1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year Quiz

Answer: Gunga Din

"Though I belted you and flayed you/By the Living God that made you/You're a better man than I am Gunga Din!" were the closing lines of both Kipling's poem and the film. Aside from that, the poem served as little more than a launching point for Ben Hecht's screenplay, which followed a trio of British soldiers (and their waterboy) in efforts against an uprising sect within Colonial British India in the 1880s.

Answer: Robert Donat

Donat won for his portrayal of the title character in "Goodbye Mr Chips". Weakened by a severe asthma, Donat would only go on to act in ten further films in the two decades to follow before passing away in 1958. Apart from the screen, Donat was an accomplished actor of London theatre.

Answer: Intermezzo

For Bergman, the film was a remake of one she had done just a few years earlier in her native Sweden, and for Howard it was his penultimate American film. The plot follows Howard's character, a violinist, as he falls for Bergman, his piano accompanist. Already married however, their romance is not without its effects on those closest to them.

Answer: Ninotchka

Praised today in top lists for both its romantic and comedic elements (hardly a rom-com though), Ninotchka starred Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas and later inspired the musical, "Silk Stockings". The film poked fun at the Stalin led Soviet Union as Garbo, a strict adherent to Russian values found herself out of place (and in love!) in Paris.

The tagline was appropriate as the film marked Garbo's first entirely comedic performance.

Answer: Charles Laughton

By 1939, Laughton had already won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his work in "The Private Life of Henry VIII" in 1933. He would continue to star on both the stage and the screen until his death in 1962. His sole venture into film directing came with his 1957 picture, "The Night of the Hunter", a film considered among the greatest ever made.

Answer: Eric Blore

Eric Blore, a British actor, was best known for his butler-centric roles throughout the thirties, especially alongside Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. He of course was not in "Gone With the Wind". Thomas Mitchell played the patriarch of the O'Hara family, Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for her portrayal of Mammy and Butterfly played the young Prissy.

Answer: Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg

In fact, Arlen and Harburg's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" has been voted the twentieth century's No. 1 song by the Recording Industry Association of America. Both men would continue professionally in the decades to follow, among their other songs are "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe" and "It's Only a Paper Moon".

Answer: Stagecoach

Prior to "Stagecoach", John Wayne had been thought of as box-office poison, and it was thought that big-budget westerns were out of vogue. The film ultimately proved both wrong and is now considered one of the most influential films in cinema history.

It followed a ragtag bunch of characters travelling westward, all the while under the threat of Geronimo and Indian uprisings along the way. Wayne also starred in "The Searchers" in 1956, however by then was a household name.

Answer: Thomas Mitchell

Quite an impressive filmography entry for the year 1939 for Thomas Mitchell. His Academy Award came for his portrayal of Doc Boone in "Stagecoach". Mitchell played family patriarch Gerald O'Hara in "GWTW", reporter, Diz Moore in "Mr. Smith", Clopin in "The Hunchback", and Kid Dabb in "Only Angels". By 1953, Mitchell had amassed an Emmy and a Tony in addition to his Oscar, making him the first person to accomplish the 'triple crown' of acting awards, a feat still rare today.

Answer: The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle

While the duo did appear in each answer choice, it was "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle", that was a bio-pic, released in 1939. The movie stylized the lives of the high profile dancing partnership of Vernon and Irene Castle, a famous ballroom dancing pair (not quite as famous as the pair playing them though!). Ginger Rogers later recounted that nearly all of RKO studios descended on the set for the final dance sequence of the pair.