Citizen Kane
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Revealing mistake: 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).

Revealing mistake: 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.

Dr Wilson

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Suggested correction: Well, it could very well be made of something other than stone, ie. plaster on a framework, whitewashed wood, no reason not to be, maybe Kane was being concerned about weight or else cheap.

dizzyd

Revealing mistake: When the Parrot (or whatever bird it is) cries in a close-up, one can see straight through his eyes onto the sea in the background. Probably a mistake in an optical printer.

Revealing mistake: As the camera moves back (or is it forward?) through the Kane household at the beginning of the movie, you can hear the sound of the camera on the track.

Character mistake: During the dancing girl scene, as they are singing the praises of Kane, the girl to the immediate right sings out of time with the rest of the dancers during the line "His favorite son." Even though she forgets to sing the line, she can be heard singing it a bit too late. (00:41:00)

Louisville Pittman

More mistakes in Citizen KaneMore quotes from Citizen Kane

Trivia: The shot of the loud, squawking bird was purposely placed by Orson Welles to make sure the audience was still awake.

More trivia for Citizen Kane

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