Continuity mistake: The length of Edward G. Robinson's necktie rises and falls, often within the same scene.
Continuity mistake: At the Scenic Tunnel Marilyn's lover writes a message to her on a postcard and places it back into the rack. She walks over and reads it but it isn't in the same place that he put it as the postcard next to it is different. (00:33:55)
Continuity mistake: Marlowe sits in front of Joe Brody's apartment building, The Randall Arms. Later as he follows the gunman that shot Brody we see it from inside the car and the registration stickers are different. (00:47:40 - 00:57:20)
Continuity mistake: Doc Riedenschneider calls on Cobby in a dark hallway with brick walls and a door in the end with a half-open transom. Through this door, in the adjacent room, there are several gangsters seated a table. They go down the hallway and enter this room. In the next scene they have entered and the seated gangsters are suddenly no longer there. Nor is there a transom over the door. The hallway viewed from this room has white walls now instead of brick.
Continuity mistake: Kasper Gutman goes wild cutting the Maltese Falcon continuously with his knife, but in one of the inserted close-ups of him he's just standing there not doing anything. (01:28:40)
Continuity mistake: When Joe awakens after his first night at Norma's mansion, his shirt is un-tucked as he puts on his jacket to go outside. When he is running down the stairs in the next shot, his shirt is tucked in. (00:26:35)
Continuity mistake: When Frank, the DA and the policeman are discussing the accident, the policeman notices the electrocuted cat and it is shown next to the ladder. In the subsequent wide shot the cat is lying between the beams of the ladder. (00:42:50 - 00:43:35)
Continuity mistake: On the honeymoon night, when Willa approaches to the bed, Harry stands up and lights the lamp above in front of him. Between shots the lamp changes position.
Continuity mistake: When McMurray enters his office at the start of the film, he places his hand on the table and sits down. The position of the hand is different between shots.
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: After the operation to change Vic Brady's face, the first time the bandages come off, the scar on his forehead runs diagonal from the top of his nose to well above the eye. However when he's shot by the pool, the scar runs laterally across the middle of his forehead.
Continuity mistake: Near the end, Eddie knocks down a thug who tries to stop him from putting Toro into a cab. The man's hat falls off and lands on the concrete. He gets up as the cab drives away, then turns to retrieve the hat, which has now moved itself off the sidewalk and into the bushes.
Continuity mistake: Watch Devlin's hands in the cafe in Rio. They open and close between shots.
Continuity mistake: In the film's final scenes at the fuel storage facility, full sunlight is streaming through the overhead rafters. Moments later, it's completely dark and the plant's floodlights are all turned on. A few shots further on, the lights are off and it's daylight again.
Continuity mistake: When the butler tells of Harry Lime's death, at the start of the conversation he can hardly speak English. As the conversation goes on, his English gets better and better, until at the end it's perfect with just an accent.
Suggested correction: He is reluctant to speak English at the start possibly to avoid trouble but later decides otherwise.
Continuity mistake: When Leona picks up her hand mirror, her medicine tray is positioned directly in front of her on her bed. When she puts the hand mirror down in the next shot, the medicine tray is pushed about a foot away from her bed.
Continuity mistake: Pinkie sweeps all the glasses on top of the bar onto the floor, yet after he and his gang have gone we see broken glass on the bar top.
Continuity mistake: The dead body Wally discovers in the house has its head straight in the long shots, but canted to the right in the close ups.
Continuity mistake: When Quinlan is with Joe Grandi at the bar, Quinlan breaks his sobriety while seated at a round table, but in the last overhead shot the table is rectangular. (00:57:00 - 00:58:25)
Continuity mistake: After Elsie has been kidnapped, there is a scene where a little girl walks up to an old man to ask him for the time. A man notices this and walks towards the old man. The old man is standing in front of a light pole which casts a shadow onto the pavement. In another shot, there are no shadows near the light pole.