A Hand of Bridge Trivia Quiz

Answer: Peanuts

The cartoonist Charles Schulz was a big fan of the game and worked several bridge hands into his strips, with the beagle Snoopy usually declaring a hand. The hands are taken from actual bridge columns so they are hands with a lesson. For example, in one strip Snoopy realizes he should have taken a finesse instead of playing on the club suit to make his contract.

Answer: Animal Crackers

This entertaining sequence features both Harpo and Chico cutting the ace of spades, and Harpo performing sleight-of-hand tricks such as repeatedly leading aces that he's already won. One of their opponents is Margaret Dumont, who excelled at playing the "straight man" to their antics.

Answer: Cards on the Table

"Cards on the Table" is one of Agatha Christie's best-regarded mysteries, in that the clues are fair and point specifically to one of the four individuals, even though each of the four could have theoretically done it. Bridge players even have a leg up on the competition as one of the clues relates to the game itself.
The story was adapted for television in 2005 with David Suchet playing the detective Hercule Poirot.

Answer: Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard is the story of Norma Desmond, a silent film star who dreams of making it back to the movies now that sound is part of pictures. Wilder cast actual silent film star Gloria Swanson in the role, and she delivered one of the greatest performances in film history.

The bridge game features the other three great silent film stars playing themselves, but they all get a line to speak (when bidding).

Answer: Moonraker

The novel Moonraker is named after a rocketship developed by Drax. After discovering that Drax is cheating, Bond cheats Drax by setting him up with a variant of the "Duke of Cumberland" hand, a famous 31-point hand that can't take a single trick on defense. Bond makes a redoubled grand slam and wins a lot of money from Drax, setting the plot of the novel in motion.

A film starring Roger Moore and Lois Chiles was "loosely" adapted from the novel, but the bridge scenes were cut so the drama of the redoubled grand slam is not shown on screen.

Answer: How I Met Your Mother

"How I Met Your Mother" is about a man (Ted Mosby) recounting his adventures as a bachelor to his kids in 2030. It has a scene where his friend Lily imagines herself, her husband Marshall, and Ted playing bridge in the future. Unfortunately, she has no clue how to play and the sequence is filmed with lots of references to other card games such as poker.

Answer: Roald Dahl

Although more well-known for his children's literature, Roald Dahl also wrote short stories for adults. "My Lady Love, My Dove" starts with a naughty rich couple deliberately hiding a microphone in the bedroom of their guests. However, they soon find out their guests are not what they seem.

After the bridge game, the guests retreat to their room and start talking ... about how to cheat the hosts out of their money at bridge!

Answer: The Lady Eve

"The Lady Eve" features Barbara Stanwyck as Jean Harrington, a con girl who falls for her mark, a rich and naive heir to a ale company, played by Henry Fonda. They fall in love over the bridge table on a cruise, but then he finds out about her sordid past and refuses to have anything to do with her. Scorned, she follows him home and pretends to be the Lady Eve, a sophisticated long-lost twin of Jean.

She ends up seducing him again, but after the marriage, makes him regret his decision to leave Jean.

He "returns" to Jean and all is forgiven.

Answer: Just Shoot Me

The bridge storyline is merely the secondary plot of the season 2 episode "College or Collagen?" but it has four scenes where the two men (played by David Spade and George Segal) start playing bridge together. They realize they have a good partnership going, and engage in dialogue and actions similar to carrying on a romantic affair.

Answer: Samuel Barber

The opera only takes around 9 minutes to perform, about the length of an actual bridge hand. Two unhappily-married couples play a hand of bridge and each player gives voice to their inner thoughts in an aria monologue. Barber used his sister and one of his neighbors as models for two of the players.