Was Mozart a childish and vulgar young man who mocked royalty? Was Marie Antoinette able to quell the revolutionary mob at Versailles just by appearing on the balcony? Did the exploits of the American navy lead to the cracking of the German Enigma code? Well, no, probably not, and no.

But if the movies that propagate such myths are shown in the classroom to history students, there is a good chance the false information will stick. A study from psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis shows that students will remember the movie version of the French Revolution or U-boat 571 rather than the factual textbook version as much as 50 per cent of the time. However:

"We found that when information in the film was consistent with information in the text, watching the film clips increased correct recall by about 50 percent relative to reading the text alone," explains Andrew Butler, a psychology doctoral student in Arts & Sciences.

"The misleading effect occurred even when people were reminded of the potentially inaccurate nature of popular films right before viewing the film," Butler says. "However, the effect was completely negated when a specific warning about the particular inaccuracy was provided before the film."

"These results have implications for the common educational practice of using popular films as an instructional aid," Butler concludes.

Is it all too obvious? Perhaps, but you have to worry about the people who have never heard anything but the Hollywood version of history.

"Although films may increase learning and interest in the classroom, educators should be aware that students might learn inaccurate information, too, even if the correct information has been presented in a text. More broadly, these same positive and negative effects apply to the consumption of popular history films by the general public."

For a slide show detailing inaccuracies in the nine Hollywood films used in the study, look here.