Black and White Films my Kids Won't Watch Quiz

Answer: Sergeant York

This film is a biopic about Alvin York, the most famous American soldier in World War I. York tried to claim exemption from service as a conscientious objector, but was denied. During the 1918 Meuse-Argonne offensive, York and seven other men captured 132 German soldiers. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. Gary Cooper played York, with the real Alvin York's blessing.

Answer: Shadow of a Doubt

Teresa Wright portrays a bored California teenager whose Uncle Charlie, played by Joseph Cotten, comes to visit. She comes to believe that he may be the Merry Widow Murderer. One of Alfred Hitchcock's best!

Answer: Arsenic and Old Lace

A black comedy wherein newlywed Grant discovers that his sweet, elderly aunts are murdering older bachelors and having his mentally disturbed brother, who thinks that he is Teddy Roosevelt, bury them in the basement. One of Cary Grant's most popular roles.

Answer: The Best Years of Our Lives

This is a film about veteran American servicemen returning to their homes after the end of World War II, and their struggles to adjust to new problems and the changes that war brings. They find that nothing, not their relationships, jobs, or community standing, is the same.

Answer: High Noon

The classic Western in which a sheriff, planning to step down from the job after getting married, learns that a notorious criminal that he put in prison is on the way back to town, with his gang, looking for revenge. The sheriff asks for help from the town, but learns that he is on his own.

Answer: Paths of Glory

During World War I, French Colonel Dax, a defense attorney in civilian life, is ordered to send his men into a hopeless attack by the High Command. When the attack fails, three of his men are tried for cowardice, with Dax as defense counsel. Brilliant performances by Kirk Douglas as Dax, George Macready as General Mireau, and Adolphe Menjou as General Broulard.

Answer: Some Like It Hot

Two male Chicago musicians witness the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre and, to escape gangsters, pose as women and join an all-girl band on a road trip to Florida. Great comic performances by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, and, the film has the always gorgeous Marilyn Monroe.

Answer: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

This is a Western story starring Jimmy Stewart as Ransom Stoddard, a newly minted lawyer from the Eastern US who moves to the Western town of Shinbone and learns after an encounter with local villain Liberty Valance, played by Lee Marvin, that law and order in the West comes from the barrel of a gun and not a law book.

The film also stars John Wayne as rancher Tom Doniphan, who tells Stoddard to learn to use a gun or go back East.

Answer: Fail-Safe

"Fail-Safe" is a Cold War tale where an electronic device malfunction sends US bombers to attack the Soviet Union. Henry Fonda stars as the US President, Walter Matthau as a war-hawk professor, and Dan O'Herlihy as a US bomber pilot reluctant to destroy the world in an edge-of-your-seat drama that could have been all too real.

Answer: In Cold Blood

An adaptation of Truman Capote's "true crime" novel sees two ex-convicts murder a Kansas farm family in 1959 during a home invasion to find a non-existent fortune. I always found the sheer ordinariness of both the killers and the victims to be chilling.