Nationality Films Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Italian Job

The film inspired a 2003 film with the same title, but it's the original which starred Michael Caine. It involves a plot to steal a fortune in gold bullion with Croker (Caine), who has just been released from prison, unexpectedly finding himself leading the gang. Croker manages to break back into the prison to contact Mr Bridger (Noel Coward) to get financial backing for the scheme.

The film has several iconic moments, with the sight of three Mini Coopers avoiding the traffic chaos the gang has created, being one that has inspired many others. Do they get away with the money? You may need to watch the film to find out, or maybe not!

Answer: Zorba the Greek

Anthony Quinn had Mexican heritage but he made a very believable Greek in this 1964 film, set on the island of Crete. The plot involves a writer named Basil, played by Alan Bates, who has inherited a mine which he proposes to reopen. This is mainly to help him overcome a severe case of writer's block by taking on a new venture. He is persuaded to employ Alexis Zorba (Quinn) to run the mine, a decision that he comes to regret.

Although the film is thought of as a comedy, it has dark events including a murder, trickery and theft. The film ends with Zorba and Basil dancing together. The dance was created for the film and has become popular as a newly invented tradition.

Answer: The Maltese Falcon

The film was the first to be directed by Huston, and what a start it was. Bogart plays Sam Spade, the private investigator created by author Dashiell Hammett, with Mary Astor as the client who employs him while the villains are portrayed by Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.

The film starts with Mary Astor's character asking Spade to help find her missing sister. Both the name she gives herself and the story turn out to be false, and the situation turns worse for Spade when he is implicated in a murder. As most of us know (but stop reading now if you don't) the Maltese falcon of the title is a valuable statuette which is the target of all the leading characters. Astor's character turns out to be a killer, and Spade hands her over to the police, despite her pleas and his own feelings for her.

Answer: The Danish Girl

This is the most recent film in the quiz, and another to be based on a novel. David Ebershoff wrote a fictional version of the life of Lili Elbe, who was born male and transitioned to female in the 1930s, making her a pioneer.

The film begins in Copenhagen when Redmayne, still outwardly male and married to Gerda (Alicia Vikander), both of whom are artists, dresses as a woman when the model Gerda has booked fails to turn up. This enables him to admit that he feels female, and leads to a change of identity and name. The couple, still together, move to Paris where Lili seeks psychological counselling to help her deal with her identity. Lili then discovers a German surgeon who is willing to undertake gender reassignment surgery, and is set on a track which will ultimately lead to tragedy.

Alicia Vikander won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in the film.

Answer: The Spanish Main

Paul Henreid plays a Dutch captain whose ship is wrecked off the coast of Colombia. Captain van Horn and his crew are captured but manage to escape and establish themselves as pirates after acquiring a ship named the Barracuda. They capture a countess, played by O'Hara, who is on her way to an arranged marriage. To avoid more killing, she offers to marry van Horn and help him defeat the corrupt governor (her intended husband). As you probably guessed, the pair fall in love for real.

The film was a success despite problems with a strike and a budget overrun which meant the original ending was abandoned as being too expensive to film.

Answer: The French Connection

Directed by William Friedkin, the film was based on a non-fiction book about narcotic detectives in New York. The characters in the film were fictional, but based on their real life counterparts.

Gene Hackman plays Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle while Roy Scheider plays his detective partner. The villain of the story is a French heroin smuggler named Alain Charnier, played by Fernando Rey. Most of the action takes place in New York as the police try to trap the drug smugglers, leading to quite a few deaths. A sequel, 'French Connection II' followed in 1975 with Hackman and Rey reprising their roles, so you now know they both survived the first film.

'The French Connection' won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Hackman and is considered a classic.

Answer: The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming

The film was directed by Norman Jewison and starred Carl Reiner and Eva Marie Saint as well as Arkin, for whom it was a first starring role.

The plot involves a Russian submarine which accidentally gets stuck on a sandbar near a small island in New England. Rather than admit the embarrassing situation, the Russians decide to send a group of sailors to the land in an attempt to find a motor boat to help free the submarine. The situation becomes out of control when the leader of the Russians (Arkin) meets up with an American (Reiner) and his family who are on holiday from the city of New York. Rumours of a full scale invasion quickly spread, but the village people eventually learn the truth, and form an escort of small boats to protect the submarine as it escapes to international waters.

The film was generally well received, although some critics felt the farcical elements were overdone. According to reports, even the Russian government appreciated the film and its attempts to portray the Russians in a positive way, especially considering the Cold War was at its height.

Answer: The English Patient

This was another film to be based on a novel, this one written by Michael Ondaatje, which the director adapted himself for the big screen. It was certainly worth the effort as the film won Oscars for Best Film, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress as well as another six awards for the technical side.

The plot involves a pilot who is shot down during World War II. He is badly burned but has an English accent, giving the film (and book) its title. Juliette Binoche plays the nurse caring for the patient as he recovers and won the Academy Award for her role. During flashbacks, we discover the patient is actually Hungarian and learn of his pre-war affair with Katharine Clifton (Scott Thomas) which leads to the death of her husband, played by Colin Firth, and also Katharine herself. There are other characters whose stories interweave with the main character, who eventually makes an irrevocable decision.

Answer: Swiss Family Robinson

The film was based on a novel by Swiss author Johann David Wyss which was published in 1812 and had already been filmed earlier, in 1940. As well as John Mills, the 1960 version starred Dorothy McGuire as his wife.

The plot involves the Robinson family - mother, father and three sons - who are on a ship which is attacked by pirates and subsequently wrecked. They come ashore on an island which teems with a mixture of wildlife, including an elephant, zebra and tiger, and manage to survive by building a refuge in a tree. The two older boys discover the pirates' settlement and rescue another captive, who turns out to be a girl. Eventually, the girl's grandfather manages to escape from the pirates and capture their ship. Most of the castaways decide to stay on the island with the captain of the ship, predicting it will soon become a new colony.

Answer: The Manchurian Candidate

John Frankenheimer directed the 1962 film with Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury adding their talents to the movie. Richard Condon wrote the 1959 novel, bearing the same name, on which the film was based.

The story takes place during and after the Korean War with Harvey portraying Raymond Shaw and Sinatra playing Ben Marco, soldiers who are captured by communist soldiers. They are taken to China, which is where the title of Manchuria comes from, where they undergo brainwashing before being released. Thanks to the treatment they have undergone, Shaw is believed to be a war hero. The plot becomes even more complicated when Shaw's mother (Lansbury) turns out to be implicated in the situation as a means of promoting her husband's (Shaw's stepfather) political career. Thanks to Marco, who manages to reverse the brainwashing, the original plan goes wrong with Shaw killing his mother, stepfather and himself.

The 2004 version is moved to the Gulf War and its aftermath with Washington playing the part of Marco.