Mistakes in Citizen Kane

Mistake #1

In the scene with the lovely dancing ladies, Cotten blows cigar smoke just before a cut to him from the opposite angle. From this angle there is no smoke. This takes place just before Wells throws his jacket to Cotten.

Mistake #2

When Kane and Susan are speaking in their mansion, Susan is busying herself with jigsaw puzzles. The wide shot shows the jigsaw puzzle almost completed, but Susan's close-up shows the jigsaw puzzle in pieces.

Mistake #3

To save money during the beach picnic scene, Welles used stock footage from King Kong (1933) for the jungle background. You can quite clearly see pterodactyls flying in the background (confirmed on DVD commentary).

Mistake #4

When they are inspecting the statues at the end of the movie, somebody touches one of them. It wobbles as if it was made of something else than stone.

Mistake #5

When the dancing girls start singing to Charles Kane, there is a frontal shot of Kane sitting next to a man wearing a hat. When the shot changes from being in front of them to being behind them, the man is suddenly no longer wearing the hat. When the shot changes back, he is once again wearing the hat.