King Kong

King Kong (1933)

46 mistakes - chronological order

(14 votes)

King Kong mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Kong shakes the sailors off the log and a man falls down. A shot later he's back on the log. (00:53:12)

Sacha

Revealing mistake: When the men are running away from the Brontosaurus, it is quite obviously sped up. (00:56:40)

Continuity mistake: A villager jumps off a hut and lands on the floor. A shot later he is 10 meters further ahead. (01:15:06)

Sacha

King Kong mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: As the villagers are running away from Kong, when the mother rescues the young child, in the next shot look to the back right side of the screen. A member of this movie's production crew steps into the shot, stands there watching as the movie extras are running, and the shot cuts away. (01:17:29)

King Kong mistake picture Video

Continuity mistake: Just before Kong is gassed and captured, he picks up someone and bites his head. In a close up, he has them by the legs, then in the long shot he is biting their head. (01:22:00)

King Kong mistake picture

Revealing mistake: After King Kong destroys the train track of the oncoming train, in the POV shot directly behind the train operator while he watches Kong rise from the broken track, the small model's support control bar is visible at the right as it moves up and down. The next shot is a close-up of the shocked motorman, and after he attempts to stop the train, there's another shot facing Kong with the control bar visible for a moment. (01:31:50)

Super Grover

Other mistake: When the planes attack Kong, for a brief moment the superimposed footage of the staircase below jumps to the left. (01:32:47)

Sacha

King Kong mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When King Kong carries Ann Darrow to the top of the Empire State Building, he places her on the ledge near the fixed ladder mounted to the building. During the scene, in Ann's close-ups, the ladder vanishes from where it should be, and in the zoom-in shots (biplane POV), the ladder is mounted in a different area than in the long shots. (01:35:00)

Super Grover

King Kong mistake picture

Revealing mistake: While King Kong is atop the Empire State Building, the biplanes are strafing their large target. There are several static close-up shots facing a biplane's nose, and in these "aerial" shots, there's a girder beneath the set prop's fuselage. (01:36:10)

Super Grover

King Kong mistake picture Video

Continuity mistake: This happens in King Kong's death scene. After he puts down Ann for the last time, he is shot and his right arm goes limp. In the close-up, he's suddenly using that limp arm to hold on to a spire. (01:38:05)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Well, it's said in the official Anthony Browne book adaptation that Kong got shot in the throat, not the arm. That's probably what's going on.

I believe the submitter meant that after Kong puts Ann back down for the last time, when Kong is shot (in the neck area) in the wide shot, Kong's upper body and (limp) right arm lean over in front of the building's spire, but it cuts to the close-up, and now Kong's right arm is suddenly up behind the spire with his right hand gripping that spire. This is how I interpreted the mistake.

Super Grover

That's exactly what the mistake is saying. The correction misses the mark.

zenee

King Kong mistake picture

Other mistake: While Ann Darrow is lying on the Empire State Building ledge beside the ladder, the backdrop shows the Chrysler Building, Queensboro Bridge, and Roosevelt Island, behind to the right. However, after Kong falls from the skyscraper, when Jack appears and says, "Ann, hang on, dear," this one shot is angled toward the left of the ESB, but the set's backdrop is positioned so it's the same background with the Chrysler Building, Queensboro Bridge, and Roosevelt Island, behind to the left. (01:38:20)

Super Grover

King Kong mistake picture

Revealing mistake: In the last third of the film just after the announcement that Kong is coming, a native jumps out of his hut, loses his balance and falls by a chicken coop. His wig comes off and gets caught on the fence.

Audio problem: In the early stages of Kong's fight with the Tyrannosaur, Kong throws two (nonconsecutive) standing punches that don't hit but make noise anyway.

Phoenix

Revealing mistake: As the men walk past the downed stegosaurus, the camera moves faster than they do (judging from the background) but they stay at the center of the screen. Obviously the camera on the model of the stegosaurus moved faster than the camera on the men.

Phoenix

Continuity mistake: When Driscoll is hiding in the cliff cave with Kong above him, he moves from the front of the cave to the back two or three times without ever moving from the back of the cave to the front.

Phoenix

Factual error: There are just a couple of things wrong about the gas grenades used in the movie: gas grenades do not explode, they spray their contents; and second: if the gas really is that powerful, it should be used with more caution; a simple sudden downwind breeze into an uncontrollable gas cloud, and the users would become their own victims.

Revealing mistake: When Kong crushes the scaffolding in the island village, it collapses not into a heap of splinters but in a neat panel of solidly bound wood.

Phoenix

Factual error: A creature of Kong's size would not be taken out that easily with the gas grenade as in the movie, for: 1) it explodes far too low for the gas to affect him; 2) even if the gas had reached his breathing organs, it would have taken more and prolonged exposure to knock him out.

More quotes from King Kong

Trivia: The giant wall on Skull Island was first used in the film King of Kings, and its final screen performance was in Gone with the Wind. Did you ever wonder what that giant wall of flame was?

More trivia for King Kong

Question: Closely connected questions relating to Kong's massive size and weight: How did the crew "lift" him from the raft into the ship? Where did they keep him in the ship? (there doesn't seem to be a hold big enough) How did they feed him for the several weeks it took to get to New York? And lastly, how did they get him from the ship to the theater?

Answer: It's never shown or explained, and the film uses a broad "suspension of disbelief" premise. The audience just accepts the characters were able to somehow transport a huge ape to New York City.

raywest

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