Honora, Juliet and Pauline walk up from the bus terminus near Victoria Park, and Honora elects to have a cup of tea before going into the park. When they pass the entrance to the park, the camera follows them as they turn to enter the Victoria Park Tea Rooms, to their right. As they start up the stairs to the tea rooms, they pass a small sign on the ground advertising ice cream. In an earlier shot, at the close of the Prologue, Mrs Ritchie runs down the steps leading to the Tea Rooms. When she reaches the bottom of the steps, the ice cream sign is gone.
When Pauline and Juliet take a bath together, each girl has separate shots at her respective end of the tub, with very different water levels.
Pauline and Juliet Strip off some of their clothes while singing "The Donkey Serenade" in the woods. In one shot after Juliet has been reduced to her bra, Pauline begins to remove her vest as she runs from the left to right of the screen. In the next shot the vest is back on.
When Pauline is ill in bed, toast disappears and reappears in her hand.
In art class, Mrs. Collins picks up some papers and a wooden tray with a circular shape carved into one end of it, then turns and talks to Juliet. In one shot the carving is facing her. In the next shot, the carving is facing away from her.
When Juliet Hulme is introduced in the movie, it depicts her being called down by both her French and Art teachers. However, none of Hulme's instructors ever spoke to her harshly or even punished her. In fact, the opposite was true. According to classmates of Hulme, because her father was Rector of Canterbury University College and her family was English, she was treated very well by students and instructors alike. Girls Hulme attended classes with have stated in interviews that when a group of them got caught in mischief, they would simply have Hulme say it was her idea and there would be no consequences. Hulme's instructors gave her special allowances based on her father's position, even though he was not well liked by his colleagues, and Hulme's classmates found her very exotic because she was from England.
On the day Juliet coughs up blood in class, the date written on the chalkboard is 11 May. Although in real life, Pauline's diary notes that 11 May was the first day Juliet coughed up blood, this event occurred during the May holidays when the girls' school was closed.
In the end credits, Richard Rodgers' name is misspelled 'Rogers' in the citation for the song "You'll Never Walk Alone".
Pauline's diary shows January 1st, 1954 as a Thursday, when it was really a Friday. Earlier in the film, a similar shot of the same diary clearly shows the previous year and date (Thursday, January 1st, 1953.)
Anne Perry insists that Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker never had a lesbian relationship, just they had an "obsessive friendship". Yet Parker's diaries suggest that there was a lesbian angle. Peter Jackson decided to keep this vague by portraying the characters' interaction as good friends acting out a romantic script.
When Honora hangs sheets on the line, they have clear fold marks from the packets they were sold in.
When Steve arrives with his new Doris Day record, the record jacket bends and crushes as he gets out his board money for Honora, revealing that the jacket is empty.
In 1952, the collection of Mario Lanza albums include the The Student Prince (1954) soundtrack (1954) and "A Cavalcade Of Show Tunes" (1957).
Pauline and Juliet sit on a bench during P.E., reading the book 'Biggles of 266' (1956) by Captain W.E. Johns.
The Doris Day LP record titled "Bright and Shiny" that the young lodger, Steve, has just bought and shows the family was recorded in 1961. (Also, in 1953 when the film is set, long playing records were 12 inch).
When the girls leave the cinema the first time, posters on the walls advertise three films not yet released : Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Jubilee Trail (1954) and Jamaica Run (1953). The scene is set in 1952.
The picture of Mario Lanza wearing a blue shirt shown in two scenes is a still from the movie Seven Hills of Rome (1957), released years after the story of this film.
When Honora brings Pauline a tray of breakfast into her room, she gives Pauline the tray, then talks to her for a while. A crew member's face is clearly reflected in the window. Afterward, two hands holding the long pole of a boom mic are reflected in the window.
When John goes to Pauline's bedroom in the middle of the night, the camera's shadow appears to the left of his shadow.
In art class, Mrs. Collins says "...and decide who wants to model and who wants to draw." In a wide shot of the class, the long pole of a boom mic being slowly lowered is clearly reflected in the windows on the right side of the room.
When Pauline, Juliet, and Honora are riding in the bus, they are clearly on the upper part of Dyer's Pass Road approaching Sign of the Kiwi, which means they have gone past their destination of Victoria Park.
Twice characters say "and I" when they should say "and me". Mrs Hulme says it's "a long time for your father and I to be apart" (31 min, uncut version), and Mr Rieper says Gina is "causing her mother and I a lot of worry" (82:30, uncut version).
Pauline Parker refers to Mario Lanza as being Italian. In fact, Lanza was American, of Italian descent.