Axis: Bold as Love Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pearl Harbor

This 2001 film concentrated as much on the romantic elements as the war. Two men, played by Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett, fall for the same woman, portrayed by Kate Beckinsale. All three of them are in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attack came, with the two men taking to the air to attack the enemy aircraft.

The film was savaged by critics for its historical inaccuracies and poor dialogue although box office takings seem to prove that the public enjoyed it.

Answer: A Town Like Alice

This 1956 film starred Peter Finch as Joe Harmon and Virginia McKenna as Jean Paget. The pair meet during the war, when Jean is in a group of women and children captured by the Japanese in Malaya. While being marched from place to place, since their captors had nowhere to put them, the group come across Australian soldier Harmon, who steals a chicken to help the women, who have no food. After the war, Jean inherits money and discovers that Joe is not dead, as she had every reason to believe. The couple eventually meet again, and fall in love.

The film was based on a novel by Nevil Shute, but told only half of the story created by the author. The film's truncated version rather lost the point of the title, so I'd recommend the book rather than the film, personally.

Answer: Atonement

The film was based on a novel by Ian McEwan and came out in 2007. A teenage Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) misunderstands an incident between her older sister, Cecilia, played by Keira Knightley, and Robbie Turner (James McEvoy). This leads to a miscarriage of justice and has severe repercussions on the lives of both sisters and Turner. Romola Garai plays Briony as a young woman, with Vanessa Redgrave playing her as an old woman looking back on the events.

Both Robbie and Cecilia are caught up in the Second World War, although to say more would spoil the plot if you haven't seen the film, or read the book.

Answer: Casablanca

Possibly one of the best known films based on romances in the Second World War, 'Casablanca' also starred Ingrid Bergman, Dooley Wilson and Humphrey Bogart. Set in Morocco, at the time a French possession and under the control of Vichy France, Bogart portrays Rick Blaine, a bar owner, who had met Ilsa Lund (Bergman) in Paris.

The film created several well known phrases, such as 'of all the gin joints, in all the towns...' and 'play it, Sam; play "As Time Goes By"'.

Answer: Yanks

This 1979 film seemed to prove the old complaint about the American solders who came to the UK during WW2 - 'overpaid, oversexed and over here'. Richard Gere and William Devane portray soldiers stationed in an unspecified town in the north of England, where they begin relationships with British women, played by Lisa Eichhorn and Vanessa Redgrave.

The film ends with the men leaving for the south, and, ultimately, D-Day with no promise that they will ever be able to return.

Answer: The Cruel Sea

This 1953 film starred Jack Hawkins as a naval commander during the war. The main focus of the film was on the difficulties of escorting the convoys across the Atlantic, but it still managed to fit in three love story themes. The first involved John Morell (Denholm Elliott) and his faithless wife, and another showed one of the stokers falling for the sister of his shipmate. The main romance was between one of the ship's officers, played by Donald Sinden, and a WRNS officer portrayed by Virginia McKenna.

The film was based on the book of the same name, written by Nicholas Monsarrat, and the film gave one of the three couples a happier ending than in the novel.

Answer: The English Patient

Another of the many films in this quiz to be based on a book, this time by Michael Ondaatje, this 1996 film starred Ralph Fiennes as the title character, who turns out to be not English at all. Juliette Binoche plays Hana, who is the nurse tending the badly burned patient. Kristin Scott Thomas is the patient's lost love, a story told in flashbacks, while Dafoe plays the Intelligence Officer who questions the patient, prompting him to tell his story.

Answer: Charlotte Gray

Cate Blanchett played the title character in this 2001 film, adapted from Sebastian Faulks' novel. Charlotte is recruited as an agent for Special Operations Executive, a role she accepts as her boyfriend, played by Penry-Jones, has been reported missing in action in France and she hopes to find him.

While in France, her contact in the resistance is Julien Levade (Crudup), with Gray's life taking a different turn due to her wartime experiences.

Answer: Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Nicolas Cage played Antonio Corelli in this 2001 film adaptation of the book by Louis de Bernieres. Set in Cephalonia, the film depicts the arrival of Italian troops on the Greek island and their impact on the local inhabitants. Penelope Cruz plays Pelagia, whose fiancé Mandras (Christian Bale) is away fighting in the war. Pelagia's father is the local doctor - John Hurt played this role.

The brutality of war ends the idyll although the film offers rather more hope for the future than its source material in the novel.

Answer: From Here to Eternity

We started in Hawaii, so we'll end there. The film is remembered for its iconic scene of Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr rolling in the surf, which many of us can visualise even if we've never seen the film. The film came out in 1953, and shows the lives of the characters in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbour.

The war is more of a backdrop to the romances, although all the main male characters are in the army.