reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (01/17/85)
Here are the answers to the trivia quiz I posted a while back. I guess it
was too tough, as I only got two responses, one of which was frivolous.
Evelyn and Mark Leeper combined for 56 points, out of 100. (They got one
point for knowing the truncated title from question 18.) Although they
are the winners by default, I suspect that no one else would have done
any better had they even tried.
Each question is worth five points, unless otherwise indicated.
1. Julie Andrews starred in three Broadway hits which were made into
movies, but she didn't star in any of the films. Name the films and the
actresses who played the roles. (6 pts)
"The Boy Friend" Twiggy
"My Fair Lady" Audrey Hepburn
"Camelot" Vanessa Redgrave
2. What was the largest film set ever constructed in Hollywood?
The castle walls for Douglas Fairbanks' (Sr.) "The Adventures of
Robin Hood" (D.W. Griffith's Babylon set for
"Intolerance" is second, and you could drive a
four horse chariot on its walls; they did - once.)
3. Otto Preminger approached a well-known public figure to play a southern
senator in "Advise and Consent". After some consideration, this person
declined. Who was it?
Martin Luther King, Jr. He declined because he thought that
appearing in a film might make his cause appear frivolous.
4. What actor was the first choice for the title role in the original
Hollywood production of "Dracula"?
Lon Chaney (Sr.), who died before filming started.
5. What famous figure in the British entertainment world had his first
screen role in D. W. Griffith's "Hearts of the World"?
Noel Coward has a couple of bit parts in this film.
6. Who played the admiral in "Seven Days in May"?
John Houseman (unbilled).
7. According to Harry Lime, what is Switzerland's greatest contribution
to civilization?
The cuckoo clock.
8. What director was Goebbels' first choice to head film production for
the Third Reich?
Fritz Lang. He said yes, then snuck out of Germany the same night.
9. At the end of "The Big Sleep", one murder is left unsolved, and neither
Raymond Chandler, nor the screenwriters (including William Faulkner), nor the
director (Howard Hawks) could figure out who did it. What character was
the victim?
The chauffeur. For you sf trivia fans, the second listed screenwriter
on "The Big Sleep" (after Faulkner; would *you* really want
to be billed *before* William Faulkner? Shades of "from a
play by William Shakespeare Additional dialog by Sam Wood".)
was Leigh Brackett.
10. Who did Irving Thalberg describe as "a footage fetishist"?
Erich von Stroheim. On being shown a closet full of shoes (on
a film set) which von Stroheim didn't have any intention
of filming. Von Stroheim insisted that the extras in
his Austrian dramas of corruption wear authentic silk
underwear. This sort of behavior explains in part why
his Hollywood career was cut short.
11. Peter Bogdanovich appears as an actor in what is probably one of the
most famous unfinished films. What is the film's title?
"The Other Side of the Wind", Orson Welles greatest (supposedly)
unfinished film. The last I heard, Welles claimed that
shooting was finished, but his Iranian financers had disappeared
and it could not be edited, etc. without their consent. A
likely story.
12. Name three films other than the original "King Kong" which used sets
from that film. (There are at least four.) (9 pts.)
"The Most Dangerous Game"
"Son of Kong"
"Citizen Kane" (a jungle backdrop for the picnic at Xanadu)
"Gone With the Wind" (part of burning Atlanta is actually Kong's
wall)
the Leepers answered that "She" and "The Return of Chandu" also
used sets from "King Kong". Since they supplied a
reference and dates, studios, and subject matter make
it highly plausible, I will assume they are right.
13. What two men were the creative forces behind the Archers production
company?
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
14. Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charles Chaplin, and D.W. Griffith
were the original United Artists. What major star was asked to join them
in forming the company, but declined?
William S. Hart, the greatest cowboy star of the 1920s.
15. There was a scandal on the set of "Apocalypse Now" when it was revealed
that members of the crew were smuggling a certain substance into the
Phillipines in film cans at the company's expense. What was the substance?
The largely Italian crew smuggled pasta into the Phillipines this
way when they grew tired of Oriental food on the very long
shoot. The scandal mainly arose because the film cans were
being shipped by a very expensive express service to get
negatives out and rough cuts in quickly.
16. What were the words Robert Mitchum had tattooed on his fingers in
"Night of the Hunter"?
"love" and "hate"
17. Where did William Friedkin's film "Sorcerer" get its title from?
It was the name of one of the trucks used to transport the high
explosives.
18. What is the full title (in English) of the Japanese film which
inspired "Star Wars"?
"Three Bad Men in a Hidden Fortress" Someone eventually
decided that the last three words (well, "The" instead of
"A") would go over better in America.
19. Who is the only person ever to win an Acadamy Award on a write-in
campaign?
Hal Mohr, for his cinematography on "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
(Warner Bros., 1935). The Acadamy was not amused, and
changed the rules to prohibit write-ins.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
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