Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 26 Trivia Quiz

Answer: giant monsters

Most film critics and film historians agree that "Godzilla" (1954) was the first "kaiju" motion picture and defined the genre. The Japanese word "kaiju" may be literally translated into English as "strange beast." It is used to describe motion pictures and television programmes involving huge monsters, usually destroying cities and fighting either with military forces or with other giant monsters. "Kaiju" is a subgenre within "tokusatsu" motion pictures (about which more in a later quiz).

Answer: The Atomic Beast

"The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" (1953) is a Rhedosaurus -- a fictional dinosaur thawed out by an atomic blast. "Beast from Haunted Cave" (1959) is a cave-dwelling monster who doesn't like bank robbers very much. "The Beast of Hollow Mountain" (1956) is a Mexican Tyrannosaurus Rex which eats ranchers' cattle. "The Atomic Beast" is a role-playing game published in 2011. "Atomic Beast" is a 2016 song by Three Thirteen.

A short (11-minute) film was made in 2021 called "Dawn of the Atomic Beast." There does not appear to have been a feature-length film called "The Atomic Beast" in the 1950s.

Answer: Their source of energy was destroyed.

The brain-creatures drew energy from a power station supplied by a nuclear reactor. It was used to power a radar network. When the creatures began to suck energy from it, the electricity for the radar dropped to nil. In an attempt to stop the monsters, a military officer blew up the power machinery which caused all of them to die, writhing and dissolving into disgusting puddles rather like colourless jellyfish.

Answer: Jack Kelly

New York born Jack Kelly (1927-1992) was a success in both films and television, but then entered politics and became the mayor of Huntington Beach, California. He returned to his role as Bart Maverick in the made-for-TV movie "The New Maverick" (1978) and again on James Garner's television series "Bret Maverick" (1981).

His role as Lt. Farman in "Forbidden Planet" includes him kissing the lovely but naive Altaira (played by Anne Francis).

Answer: suicide by electrocution

Colonel Manning is unable to communicate due to his radiation sickness and the injuries which he sustained in the previous film, "The Amazing Colossal Man" (1957). He mostly grunts and roars. He is spotted near the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

He picks up a school bus filled with students. His sister, Joyce, appears and tries to reason with him. He puts down the bus and says her name, "Joyce," the only words he speaks in the entire film. He then purposefully grasps high-voltage power lines and electrocutes himself to death.

Answer: True

The Bowery Boys made 48 motion pictures (1946-1958). The Boys were a collective of New York actors who portrayed a New York City group of characters. Some might complain that Allied Artists made the same movie multiple times, e.g. "Spook Busters" (1946), "Ghost Chasers" (1951), "The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters" (1954), and "Spook Chasers" (1957), for example. And they sorta did.

Answer: Ishirô Honda

Ishirô Honda directed "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" in 1954, and "Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman" in 1955. These successes encouraged him to make "Rodan" in 1957. His later "kaiju" motion pictures included "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster" (1964), "Monster Zero" (1965), and "Destroy All Monsters" (1968).

Answer: directing

Director Roger Corman's name is synonymous with B-movies of the 1950s and 1960s. Some of his motion pictures have become cult classics, e.g. "The Little Shop of Horrors" (1960). Others are perhaps the worst of the worst: "Attack of the Crab Monsters" (1957), "She Gods of Shark Reef" (1958), and "Attack of the Giant Leeches" (1959). He explains it all in his book "How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime" (1998).

Answer: a fictional country called Gudavia

Two journalists are on a railroad train bound for Salzburg, Austria, when a prank causes their car to be detached from the others and they are left on a spur leading into Gudavia. This is a Ruritania-like dictatorship behind the Iron Curtain. They are promptly arrested for invading the country. Other bad things follow.

Answer: puppets and dogs in costumes

The close-ups of the shrews (e.g, when they were chewing through the floorboards from below) were shot using hand-held puppets. The wider shots were done with dogs in shrew costumes with white plastic fangs glued onto their normal dentition. One source says the dogs were coonhounds; another says they were whippets.

The truth is known only to Ray Kellogg, the director, who was the head of the special effects department of 20th Century Fox for many years before he tried his hand at directing this film.