Continuity mistake: Fred Gwynne's pipe jumps from his hand to his mouth when he and Michael Douglas walk up the stairs to his office.
Continuity mistake: In the scene in the tub, Glen Close's feet start out filthy, then they become clean as a whistle when she is flailing from her knees, then by the end of the scene they're disgusting again. (01:52:40)
Continuity mistake: As Michael Douglas listens to the answering machine, the green overhead lamp that is above the table in the beginning of the movie is gone. (00:22:20)
Continuity mistake: At the start of the film we are introduced to Michael Douglas' family life. His wife is in the bathroom getting ready for their night out, Michael is sat on the couch reading and his daughter, Ellen, is sat on the chair watching cartoons. In one shot Ellen is sat on her own, but in the next shot their dog has magically appeared on her lap.
Continuity mistake: The amount of wine in the Michael Douglas' glass changes in the scene where he is talking to his daughter about rabbits. It fills up without being touched. (00:41:30)
Continuity mistake: (DVD only) In the new ending, when Alex attacks Beth at the family's home, Beth has bruises and a cast on her arm, obviously a result of the accident she was in a few days ago. In the original ending, presumably taking place within the same time frame, when the cops come to question Dan about Alex's death, Beth is fine - no bruises, no cast, she doesn't even look tired.
Continuity mistake: When Alex goes to see Dan in his office, Dan in the first scene is sitting with uncrossed legs, then his legs are crossed, then uncrossed again.
Continuity mistake: In the party scene the people behind Stewart Pankin on the slow moving food line change it just a matter of seconds from shot to shot. (00:04:50)
Continuity mistake: In the very first scene we see Ann Archer pulling down a shade from afar with the curtains pulled to the side. Then we switch to her inside the apartment and see the curtains are already closed. (00:02:00)
Continuity mistake: Quincy is sleeping on the little girl and keeps changing positions on her lap. (00:02:10)
Continuity mistake: The part in Stuart Pankin's hair keeps changing in the party scene. (00:05:40)
Continuity mistake: The little girl appears to have been given a haircut after we see her at the empty rabbit cage, most apparent when we see her the following morning. (01:27:00 - 01:30:30)
Continuity mistake: Early in the movie, there is a black clock on the wall in Dan's kitchen that reads 7:50. Later, when he is in Alex's apartment strangling her, the same black clock is now in her apartment and it, too, reads 7:50.
Continuity mistake: When Michael Douglas comes home the first night after being a bad boy with Glenn Close, he is shown in the kitchen talking on the phone to his wife at a little after 8:30 AM. Not only does he talk to her, but he also has a whispery chat with his lover, walks all about the kitchen, sits at the table, and the time on the clock doesn't change once. (00:22:20 - 00:23:05)
Continuity mistake: At the end Michael Douglas is standing in front of his home with the door open in the background with the hallway illuminated. The camera angle now switches to inside the house, but he has to enter the house through a closed door.
Continuity mistake: When Dan throws Alex into the bath, she goes in face down, but suddenly she is face up - which would be a difficult manoeuvre in a small bath.
Continuity mistake: When Alex, naked in bed, jumps up to stop Dan leaving, she attacks his shirt, and you can hear it ripping, but, later, it's completely fine - no ripped bits anywhere.
Continuity mistake: When Dan leaves the budget office in his rental car, the front license plate is mounted off to one side, unusual for this type of vehicle. When he arrives at the house, it's still the same license plate number, but the plate is now mounted on the centre of the bumper.
Continuity mistake: When Dan's wife is by the dinner table talking about the house, his arm is up, yet a frame later from a different angle is down.
Continuity mistake: After Alex and Dan go dancing and go back to her apartment, she reaches up to get a door key from the top of an electrical box outside her door. She takes down the key in her right hand and then opens the door with her left hand. The key never goes near the lock or doorknob.
Chosen answer: With questions such as this, one can either speculate, or one can go directly to the source. So, using IMDb, I looked up the names of the crew on "Fatal Attraction." The costume designer is listed as Ellen Mirojnick. The set decoration was the responsibility of George DeTittas, Sr. I found Ellen Mirojnick on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Ellenmirojnick/posts/263462080524551?comment_id=263621453841947&offset=0&total_comments=2¬if_t=feed_comment), and posed the question to her. This was the reply she gave: " (I)n our process there is always a purpose for a palette to tell a story dramatically. I chose white for her character because white is powerful and although not essentially a "color" it reflects all other colors, which would in turn reflect where we were in the story. I thought through her silhouettes and use of shades of whites, it would reflect her mood and not give away the demon she kept hidden. WHITE is powerful... As she was!" I have not yet been able to track down Mr. DeTittas for comment. But I have posed the additional question to Ms. Mirojnick regarding whether the color palette motif was a decision shared by different departments on the film. Ms. Mironjnick added the following comments: "she wears white to discuise (sic) her darkness, that somehow is revealed in certain places.. white is all things combined .. it radiatesits (sic) the confusion as if she was in an asylum, but her own."
Michael Albert