Revealing mistake: How can Oprah ride around in a one of a kind 1928 or 1929 Model "A" Ford Deluxe Phaeton? This car that is used in the movie is obviously a '28 or '29 model because it has the short chromed radiator shell ('30 & '31s had a stainless steel radiator shell). If you look closely enough you will also see tell-tale signs of it being a '28 or '29 model. The first year for the Deluxe Phaeton was 1930. Ford continued making it to almost the '40s, 1938. The Model "A" Ford Deluxe Phaetons were made in 1930 and 1931. 6,175 units total. The dead give away that it is, in fact, partly a Deluxe Phaeton is that it is a two door vehicle. The Standard Phaetons all had four doors. Other things that make it a '28 or '29 model are a dished steering wheel w/small chrome horn button, 15:00 oval Stewart Warner speedometer with trip set showing 50,840+ miles, chrome map light is visible in the center of the solid chrome instrument cluster (no match striker flutes as in '30 & '31 models), conical shaped headlights instead of spherical as in '30 & '31 models, small rounded edged hubcaps on 21 inch wheels ('30 & '31s had smaller wheels - 19 inch with larger hub caps), and cylindrical shaped taillights. There were no oblong instrument clusters in Deluxe Phaetons because the first ones were made mid-year 1930. No oval speedometers. It is a really nice looking, well restored, car but it is a one of a kind Model "A". No Deluxe Phaetons were ever produced in 1928 or 1929.
Continuity mistake: When he first brings Celie home to his family, Mister'shouse is a two-story plantation-style house with grand pillars, a front porch that does not span the whole width of the house and and an upper porch. Then, suddenly, his house is a farm-style house with a full-width front porch, and a full garden in front (the one with the mailbox across the dirt road from the house) and it's completely different from the first house.
Factual error: The letter from Nettie is dated 18 April 1935 but the larger of the stamps on the envelope is the Southern Rhodesia stamp for the Silver Jubilee of George V, that wasn't issued till 6 May 1935.
Revealing mistake: When Celie is having her baby, and her sister brings the kettle of boiling water into the house, as she gets ready to pour the boiling water, she places her left hand on the "boiling" kettle. If it were really boiling water, she would have burned her hand in a second.
Factual error: When Harpo opens his Blues Pub in 1922, Shug sings a song in it on the opening; after which she has a conversation with Celie. In the background, we hear some music, and it is a piece of John Lee Hooker. Not only that John Lee Hooker was only 7 years old at that time, the music seems to come from a modern Hifi system, not a gramophone.
Chosen answer: They appear to be illegal drugs.
raywest ★