Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 86 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cyclops

The men of the Tigershark, scientists and Navy personnel, note that the USO (Unidentified Submerged Object) resembles a UFO (Unidentified Flying Object). They deduce that it must be extraterrestrial. Shaped like a flying saucer, the craft has a single light mounted on top of its upper dome.

This monocular feature puts them in mind of the one-eyed monsters in Homer's Odyssey and they dub it Cyclops.

Answer: The Atomic Cranium

"The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake" (1959) is about a witch doctor's curse placed on four generations of men in the Drake Family. "The Screaming Skull" (1958) is about a woman haunted by the ghost of her new husband's late wife. "The Head" (1959) is a West German horror film titled "Die Nackte und der Satan" which means "The Naked and Satan" in German.

The Atomic Skull is a DC Comics supervillain introduced in 1978. Atomic Cranium Design was an Australian investment corporation. There does not appear to have been a movie named "The Atomic Cranium" made in the 1950s.

Answer: an invisible thought projection

All of the members of the Bellerophon crew except Dr. Morbius, his wife and daughter, were killed by what Morbius called a "planetary force" which also destroyed their spaceship when it tried to take off. This same invisible force begins to damage the rescue spaceship C-57D and to kill off its crew. It turns out that the monster is a projection of the id of Dr. Morbius, fulfilling the wishes of his subconscious.

Answer: Vincent Price

"House of Wax" portrays Professor Henry Jarrod as a horribly disfigured sculptor whose wax museum is destroyed by his business partner. Vincent Price previously played character parts and genteel leads; his role in "House of Wax" launched his career as a major player of monsters, psychos, fiends, mad scientists and murderers. Subsequent similar roles included the leads in "The Tingler" (1959), "The Masque of the Red Death" (1964), and "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" (1971). Those critics who disliked "House of Wax" tended nonetheless to praise Price's performance.

Answer: all of these are parasitised

US Senator Walter K. Powers gives a message to the telegraph operator who writes it down but does not send it. Powers tries to place outgoing calls but the telephone switchboard operator says that all lines are busy. He goes to the local radio station where the engineer agrees to allow him to broadcast a message but, when he tries, the engineer turns the gain down to zero. All of these key communications people have been parasitised by the space monsters.

Answer: the Soviet Union

Filmmakers in the U.S.S.R. made the science fiction movie "Nebo Zovyot" (which means "the heavens above") in 1958. Roger Corman bought the right to distribute the film in the US, hired Francis Ford Coppola (then a young film student at the UCLA Film School) to edit the Russian-language film, shoot some additional scenes, re-edit it, and make some changes to eliminate the pro-Soviet/anti-American bias.

Answer: a stuntman inside a fiberglass creature suit

Co-producer Arthur Gardner described the making of the monster. Special effects master Augie Lohman designed it, built it out of fiberglass, and operated it from within, with the help of two assistants. The monster was ten feet tall, weighed 1500 pounds, and was equipped with air-pressure valves to effect motion.

The cost was about $15,000. Lohman went on to further success, e.g. he did the special effects for "Barbarella" (1968).

Answer: directing

William Asher (1921-2012) worked in both television and film, functioning as a director, producer, and screenwriter. He made his reputation in early television by directing "Our Miss Brooks," "I Love Lucy," "The Colgate Comedy Hour" with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and "Bewitched." He directed a number of cheesy teenage movies such as "Beach Party," "Muscle Beach Party," "Bikini Beach," "Beach Blanket Bingo," and "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini." His only science fiction film was "The 27th Day" in 1957.

Answer: the desert around San Angelo, California

The action in "The Monolith Monsters" centers around the fictional town of San Angelo, California, located in the desert. Exteriors were filmed in the Alabama Hills (a part of the Sierra Nevada west of Lone Pine, California) and the Panamint Valley, on the edge of the Mojave Desert. Outdoor filming was complicated by the weather which was so cold that the moisture in the actors' breath condensed upon exhalation and looked like fog or steam.

Answer: No

Clowns are the central figures in both "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" (1988) and Stephen King's "It" (1990). The Clown Doll plays a minor role in "Poltergeist" (1982)(2015). Likewise a clown plays a minor role in "The Cabin in the Woods" (2011). One of the leads in Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses" (2003) is a clown. There does not appear to have been a horror film made in the 1950s which played upon viewers' coulrophobia.