Before the final show/dance, Baby is sitting on her bed getting ready. She is wearing a no-seam bra (not available at the time) and rolling up stockings before putting them on when her sister comes in. When Baby is at the party/final dance, she is wearing a backless dress (no bra) and when dancing, she is wearing pantyhose instead of the stockings (and necessary garter-belt) that she was preparing earlier.
Size of the hole in Johnny's back window changes between shots.
In the last dance scene, when Johnny jumps off the stage and goes to the back of the auditorium to get the other "dirty dancers" his hair is alternately wet/dry between shots.
During the final dance, Johnny signals to Baby they should leave. They head for the exit and are stopped by Baby's dad who tells Johnny that he knows about Robbie and Penny. The next scene they are in the middle of the dance floor again finishing the song.
Johnny gets his pants dirty by sliding across the floor, yet they are clean in the next shot.
Lisa says to Baby "You wouldn't care if I screwed the whole army as long as I was on the right side of the Ho Chi Minh trail." The Ho Chi Minh trail was not well known in the United States until 1965, not 1963 and definitely not by Lisa who is not interested in politics.
As Johnny & Baby return from performing at the Shelldrake, Billy stops Johnny telling Johnny that the visiting Doctor who performed Penny's Procedure went horrible.
Johnny asked why he didn't call an Ambulance. Billy responded that Penny made me promise.
Ambulances wasn't a highly regarded as an Emergency Medical Service until the 70's.
Ambulances wasn't a highly regarded as an Emergency Medical Service until the 70's.
When Johnny locks his keys in the car he breaks the rear window to open the passenger side door. He then circles around to the drivers door and opens it. Baby can actually be seen reaching across the seat and unlocking the door while Johnny walks around the car.
In the last scene when Johnny and Baby start the dance, everyone in the audience is seated in a chair. However at the end of the scene there are no chairs on the floor. However, you see some of the male dancers stop dancing and begin moving all the chairs for everyone to join in dancing.
When Johnny and Baby are driving back to from the other hotel some people have claimed that "you can clearly see that the car is still in 'park'". In reality it is a 1957 Chevy Belair Sport Coupe with a 3-spd manual transmission (three-on-the-tree). The gearshift is in second gear (up and away from driver).
The final dance landmark song "(I've had) The Time Of My Life" was recorded with obvious 1980s synthesizer sounds; it could not have been recorded or played by the on-stage band in 1963 because the technology to make the sounds didn't exist. However, given the song's prominent role in the film, this was presumably a deliberate creative choice by the filmmakers and not an unintentional goof.
Johnny is from Philadelphia so he should have had a Pennsylvania plate on his car. Instead, he had an "SP" New York license plate that was only issued in Saratoga Springs, New York. However, he could be driving a borrowed, rented, or recently purchased car; the vehicle's background is not explained in the film.
When Johnny first slides on the ground towards the camera, you can see his kneepads in the light.
When Baby is painting the "end of the season" show's set, their is no paint on her brush which looks clean and unused.
The film was set in the summer, yet the lake scene where they Johnny and Baby practice the lift was filmed in October. Since the leaves were already turning, the crew had to paint the leaves in the background. If you look closely you can see where they missed a few in one spot.
When Baby and Johnny are driving to the lodge, you see their
silhouettes in the car, but not their faces. It's obviously a stunt double wearing a very bad big wig.
After Baby's family arrives at Kellerman's, Lisa's hair ribbon is gone. When the Housemans are learning how to conga the ribbon is back again, only this time it's wrapped around her head like a headband instead of pulled back into half a pony tail.
When Johnny and Baby first dance with the other staff, Otis Redding's "Love Man" is playing. The film takes place in 1963 but Redding didn't record the song until 1967, shortly before his death. In fact, "Love Man" was recorded in the same session as "Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay" and wasn't a hit until the following year.
When Baby and some of the other girls are practicing their dance routines, many of them are wearing 1980's style workout and aerobics clothing that was not in style in the early 60's.
Driving to the resort at the beginning of the movie, the road has solid center lines which are yellow. In the early '60s centerlines were white, not yellow.
Baby (and several other women in the film, actually) sports an obviously '80s "big hair" perm, something that wasn't in-vogue in 1963. Many women during that era went for straight-hair updos or the "Jackie O" bob look.
At the bar some of the extras are drinking Miller beer bottles or cans that are of the current (late 1980's) style that were not correct for 1963.
In the scene where Johnny is teaching Baby how to dance on a log of wood over a river, the safety mats for the actors are visible on the river bed for a quick second.
Supposedly set in Upstate New York, film was shot in Virginia and North Carolina. The trees and bushes do not look like Upstate New York.