Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 91 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Back from the Dead

Multiple persons (Hobart, Joanna) are hypnotized by multiple hypnotists (Holden, Karswell) in "Night of the Demon" (1957). "The She-Creature" (1956) involves the hypnotic regression of Andrea Talbott by carnival sideshow hypnotist Dr Carlo Lombardi. In "The Undead" (1957), a prostitute is hypnotically regressed to a former life as a witch in the Middle Ages. Remarkably, there is an academic journal article on this subject. Kevin Heffernan, "The Hypnosis Horror Films of the 1950s: Genre Texts and Industrial Context", Journal of Film and Video (University of Illinois Press), Vol. 54, No. 2/3 (Summer/Fall 2002), pp. 56-70.

The motion picture "Back from the Dead" (1957) involved Satanism and spiritism and lots of other scary things but did not involve hypnotism.

Answer: The Cosmic Maiden

In "The Cosmic Man" (1959), the US military responds poorly to an emissary from another planet who brings a message of peace to the Earth. "The Cosmic Monsters" (1958) was released in the UK as "The Strange World of Planet X". "Space Master X-7" (1958) is about a fungus which returns to Earth attached to a space probe and does bad things. Lucy A. Snyder wrote the novel "Sister, Maiden, Monster" (2023).

There is a character named "The Cosmos Maiden" in the Japanese role-playing video game "The Last Remnant" (2008).

There does not appear to be a movie called "The Cosmic Maiden" made in the 1950s.

Answer: an invisible humanoid from another planet

The following is learned about the Phantom during the course of "Phantom from Space". It is humanoid. It is invisible outside its space suit. It survives on a breathing gas which includes methane. Earth's atmosphere can (and will) kill it. It appears to be male.

It (or its suit) is radioactive. It wears a sort of diving suit and a round diver's helmet with odd apparatus sticking out of it.

Answer: Lon Chaney Jr.

Mungo was actually Dr. Munroe, a physician who taught Dr. Gordon Ramsay in medical school. He appears feeble-minded and violent. Dr. Cadman claims to be seeking a cure for his mental state by continuing his surgical research. In truth, Dr. Cadman's research caused his condition.

Answer: her father and the Rich Man

In retrospect, the Gamine had killed her father by stabbing him with her switchblade knife. He had shot and killed her unfaithful mother and The Gamine avenged that murder by killing him. After visiting several night clubs with the Rich Man, he takes her to his posh apartment and attempts to rape her.

She uses her switchblade to dispatch him, as well. "Gamine" is a 19th century English word for a somewhat boyish, pretty, and mischievous young woman. The modern exemplar of the term was Audrey Hepburn.

Answer: Yes

"In the Year 2889" was made in 1969 as a remake of Roger Corman's "Day the World Ended" (1955). American International Pictures produced it for television. The remake was in colour, an improvement on the original, but the screenplay by Harold Hoffman was pretty much a line-by-line copy of Lou Rusoff's 1955 script.

Answer: They prepare for war.

When the aliens' demand for a meeting with all world leaders to negotiate the details of the world's surrender, the United States military bristles. One of the generals says "When an armed and threatening power lands uninvited in our capital, we don't meet him with tea and cookies!" They go to work developing a weapon to counter the aliens' technology.

Answer: acting

American actor John Bromfield (1922-2005) appeared in motion pictures from 1948 on. His biggest role was in "Sorry, Wrong Number" (1948) where he played a detective opposite Burt Lancaster and Barbara Stanwyck. He acted in a variety of television programmes.

His horror films included one of the sequels to "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (1954): "Revenge of the Creature" (1955). He also played the lead in "Curucu, Beast of the Amazon" (1956). Acting did not hold Bromfield's interest for a lifetime as he retired to become a commercial fisherman.

Answer: somewhere in the South Pacific

The rocket scientists predict the atomic rocket's trajectory to a point in the South Pacific Ocean where there are no islands. The rocket has gone off the radar and they travel to the vicinity of its disappearance. There they find an uncharted island which turns out to be where the rocket crash-landed.

The motion picture was filmed at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, 301 North Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, California, which looks rather like a tropical island, except for not being an island.

Answer: a bullet with a thorn cross from Calvary

Drake Robey has been previously shot with lead bullets to no effect. Preacher Dan has a pin which he wears on his lapel. It is made of a cross of two thorns picked at Calvary, the site of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. He turns this pin into the tip of a bullet and shoots Robey with it.

The bullet pierces the vampire's heart and he turns instantly to dust, leaving only his clothing on the street in front of the church. Dan picks up his bullet and sees that the thorn cross has not been destroyed in the process, a further indication of its supernatural power.