots throughout the movie.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Mr. Gilmer calls his next witness, he calls the wrong one (Mayella) to come first, which would have made the entire case scene non-crucial as it was in the book. Gregory Peck picks up on this superbly and improves the line which makes Mr. Gilmer re-think and correct his actions. This was all a mistake by Mr. Gilmer in the movie.
  
  
• Continuity: When Scout asks to see Atticus' watch she stretches her right arm up while she yawns. In the next shot it's down in her lap.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: At the trial, the defense table is set nearest to the jury box. In all US criminal courts, the jury sits on the Prosecution's side of the court room.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: While Mr. Radley is cementing the tree, and after Jem and Scout have run off, you can hear someone cough off screen on the set.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Similar to her "close up" conversation with Jem about retrieving his breeches, Scout mouths Atticus' next lines when begging to be allowed a ride to visit Tom Robinson's family before the court case.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the opening scene the narrator states that it is the summer of 1932, and shortly afterward says that Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself - a reference to Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous line. But Roosevelt uttered that line in his inaugural address on March 4, 1933, over half a year later than the time of the film's opening.
  
  
• Anachronisms: At the beginning of the film, the pennies in the cigar box are dated circa 1962, while the story is set in the year 1932.
  
  
• Continuity: After speaking with Mrs. Dubose, Scout, Jem and Dill walk with Atticus towards the Finch home. When the camera angle shifts, Dill is no longer walking with them, but is all the way on the other side of the house walking towards them.
  
  
• Continuity: When Atticus is sitting in front of the courthouse door to protect Tom Robinson, the bottles in the top crate in the corner change from fewer bottles before the mob arrives, to more when the mob has left.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When sitting on the porch with the Judge, Gregory Peck is shown sitting on the porch swing with his left arm on the arm-rest. However, during the solo shots of the judge it is obvious that no-one is sitting on the swing - no arm on the arm-rest and the swing's chains are loose.
  
  
• Anachronisms: While the film is set in 1932, close ups of Scout's "ham" costume clearly show it is constructed from modern fiberglass, a material not available in its current form until 1938.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Directly after the scene where Jem and Scout are attacked while walking home through the woods, as Scout runs after the figure carrying Jem home, the trees and scenery can be seen through Scout in a ghostly fashion as if they were not originally part of the scene and were added afterward.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The introduction places the beginning of the movie in 1932, and it says that Macon had just been told "The only thing we have to fear, is fear its self" referring to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's inaugural speech. President Roosevelt was first inaugurated President on March, 4, 1933.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Jem and Scout leave the tree with the knothole in it when Mr. Radley is filling in the knothole, he leaves his school books at the foot of the tree.
  
  

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