1939: The Year in Movies Trivia Quiz

Answer: Victor Fleming

Victor Fleming was an unlikely candidate to have his name attached to two of the most beloved films of all time. His first job in the movies was as a stunt driver. He soon graduated to directing, his most notable film being 'Red Dust' with his friend, Clark Gable.

Fleming wasn't the only director on either 'Oz' or 'GWTW. King Vidor and Richard Thorpe both shot scenes for 'Oz' and George Cukor was 'GWTW's original director. Clark Gable didn't like Cukor so David O. Selznick had Fleming pulled off of 'OZ' to finish 'GWTW'. Vivien Leigh and Olivia DeHavilland continued to seek out Cukor for direction even after he had been fired.

Answer: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Frank Capra's 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington', the story of an idealistic neophyte senator who uncovers a nest of greed and corruption in the U.S. Senate, anticipated the very public scandals that would rock Washington nearly half a century later.

Jimmy Stewart gave what may have been his greatest performance in this film but lost the Oscar to British actor Robert Donat (see next question.) The next year, Stewart won the award over his friend Henry Fonda, nominated for 'The Grapes of Wrath'. Fonda had to wait another 42 years to win an Oscar--for his very last film, 'On Golden Pond'.

Answer: Goodbye, Mr. Chips

'Goodbye, Mr. Chips' is a sentimental valentine to the teaching profession. Robert Donat plays an aging boarding school teacher looking back on his career, his life and the woman-Greer Garson, in an Oscar nominated turn-whose love transformed him.

Donat was a wonderful actor; 'Mr. Chips' is perhaps his most famous role but I prefer his richly nuanced performance in Hitchcock's 'The 39 Steps'. Nonetheless, his Oscar win over such stalwarts as Jimmy Stewart (see previous question) and Clark Gable in 'GWTW' must have been quite the upset. Whereas these two performances are today considered legendary, who is still watching 'Goodbye, Mr. Chips'? (Feel free to send me indignant responses to my message box if 'GMC' is one of your favorite movies.)

Answer: Stagecoach

John Ford's 'Stagecoach' played a bit like 'Airport' on wooden-spoke wheels. An outlaw, a prostitute, a pregnant young bride, an alcoholic doctor seeking redemption (Mitchell), etc. set out on a dangerous trek through 'Injun' territory and have their lives changed in the process.

In addition to the four previously mentioned films, Mitchell was also featured in 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'. Seven years later, Mitchell would play his most recognizable role--Uncle Billy in 'It's a Wonderful Life'. Also an accomplished stage actor, Mitchell is the first performer to win the three major acting prizes--an Oscar, a Tony and an Emmy. He was perhaps the greatest character actor of all time.

Answer: Laurence Olivier in 'Wuthering Heights'

In director William Wyler's solemn and elegant adaptation of Emily Brontė's tale of eternal love on the English moors, Laurence Olivier, as the brooding and vengeful Heathcliff, solidified his status as a genuine movie star-only to have his wife outdo him by winning the Oscar for 'GWTW'. Nonetheless, 'Wuthering Heights' remains a classic in its own right. Merle Oberon and David Niven provided solid support.

Olivier and Leigh played opposite other in several films, most notably 'That Hamilton Woman'. It was on the stage, however, where they did most of their work together. In 1937, Leigh played Ophelia to Olivier's Hamlet in a special performance at the Kronberg Castle in Elsinore, Denmark (the city in which 'Hamlet' is set.) In the 40s, Olivier directed his wife in the leading role in the London production of a new American play. Several years later, Vivien would play the same role in the film version opposite newcomer Marlon Brando. The role, of course, was Blanche DuBois in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' for which Leigh would win her second Oscar.

Answer: Maureen O'Hara

Charles Laughton sat in make-up chair for two and a half hours every day during the filming, making him nearly unrecognizable as Quasimodo, the severely deformed and outcast bell ringer who lost his heart to a wild gypsy girl, played by O'Hara. This lavish version of Victor Hugo's famous story was one of the most expensive films of 1939.

Laughton saw Maureen Fitzsimmons' screen test and pegged her to play opposite him that same year in Hitchcock's "Jamaica Inn." He was also the one to suggest that she change her name from Fitzsimmons to O'Hara--the better to fit on a theatre marquee.

Answer: The premiere was in Atlanta where racism was rampant; she didn't want to stir up trouble.

Hattie McDaniel, an accomplished singer and radio performer, was criticized for playing stereotypical roles, prompting her famous statement: "I'd rather play a maid than be one." At the Oscars that year, McDaniel was the first African-American to attend the awards as a guest, not as a servant. A classier human being never graced the American cinema.

Answer: Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg

Harold Arlen never achieved the celebrity status of composers such as Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Still, his achievements were no less impressive. His most memorable work was certainly the score for 'The Wizard of Oz' but he wrote Broadway musicals ('House of Flowers') and composed such classics as 'Stormy Weather', 'It's Only a Paper Moon', 'Accentuate the Positive' and 'Get Happy'. 'Over the Rainbow' is easily one of the great works of art of the 20th century, right up there with Picasso's Guernica and 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'.

Answer: Bette Davis

'The stars! The clothes! The cruelty! The catfights!' Normally, you would expect to find Bette Davis in any film that had those words splashed across its poster. Norma Shearer, Joan Fontaine, Marjorie Main and Hedda Hopper were just a few of the stars who also participated in this exercise in melodrama and husband stealing.

Bette Davis still had a spectacular year. See question number 11.

Answer: The Roaring Twenties

In one of the greatest last lines in screen history--Gladys George as Panama Smith clutched Cagney's bullet-riddled body on the steps of a church. She was the dame who loved him all along, see, but his heart was stuck on that sappy Priscilla Lane--so what if she betrayed him in the end? He loved her, I'm tellin' ya, loved her! Back to the church steps--as Panama cradled his bloody corpse, a cop approached her and asked 'Who is this guy?' 'Eddie Bartlett' she squeaked out through her tears. 'What was his business?' asked the cop. Dramatic pause. 'He used to be a big shot.' Music swells, crossfade to Warner Brothers logo, THE END.

They just don't write 'em like that anymore.

Answer: Dark Victory

'Dark Victory' was the very definition of a 'weepie' and Davis was beyond perfect as the catty socialite who learned to understand the true meaning of love by getting a brain tumor and dying. It was one of her best performances and what she would later call her personal favorite. George Brent played the dreamy neurosurgeon who won her heart but couldn't fix her brain. Humphrey Bogart played a love sick horse trainer with a bad Irish accent. Reagan, incidentally, was very convincing as the shallow, bar-hopping playboy. Go figure.

Answer: Ninotchka

The legendary actress referred to here was, of course, Greta Garbo. Written by the great Billy Wilder, 'Ninotchka' was a romantic comedy in which Garbo's stern and humorless Soviet envoy found true love and laughter in the arms of a playboy count, played by Melvyn Douglas.

It was a huge success and Garbo received her fourth and final Oscar nomination for the film. The Great Garbo retired from the screen two years later to pursue a career as a mysterious recluse.

Answer: Only Angels Have Wings

The film starred Cary Grant, Thomas Mitchell and, as 'Judy' MacPherson, Rita Hayworth. Cargo pilots flying dangerous missions across the treacherous Andes was the backdrop for this unusual combination of action film and psychological drama. Jean Arthur played a stranded showgirl who fell for the gruff but lovable Grant. This was the film that thousands of bad impersonators use for their Cary Grant impressions-'Ju-dy, Ju-dy, Ju-dy!'. Grant, of course, never actually said this, making this line, along with 'Play it again, Sam' and 'You dirty rat!', one of the great lines of film dialogue that was never actually spoken in a film.

Jean Arthur was, to my mind, one of the great unappreciated talents of all time. In addition to her two 1939 classics, Arthur shone in such films as 'The More the Merrier', 'Talk of the Town', and 'Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'. In a change of pace from the spunky, fast talkin' sprites she played in these films, Arthur gave a rich, deeply felt performance in George Stevens' brilliant 1953 western, 'Shane'.

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

In John Ford's 'Young Mr. Lincoln', Fonda gives one of his signature performances. The film is an entertaining but largely fictionalized account of Lincoln's years before entering politics. Fonda never played Charles Lindbergh, incidentally but his Oscar-stealing friend Jimmy Stewart did. Fonda did play Wyatt Earp in Ford's 'My Darling Clementine' several years later and Clarence Darrow in a one-man stage show in the 1970s.

Answer: The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle

Certainly not one of the great Rogers and Astaire films, this was nonetheless a charming movie with Fred and Ginger faithfully and elegantly recreating dances made popular by the Castles, a popular dancing duo of the pre-WWI period. The film was topped off by a great tearjerker ending. Irene Castle herself acted as technical advisor on the film.

MGM did bring Rogers and Astaire back together one more time for 'The Barkleys of Broadway' in 1949 but Fred and Ginger were unable to recapture the magic they had created in their eight films for RKO in the 30s. In case you are wondering, 'Roxie Hart', one of the alternate answers on this question, was indeed the same story as 2002's Oscar winning 'Chicago'. The Hayes Office assured that 'Roxie Hart' presented a whitewashed version of the story of this merry murderess.