Continuity mistake: In the flashback scene where Dustin Hoffman is in the hotel bathroom on the floor, he puts a coffee mug on the toilet, then the view switches and when it comes back the mug is gone, never to be seen again.
Continuity mistake: When the Japanese ship is about to be torpedoed, there are no numbers or letters on its side. In the next shot, when the ship explodes, a large white "265" is visible on the port side of the ship.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the film when all the women are dressed up after making clothes out of tablecloths, you can see the Italian woman riding in the front of the wagon. The shot changes and she's riding on the side looking at all the men and smiling. The shot changes again and she's back to the front.
Continuity mistake: At the detective agency, while Bud and Lou are talking to the murderer, the description of the murderer comes over the police radio, and it states "5 feet 11 inches, weighs 165, blue eyes, brown hair, last seen wearing a felt hat and dark borwn overcoat". Then 15 seconds later Bud says out loud, writing on a piece of paper the description "5 feet 10 inches, weight 165, blue eyes, sandy hair".
Continuity mistake: When Charlie Allnut grabs a bottle of gin from the box, all the bottles in it are wrapped with paper for transport. But when Rose Sayer takes the bottles out of the box to empty them into the river, the paper is gone (from the movements of her hand/wrist, you can tell that she doesn't unwrap the paper from the bottles).
Continuity mistake: When Alice shrinks after being huge in the forest, you can see both pieces of mushroom in her hands, untouched, although she has taken a bite out of both pieces. (00:36:40)
Continuity mistake: Alice Tripp is wearing different shoes when she starts walking home from the movie with George Eastman than she is when they are close to where she lives.
Continuity mistake: When the quake starts, Joyce Hendron runs to the arms of David Randall for protection. Ten seconds later, she again runs again to his arms. (00:41:55)
Continuity mistake: When the giant is fighting the bull, in the long shots the bulls horns are white, but in the closeups, they're black.
Continuity mistake: Klaatu introduces himself to the Professor for the first time by relaying some details of his stay at the hospital to verify who he is. Klaatu tells the Professor he was staying in room 309, but the early scenes at the hospital show him in room 306. (00:41:48)
Continuity mistake: When Hill disturbs Michael Corland at the table, he holds a piece of paper. The paper swaps hands between shots. (00:07:05)
Continuity mistake: During the final dance number, Vera-Ellen's skirt alternates repeatedly between long and flowing and short and tight - perhaps to facilitate some of the dance moves.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Guy enters Bruno's house to kill his father, Guy takes out a flashlight to look at Bruno's map. In one shot, you can only see the map, and the light is very small and circular, but in a wider shot of Guy's upper torso, the light covers most all of the map.
Continuity mistake: The scavenger discussing Scrooge's bed curtains with the housekeeper lays the curtains down in his lap, then the next shot he is holding them up again.
Continuity mistake: During combat a pilot is shown to be wounded in his right leg. As he is coming in to land, two further shots of him in the cockpit now show him to be wounded in his left leg. Some blood stain patterns on his gear, also the position of his helmet chin strap, also change position from left to right.
Continuity mistake: In the early scene in the officers' club, the money in the center of the poker table disappears and reappears with the change of angle.
Continuity mistake: Early on in the film Alec Guinness is travelling in the back of a van transporting gold bars to the bank. He spots what he believes is a suspicious car following and asks the driver to stop to check it out. The next shot shows the van stopping outside a row of buildings in a London street. The driver gets out to let Alec Guinness out of the van and they are now parked by a low wall with an open vista (probably one of the many bomb sites in London at the time) and no buildings.The next shot then shows the van outside the buildings again.
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the film, Karl Malden is embracing Vivien Leigh. In one shot she has her left forearm against his chest, with her hand in the vicinity of his shoulder. In the next shot this arm is instantly around his neck.
Continuity mistake: When Sylvester's owner tells him that she will get into the hotel, you can see that she is wearing a brooch on her shirt. But when she is carrying Sylvester around her neck in the next shot, the brooch has vanished.
Continuity mistake: When Jerry gets in Milo's car so that she can get cash to pay him for his paintings, they get into a dark green car. In the next shot they get out of a light (slightly greenish) blue car. (00:23:00)