The Elephant Man goofs

00:24:19 Frederick Treves calls Merrick "a complete imbecile, probably from birth", and then immediately refers to him as "a complete idiot". Historically, "imbecile" and "idiot" were clinical/psychological categories — an imbecile signified an IQ of roughly 26–50, while an idiot denoted an IQ of about 0–25 — so no-one could legitimately be classified as both.

When Carr Gomm first meets John Merrick, he comes right up to him. In the next shot he is standing well back from him, then close again.

In reality, Joseph Merrick was considerably more independent than he is depicted in the film.