Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 97 Trivia Quiz

Answer: the Nautilus

Jules Verne did not name Captain Nemo's submersible after the chambered nautilus (Nautilus pompilius), as many suspect, but rather after a real submersible built by inventor Robert Fulton in 1800. Naval historians debate Fulton's Nautilus right to be called the first practical submarine as it was not altogether practical.

Although Fulton was an American, he was living in the French First Republic at the time he worked on his sub, thus it cannot be claimed to have been a purely American submarine, either.

Answer: Space Aliens Attack

"Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" (1958) was directed by Nathan Juran who also directed "The Black Castle" (1952), "The Deadly Mantis" (1957), "20 Million Miles to Earth" (1957), "The Brain from Planet Arous" (1957), "First Men in the Moon" (1964), and "The Boy Who Cried Werewolf" (1973). "Attack of the Crab Monsters" (1957) was directed by Roger Corman who directed or produced more horror and science-fiction movies than anybody else in the 1950s. "Attack of the Giant Leeches" (1959) was directed by Bernard L. Kowalski who also directed "Night of the Blood Beast" (1958), "Black Noon" (1971), and "Sssssss" (1973).

In 1994, a book in the series featuring the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers titled "Space Aliens Attack" was published. Nobody directed a movie by that name because none was made in the 1950s.

Answer: He is blown up by an army rocket.

The evil Dr. Mears returns to the spaceship to save the alien from an assault by the military. Using rocket launchers, the army opens fire on the spaceship. This bombardment causes an explosion which destroys the ship and kills both the alien and Dr. Mears.

Answer: Tor Johnson

Dr. Vornoff's servant and laboratory assistant Lobo hears but does not speak. He is shown to be intellectually impaired in some way. He is romantically attracted to Janet Lawton, played by Loretta King, and has a fetish for her angora wool hat. Because of this attraction, he rebels against the doctor's orders to subject Lawton to the atomic mutation machine and puts the doctor in it, instead. Tor Johnson played this same role again in "Night of the Ghouls" (1958) and in "The Unearthly" (1957).

Answer: ten

Some movies where Spielberg places children in danger are "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), all of the Indiana Jones pictures, "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982), "Hook" (1991), all of the Jurassic Park films, and "War of the Worlds" (2005). "Invaders From Mars" (1953) is told from the perspective of a ten-year-old boy, David MacLean. One by one, the framework on which he depends is dismantled by the invading Martians: first his father, then his mother, then a childhood friend, even the police. Astronomer Dr. Stuart Kelston and medical doctor Patricia Blake believe him and ally with his cause to save his parents and repel the extraterrestrials.

Answer: France

The scenes at the boys' boarding school were shot in a chateau in L'Etang-la-Ville between Saint-Cloud and the Bois-du-Boulogne. Nicole's house, fictionally located in Niort, was shot in Montfort-l'Amaury. The Institut Médico-légal in Paris was the setting of the morgue scenes. Interiors were filmed at the Saint-Maurice Studios in Paris.

Answer: Leonora/the leopard are struck by a car.

Leonora and the leopard go hunting for Dorothy, intending to kill her. Dorothy flees; Leonora and the leopard pursue. Brian drives his car into the leopard, killing it instantly. Leonora collapses. Investigating police officers find a torn bit of Leonora's raincoat on the front bumper of Brian's car. How did both Leonora and the leopard die simultaneously? No one knows, exactly, but the curse on the Brandt Family is ended.

Answer: acting

American actor and director Anthony Perkins (1932-1992) is identified with his role as Norman Bates in four installments of "Psycho" (1960, 1983, 1986, 1990). His other roles in horror and science fiction films include "On the Beach" (1959), "How Awful About Allan" (1970), "The Black Hole" (1979), "Edge of Sanity" (1989), and "Daughter of Darkness" (1990). See, further, Ronald Bergan, "Anthony Perkins: A Haunted Life" London: Little, Brown and Company, 1995.

Answer: Sierra Negra, Mexico

Volcán Sierra Negra is a large extinct volcano in Puebla, Mexico. "Sierra negra" means "black mountain" in Spanish. The village of Sierra Negra, in which "El vampiro" is set, is fictional."Piedras Negras" means "black rocks" in Spanish, usually a reference to coal deposits."Guerrero Negro" means "Black Warrior" in Spanish, a reference either to a US whaling ship or a village in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur."Ojos Negros" means "black eyes" in Spanish, and may refer to a city in Spain, a bicycle path in Spain, or a Mexican village in Ensenada, Baja California.

Answer: radioactivity from nearby Cape Canaveral

Nan Greyson, played by Jan Shepard, wonders aloud to her father Doc Greyson, played by Tyler McVey, how the leeches grew to such amazing size. He speculates that the mutation was due to atomic radiation from Cape Canaveral. [Was there a lot of radiation emanating from Cape Canaveral in 1959?] Bikini Atoll is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands where the US detonated 23 nuclear bombs between 1947-1958. Lake Karachay is a nuclear waste dump in the southern Ural Mountains of eastern Russia. On 16 July 1979, long after "Attack of the Giant Leeches" was made, there was an accident at the Church Rock uranium mill in New Mexico.