Colorful Classic Films Trivia Quiz

Answer: Red River

Produced and directed by Howard Hawks, this film has been called "one of the ten best Westerns ever made." It was a 1948 Academy Award nominee for Best Story. It is historically based on the opening of the Chisholm Trail in 1867. Walter Brennan, who plays Wayne's character's sidekick, played a similar role with Wayne ten years later in another Howard Hawks film, "Rio Bravo".

Answer: The Blue Angel

Considered the first major German sound film, "der blaue Engel" in German, is the story of the descent of an old gentleman from esteemed educator, first to a jeered clown, then to an empty wreck who dies alone in his old classroom. The film also brought fame to Dietrich.

Answer: Black Beauty

The 1972 TV series, "The Adventures of Black Beauty" was also based on Sewell's book. Sewell's novel is one of the best-selling books of all time, with 50 million copies sold. Fury, the horse that played Black Beauty in the 1946 film, was the highest-paid animal star, after Lassie, the dog.

Answer: White Heat

The film was inspired by famous "gangster" Ma Barker and her son. This was Cagney's last outstanding portrayal of the tough-guy that we so often think of him as. It was his first film in seven years with Warner Brothers, since "Yankee Doodle Dandy," for which Cagney received the Oscar for Best Actor.

Answer: The Green Mile

Director Frank Darabont also directed "The Shawshank Redemption." The title of "The Green Mile" refers to the green linoleum over which condemned prisoners walk in this particular institution en route to the electric chair (their "last mile").

Answer: The Pink Panther

Detective Jacques Clouseau is largely Sellers' creation, but the "Pink Panther" in the title is the name of a large pink diamond, which is stolen in the first film of the series, as well as in "The Return of the Pink Panther." One of the most recognizable aspects to the film is the theme music composed by Henry Mancini.

Answer: The Rose

Midler plays a singer known as "The Rose." The character's name is Mary Rose Foster. The movie's tagline is "She gave and gave, until she had nothing left to give." Listening to either Midler or Joplin singing "The Rose" is still a treat.

Answer: The Color Purple

A film loaded with star power, including Director Stephen Spielberg and the talents of Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Danny Glover, "The Color Purple" received 11 Academy Award nominations, but did not win a single Oscar. Alice Walker's novel won the Pulitzer Prize.

Answer: Crimson Tide

In this film the Hackman character and the Washington character mention where the famous Lipizzaner horses originated. Washington's character corrects his commander by saying the horses did not originate in Portugal, but in Spain. Actually, the breed's forebears may have been Andalusians, but the Lipizzaner breed itself developed after Habsburg Kaiser Maximilian II brought Andalusians to Austria, where they're now bred near Graz. That always bugged me.

The "Spanish Riding School," which features them, was created by the Habsburgs in Austria.

Answer: The Gold Rush

Chaplin wrote and directed the movie and also wrote the music for this classic silent film set in the Yukon Gold Rush. Anyone who has seen Chaplin eating his shoe will never forget this hilarious flick. I had to change the name of one wrong answer from "Gold Diggers of 1933", so as not to make that choice too easily discarded.