Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 17 Trivia Quiz

Answer: mild-mannered Pinacate

Dr. Almada is assisted by a quiet, bookish young man, Pinacate, played by Crox Alvarado. Unbeknownst to the world, Pinacate is the masked hero El Ángel underneath his mask. The craze of movies featuring superheroes dressed as "luchadores" (professional wrestlers) did not become fully popular in Mexico until the 1960s but perhaps this motion picture helped it along the way to public appreciation.

Answer: A Different World

"Day the World Ended" (1955) is a post-apocalyptic film narrated by NBC News anchor Chet Huntley. "It Conquered the World" (1956) is a Roger Corman film starring Peter Graves and Lee Van Cleef. "The Monster That Challenged the World" (1957) depicts giant man-eating mollusks who arise hungrily from the Salton Sea in California. Lisa Bonet starred as Denise Huxtable in a sitcom spun-off from "The Cosby Show" called "A Different World" (1987-1993).

It was set at a fictional traditionally-black university called Hillman College.

There does not appear to be any theatrical motion picture called "A Different World" made in the 1950s.

Answer: a yeti/abominable snowman

Scientist and Himalayan explorer Dr. Frank Parrish did not believe the legends about the yeti/abominable snowman until the wife of his lead Sherpa was kidnapped by one. The yeti is captured and taken to the United States to be studied. This does not work out well.

Answer: Kirk Douglas

One of the great stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Kirk Douglas (1916-2020) appeared in ninety motion pictures, though rarely in science fiction. Douglas demonstrated the breadth of his talent by playing a happy-go-lucky sailor in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954).

He sings the only song in the picture: "A Whale of a Tale". In the novel on which the film is loosely based, Ned Land is explicitly identified as a Canadian; Douglas played him as an American in this movie.

Answer: He floated live down the Colorado River.

At the end of "The Amazing Colossal Man", Colonel Manning is shot and falls off Hoover Dam. He is presumed dead but there is nothing in the movie about finding his giant body. When he later appears in Mexico in "War of the Colossal Beast" (1958), his sister Joyce opines that he must have floated down the Colorado. This issue is never definitively resolved.

Answer: a previous motion picture

Warner Brothers made the motion picture "Mystery of the Wax Museum" in 1933. Michael Curtiz directed Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray in the starring roles. The movie was based on a story called "The Wax Works" by Charles S. Belden. "House of Wax" (1953) was a remake of the 1933 film.

Answer: "The evil that men do lives after them."

The opening quotation from "The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake" is from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar". The complete quotation is "The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones." The quotes about Yorick's skull and the skulls of lawyers are both from "Hamlet". The "feeble skull" quote is from modern American author Chistopher Moore.

Answer: directing

Ishirô Honda (1911-1993) was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 44 feature films. He co-wrote and directed "Godzilla" (1954) which was the beginning of an era and a franchise. Following "The Mysterians" (1957), Honda directed numerous films of its ilk: "Varan the Unbelievable" (1958); "Mothra" (1961); "King Kong vs. Godzilla" (1962); "Mothra vs. Godzilla" (1964); "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster" (1964); "Frankenstein Conquers the World" (1965); "Invasion of Astro-Monster" (1965); "The War of the Gargantuas" (1966); "Destroy All Monsters" (1968); "All Monsters Attack" (1969); "Space Amoeba" (1970); and "Terror of Mechagodzilla" (1975).

Answer: He is the host of weekly TV horror-film show.

Beginning in 1970, a three-station network of television stations in Chicago, Milwaukee and South Bend, Indiana, showed horror and science fiction films on a programme hosted by Svengoolie. In 2011, the show went national on MeTV. Two actors have played the eponymous Svengoolie: Jerry G. Bishop and Rich Koz (pronounced KOHZ).

The show is a silly pastiche of corny jokes, short sketches, the throwing of rubber chickens, parody songs, a talking skull, movie trivia, and items mailed by fans of the show, accompanied with the theme "Thank you for all those cards and letters".

Answer: a reincarnated tomb guardian

An Egyptian worker hired by the archeologists is possessed by the mummified remains of the guardian of the tomb of Rahateb. A stone tablet explains that the Pharaoh's high priest committed suicide and condemned to guard the tomb, possessing another body to kill any intruders. Once reincarnated, he survives by draining the blood from animals and humans.