Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 104 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Invaders from Mars (1953)

Jimmy Hunt (b. 1939) played the little boy who saw the Martians land from his bedroom window. Arthur Franz played an astronomer who believed Jimmy's story. Helena Carter played a medical doctor who was also sympathetic to Jimmy's panicked predicament. Max Wagner played a stalwart, courageous Army non-commissioned officer, who falls prey to the Martians.

Answer: The Humongous Creature

"The Colossus of New York" (1958) is about a robot. "War of the Colossal Beast" (1958) is about a fifty-foot-tall man. "Gigantis the Fire Monster" (1959) is a re-edit of "Godzilla Raids Again" (1955) for the benefit of American audiences. There was a motion picture called "Horror of the Hungry Humongous Hungan" (1991) and another named "The Humongous Fungus Among Us" (2021) but there does not appear to have been a 1950s horror/science fiction movie called "The Humongous Creature".

Answer: a collection of revivified human parts

Baron Victor Frankenstein, played by Peter Cushing, stitches together parts of dead human bodies and brings the result to life as his monster, played by Christopher Lee. He not only gives life but takes it: he kills a learned professor to install the academic's brain in the monster.

Answer: Boris Karloff

Boris Karloff played the monster's creator (rather than the monster) in "Frankenstein 1970". Karloff was suffering the effects of arthritis, which was written into the character. It was explained in the film that he had been tortured by the Nazis for refusing to conduct medical experiments on humans. This physical abuse left with him facial scars and an eye out of place.

Answer: the Oxygen Destroyer

Emiko Yamane learns from her seclusionist boyfriend Dr. Daisuke Serizawa that he has developed a potential weapon called an Oxygen Destroyer. In his laboratory, he places the device in a tank of tropical fish and, in moments, their flesh dissolves leaving only skeletons.

When pressed to use his device against Godzilla, he refuses because he fears that governments would then turn it into a military weapon. Convinced that he must use the Oxygen Destroyer to save the world, Serizawa burns all his notes, destroys all of this equipment, deploys the weapon underwater, and commits suicide to preserve the weapon's secret.

Answer: Edward D. Wood Jr.

Edward D. Wood Jr. is a hard-to-define figure in science fiction and horror filmmaking. He was a writer, producer, director, and actor (often in his own films). All of his work was in B-films and much of it was in pornography. He is responsible for "Bride of the Monster" (1955), "Plan 9 from Outer Space" (1957), "The Astounding She-Monster" (1958), "The Bride and the Beast" (1958), and "Night of the Ghouls" (1959).

Interest in him has generated quite a bibliography: Rob Craig, "Ed Wood, Mad Genius: A Critical Study of the Films" (2009); Rob Craig, "It Came from 1957: A Critical Guide to the Year's Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films" (2013); Rudolph Grey, "Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr." (1992); Gary D. Rhodes & Tom Weaver, "Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster" (2015); Tom Ruffles, "Ghost Images: Cinema of the Afterlife" (2004).

Answer: He is injected with truth serum.

Rescued after days in his lifeboat at sea, Captain Steve Holloway tells his story to the doctors in the military hospital, to Colonel Loring, and to Professor Warren, an anthropologist. His report is met with complete disbelief. Nurse Edmunds injects Holloway with a "truth serum" and his report frames the action in the entire film, beginning and ending in the hospital room.

Answer: acting

English actress Hazel Court (1926-2008) appeared in both English and American motion pictures. Notable roles included "The Curse of Frankenstein" (1957), and "The Man Who Could Cheat Death" (1959). She was also directed by Roger Corman in "The Premature Burial" (1962), "The Raven" (1963), and "The Masque of the Red Death" (1964). Less memorable was "Devil Girl from Mars" (1954). Between films, she played extensively on American television.

Her autobiography is titled "Horror Queen" (Tomahawk Press, 2008).

Answer: the headwaters of the Amazon River

A scientific expedition travels up the Amazon River toward its headwaters in search of fossils. Finding none, they follow a tributary to a lagoon. Their captain argues against this move: "I can tell you something about this place. The boys around here call it 'The Black Lagoon' - a paradise. Only they say nobody has ever come back to prove it." Doubling for the upper reaches of the Brazilian Amazon, scenes were shot on both sides of the United States: Big Bear Lake, California, and Wakulla Springs, Florida.

The two actors who wore the Gill Man suit never met during filming: Ricou Browning's underwater scenes were filmed in Florida and Ben Chapman's scenes were filmed in California.

Answer: The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)

In "The Unearthly", Dr. Charles Conway, a psychiatrist and surgeon, seeks to enhance longevity by surgically implanting synthetic glands in people. In "The Brain That Wouldn't Die", transplant surgeon Dr. Bill Cortner keeps his fiancee's head alive after a car accident.

In "She Demons", German Col. Karl Osler continues the experiments on people which he began during Nazi rule. There is neither a crazy doctor nor some other mad scientist in "The Monster of Piedras Blancas".