Possible 'Goof' ?
When the car radio announced the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), our characters are in Washington D.C. and it appears to be summertime.
shareI noticed that too and also would there be a school program on a Sunday?
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MovieChat Forums > The FBI Story Discussion > Possible 'Goof' ?
I think it might have been done for dramatic effect. We go from a world where things are trying to get better into a uncertain future at that point and no doubt there was a certain unreality to the news of Pearl Harbor to a lot of people back then. Here we are a big industrialized nation and this little island country attacks us out of the blue.
shareIt's a "Midterm Installation of Honors Society Officers" and thus quite likely to be held in December, if later in the month. Like you say, it doesn't seem the sort of thing that would have been held on a Sunday afternoon, but not ever having been an honors student, I can't say for sure. The weather does seem pretty springlike, with blooming trees and no coats in sight, but maybe it was warm in Washington that week.
I don't think they would have left the car radio on, as the Goofs section notes. It would have killed the battery.
A Sunday-afternoon school recital seems perfectly fine, but the weather does look a bit warm for the D.C. area in early December (though I've been there when it was 73° in January).
But leaving the radio on when they left the car always annoyed me, for exactly the reason you said -- they'd run down the battery. How would Chip drive to the Bureau when he was called in that day? I don't think J. Edgar would be impressed with his excuse that he was comforting his daughter after she blew her speech by playing music on the car radio during a heat wave in December.
Also, how did he turn on the radio without turning on the ignition?
Regarding the radio: I have had cars that did not have to have the ignition on to play the radio - and they were older cars (late 60s Beetle). It does seem odd that they left the radio on, but it wouldn't kill the battery immediately. I don't know if the cars used less electricity or the batteries held a bigger charge - I know my push button start car now can't play the radio long when the car isn't running without an annoying warning sounding.
I live north of DC. Yesterday it was 58, so I would guess it was closer to 68 in DC. Today it only got to 50, but yes, we have had Decembers that were frigid with feet of snow and Decembers that were warm and up to the 70s.... DC weather is very strange.
I think we were having some fun about the radio -- I doubt it would have been on long enough to have worn down the battery, though he might have had some trouble starting the car. I do wonder how he could turn on the radio without even putting the key in the ignition, but I'm not familiar enough with the designs of late 30s-early 40s cars to know if this was possible.
The bigger problem is it's actually a pretty clumsy plot device -- it's one thing for Chip to have turned on the radio to play some music while making his daughter feel better, but to have gone off leaving the radio on, just so the audience can hear the news bulletin about Pearl Harbor, is pretty lame and obvious.
I lived in D.C. for four years when I went to school there, and as one of our professors told us early on, "You know what they say about Washington weather? You don't like it, wait a minute." (Of course, the Hardestys were in Arlington, but no real difference.) But as far as its looking too warm for December goes, I doubt anyone making the movie even thought about that. They were just filming a scene and as with much of the film not paying much attention to the details.