Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 18 Trivia Quiz

Answer: an interociter

A tricorder is a device in the "Star Trek" universe used for sensing, recording, and computing. The neuralizer is that nifty device used by the Men in Black to wipe people's memories. A sonic screwdriver is one of Doctor Who's most useful gadgets. The interociter in "This Island Earth" is a multi-function device useful as a means of communication and as a weapon.

Answer: Terror in Deepest Space

"Terror from the Year 5000" (1958) is about a machine which can send and receive objects to and from the distant future. "Terror in the Haunted House" (1958) was one of only two motion pictures which used "Psychorama" -- a technique by which subliminal messages were inserted onscreen. "Terror Is a Man" (1959) is a Filipino-American motion picture which was released with a variety of other titles including "Blood Creature," "Creature from Blood Island," "The Gory Creatures," "Island of Terror," and "Gore Creature." "Terror in Deep Space" is a track on the 2019 album "Into the Unknown" by Outer Space. "Deep Space Terror" is a 2010 novel by Jay Raven.

There does not appear to have been a motion picture made in the 1950s named "Terror in Deepest Space."

Answer: a Martian woman

Nyah, accompanied by her robot Chani, comes to Earth to collect human men as breeding stock to save her dying race on Mars. She is fetching in a black leather-rubber body suit which is as revealing as the silver catsuit worn by Seven of Nine in her early episodes on "Star Trek: Voyager." [Think: Batman's twin sister going to a Hallowe'en party dressed as a dominatrix.]

Answer: Leslie Nielsen

Before turning his many talents to comedy, Canadian actor Leslie Nielsen was a leading man and a romantic lead in films. His role as the commander of United Planets space cruiser C57D in "Forbidden Planet" was one of these. His romantic interest in the motion picture was Anne Francis; their kissing scene was memorable.

Answer: horrific subliminal messages

The Precon Process (Psychorama) was one in which messages and images were inserted into single frames of motion pictures, such that they would flash by too quickly to notice but would (theoretically) leave an impression of the viewer's brain. There was governmental concern about the use of such subliminal messages in advertising.

The messages and images used in "Terror in the Haunted House" included skulls, knives and the word "death" (according to one source) and a devil's face, a bug-eyed monster, a red skull, a cobra's head and the words "scream bloody murder" (according to another source) and a face with a rat in its mouth and the words "get ready to scream" (according to a third). While the scientific literature is scant, there is little evidence to suggest that Psychorama had any impact on anybody at all.

Answer: a novel by George Orwell

The film "1984" was based on the 1949 novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell. When the film was first released, A.H. Weiler, the reviewer for The New York Times, said that the screenplay by William Templeton and Ralph Gilbert Bettison was "freely" adapted from the novel. This was the first motion picture adaptation of the story but certainly not the last.

Answer: One is Dr. Jekyll; one is Tubby.

The police in London are confused by conflicting reports of Mr. Hyde being in different places at the same time. This happens because Tubby struggled with Dr. Jekyll and fell onto a couch cushion where a hypodermic filled with the serum had fallen. In the chase which follows, Bruce Adams is pursuing the real Mr. Hyde while Slim is pursuing Tubby who has been turned into a Hyde look-alike.

Answer: make-up

Carlos Cruz Gemora (1903-1961) was a remarkable Hollywood make-up artist who got his start in motion pictures by running around in a gorilla suit. An early example was "The Monster and the Girl" (1941). Perhaps his best make-up was for the aliens in "War of the Worlds" (1953).

Other notable make-up examples include "Flight of the Lost Balloon" (1961), "The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake" (1959), "I Married a Monster from Outer Space" (1958), "Dr. Cyclops" (1940), and "Island of Lost Souls" (1932).

Answer: 1910s in England

Sometime in the 1910s, Janet Smith and her fiancé George Hastings travel to a small English village where she will soon inherit the manor house. Although set in England, the film was shot entirely in the United States. The primary exterior was of an old mansion on Sixth Street near Hancock Park in Los Angeles.

Answer: little people inside of them

The twin robots, Gog and Magog, were built to accommodate a little person inside who could then actuate and operate the device. Actor Billy Curtis operated the robot Gog from within. He is often remembered as Mordecai in Clint Eastwood's "High Plains Drifter" (1973).