Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 72 Trivia Quiz

Answer: The studio no longer wants to make horror films.

When Jeffrey Clayton and John Nixon of NBN Associates buy the studio which employs Pete Dumond, they want to take the company in a different direction. Instead of the many horror movies which it has made over twenty five years, they want to make musicals and comedies.

They say the era of the horror picture is dead. Pete suggests they ought instead make both kinds of films; they fire him on the spot.

Answer: Twenty Light Years Away

"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954) is an adaptation of the Jules Verne classic novel. "20 Million Miles to Earth" (1957) showcases the stop-motion animation of Ray Harryhausen in a film about a monster brought back to Earth from Venus. "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" (1953) is an adaptation of a 1951 short story by Ray Bradbury with special effects by Ray Harryhausen.

In 2007, astronomers at the European Southern Observatory at La Silla in Chile announced their discovery of a planet comparable to Earth "just" twenty light years away in the constellation Libra. The planet, called Gliese 581c, orbits a red dwarf star called Gliese 581. The surface is warm (0 to 40C) and rocky; it shows conditions consistent with the presence of water. There does not appear to be a 1950s motion picture titled "Twenty Light Years Away."

Answer: a gigantic extraterrestrial bird

A radar expert piloting a plane near the North Pole sees a UFO which he describes as "big as a battleship." Three interceptor aircraft scramble to investigate; only two return to base. A commercial airliner is later destroyed in midair. An airplane carrying CAB (Civil Aeronautics Board, a federal agency, 1938-1985) investigators is attacked and the men on board are eaten as they dangle from their parachutes.

The UFO is a huge bird which looks like a cross between a turkey buzzard and The Cryptkeeper on "Tales from the Crypt" (1989-1996).

It appears to be molting badly. One reviewer compared it to Beaky Buzzard, a turkey vulture in Warner Brothers cartoons (1942-2020). It is apparently protected by some sort of antimatter shield which makes it immune to Earth's weapons.

Answer: Arthur Shields

Doctor Lomas seems the most altruistic and kind of guardians, looking out for his ward Janet Smith, as she approaches her twenty-first birthday and her substantial inheritance. In truth, Lomas is a werewolf who attempts to convince Janet that she is subject to her father's curse, is a murderess, and ought to hang herself at her father's tomb (enabling him to take her estate).

He is played brilliantly by Irish stage, screen and television actor Arthur Shields.

Answer: True

Radio station KILT was a regional station in Houston, Texas, which broadcast in a top-forty format. The station was owned by the producer of "The Giant Gila Monster" Gordon McLendon. The disc jockey, whose character was named Horatio Alger "Steamroller" Smith, was played by Ken Knox. Knox was a real disk jockey employed by McLendon to work in his several radio stations in Texas.

Answer: Roger Corman

Although Corman had directed three prior feature films, he had never before directed a horror or science fiction picture. He brought several of his growing "stable" of actors to make the movie with him. He also used two of his favourite sets: Bronson Canyon in Los Angeles and Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City, California.

Answer: wooden tables, office chairs on rollers

At blast off, the crew are all reclined on what look like plastic-web chaise lounges such as could be found poolside or on a patio. Once the crew awakens, they move to wooden tables and sit on ordinary office chairs with rollers on their legs. The actual cabin (as well as two of the space suits) in "Cat-Women of the Moon" were "recycled" from "Project Moon Base" (1953).

Answer: acting

Frank Lovejoy (1912-1962) enjoyed success as an actor in radio, television and motion pictures. He voiced radio soap operas as well as roles in "Night Beat," "Gang Busters," "This Is Your FBI," and "The Blue Beetle." On television, he starred in "Man Against Crime" and "Meet McGraw." Lovejoy achieved critical notice for his role in the movie "The Hitch-Hiker" (1953), a film noir directed by Ida Lupino.

He often portrayed military roles in motion pictures. He played opposite Vincent Price in "House of Wax" (1953) as police detective Lieutenant Thomas "Tom" Brennan.

Answer: Australia

According to the film, there is a space-rocket launch facility located at Cape Shark in the Australian desert. [How, exactly, one locates a "cape" in a desert is not made clear in the movie.] The manned atomic rocket in "The Day the Sky Exploded" is launched by the United Nations from Australia.

Answer: He hangs himself in his apartment.

Pieces of dried clay break off of some of Walter's sculptures revealing the actual body parts inside. Walter figures out that the police are not far behind him. The police and others from the café break down his apartment door and find that he has hanged himself, first daubing clay on himself so that his dead body looks a bit like one of his sculptures.