Catch Me If You Can

Corrected entry: When Hanratty is talking to Frank Sr. in Frank Sr.'s apartment, Hanratty sees an envelope from Frank Jr. It is illegal for Hanratty to look through Frank Sr.'s mail without his consent or a court order, that constitutes invasion of privacy.

Correction: Yes it is true cops cannot search areas without consent or a warrant, EXCEPT if the item is in plain view, which that envelope was.

Corrected entry: There is a scene in which Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio are aboard a plane at LaGuardia Airport. This particular scene takes place in 1969, and at one point there is a shot of the New York City skyline with the Twin Towers intact. However, the towers were not completed until 1973.

Correction: After going over it several times, all I see is The Empire State Building. It was either filmed after the tragedy, or they were removed during editing.

Anthony Chiaro

Corrected entry: In the scene at the French prison in 1969, Carl uses a pop-up mini-umbrella. This type of umbrella wasn't available until the late 70s. Until then, all umbrellas were of the two-hand, slide-up variety.

Correction: Sure looked like a regular long black push-up type when I double-checked it.

Anthony Chiaro

Corrected entry: When DiCaprio is in the hotel room with Jennifer Garner, they agree on $700 for her to stay the night. He goes through his checks and finds one for $1100 and then says he will have to go get it cashed. Why? He flips past one for $700 and this is not the kind of situation you want to leave in the middle of.

Grumpy Scot

Correction: He was tricking Jennifer Garner. He gets her to pay him $400 for his fake check. He made a profit on the transaction. They agree on $1000, not $700.

Anthony Chiaro

Corrected entry: When Frank Jr. recieves the book of checks from his father, he flips through them. There is a zip code visible on his address, but zip codes weren't used until 1967. There couldn't be a zip code if it was 1963.

Correction: This scene was set in March 1964 (Frank's 16th birthday; he was born in 1948, as shown in the later scene where he's altering his ID). Zip codes were introduced on July 1 1963 (see http://www.usps.com/history/history/his2_75.htm).

Corrected entry: When Tom Hanks and Leo DiCaprio are returning on the plane from France, Leo remarks that they are passing over, and apparently landing at, LaGuardia Airport. Flights from Europe never land at LaGuardia as the runways are too short for very large planes.

Correction: It never says they are landing there, Frank justs points out where it is.

Stefanie

Corrected entry: As Frank is climbing out of the window at the party, to escape from the FBI, he turns and tells his girlfriend, Brenda, to meet him at Miami International Airport in two days, and specifically tells her to leave at 10am. Then when he is telling her again, he tells her to be there at 10am. (01:41:35)

Scrappy

Correction: That could have been a mistake he made, or maybe he just changed his mind.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Handratty is studying a map of Europe, you can see Germany united. From 1949 til 1989, Germany was divided into West Germany (BRD) and East Germany (DDR). (01:50:45)

Correction: No, Germany was not formally divided until several years after the Western zones were merged. It's not impossible that Hanratty had a map from the late forties or early fifties, which would show post-war borders and a united Germany.

Factual error: In a telephone conversation scene between Frank and Handratty, Frank is using a phone that has a plug type receiver. The phones in that era were all hard wired.

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Trivia: Frank Abagnale's father was, in real life, a straight honest law abiding citizen, and not the shonky con-man as depicted in the movie.

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Question: After Frank is essentially forced to abandon Brenda in order to avoid not getting caught at the airport he resumes his farce as a pilot and recruits young women as his accompanying stewardesses. Roughly how long does this thing with the stewardesses possibly last? Did he really risk to include them in his "trip" around the world to various countries to continue his fraud because obviously he abandoned them at some point and ended up in France where he was caught.

Answer: It lasts several months. The stewardesses were juniors and seniors from the University of Arizona, whom he fake-recruited for a PR project for Pan-Am (they were not supposed to be real stewardesses, but dress like them and be photographed in various European capitols). Frank was frequently being asked where his "crew" was, so he thought it would lend him credibility.

This is inaccurate. When he leaves Brenda, he calls the university immediately and says that he will be stopping by the next morning, and we see that they return to Miami International Airport. So, it was definitely not the University of Arizona. And I don't recall anyone asking Frank where his crew was; the question he got was what kind of equipment he was on. As far as the ladies are concerned, he likely left them right there in Miami. Much easier to keep a low profile on his own.

jshy7979

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