Great Movie Comedies Before 1940 Quiz

Answer: The Gold Rush

Chaplin's unnamed character and Big Jim McKay share a cabin during the Klondike gold rush of 1898. Weather and lack of food bring them to the point of starvation causing them to consider shoe leather a source of nutrition while McKay visualizes Chaplin as a plump chicken.

Their cabin titters on the edge of a cliff as well. But all's well that ends well with riches and love in this 1925 Chaplin epic.

Answer: A train engine

Keaton wrote, directed, starred, and did his own stunts in "The General". Because he is a locomotive engineer, he is considered more valuable to the war effort than serving in the military but that does not cut any ice with his girl friend, Annabelle, who thinks he is a shirker as he is not in uniform.

Keaton is the engineer of the General, a Confederate supply train engine, but it is stolen by Union troops. Keaton pursues the General with another train called the Texas that leads to a complicated chase scene with one chasing the other then the reverse.

In 1927 it was one of the most expensive films of that era. For instance, instead of using miniature mock-ups in the studio for the bridge collapse and train wreck at the end, Keaton went on location to Oregon and blew up a real bridge and a real train for the scene. The costs were not appreciated by studio executives and Keaton was given less control after that. The wrecked train became a tourist spot for many years until the metal was scrapped in the World War Two effort.

Answer: Safety Last

Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton are considered the innovators of comic film in the silent era. In this Lloyd portrays a young man leaving to seek his fortune in the big city. Things do not go as well as he hoped and he winds up as a department store clerk. Both the train station scene and the department store scenes are filled with tiny jokes and surprising camera tricks. Through some plot twists Lloyd finds himself mostly on the side of a New York skyscraper and the famous clock scene.

Lloyd was able to make the transition to sound films to moderate success. Chaplin continued to produce silent films and only later turned to sound. Keaton drifted into character acting as he was not trusted with film budgets.

Answer: A Night at the Opera

The plot is thin and is a device to show off the Marx Brothers comic skills. An arrogant opera promoter is trying to sign opera stars to appear in an opera but two stowaways are seeking a chance as well (Alan Jones and Kitty Carlisle). Groucho has convinced Margaret Dumont to invest 200,000 dollars for the production.

The famous cabin scene is described in one summary: "Groucho and Chico... order about a dozen hard-boiled eggs and Groucho has ordered... coffee to sober up some stewed prunes. ... A total of 15 people crowd into his tiny cabin... asking to either use the cabin, or to perform their regular duties. Crammed into this little space at the end of the scene are three Marx brothers, two cleaning ladies who make up the bed, a manicurist, a ship's engineer and his fat assistant, a girl looking for her aunt, a maid, ... and four waiters with trays of food. All... tumble out into the hallway when Margaret Dumont opens the door."

Answer: It Happened One Night

Claudette Colbert has eloped with a fortune hunting gigolo. This was in defiance of her father. They become separated and she meets Clark Gable, an unemployed newspaper reporter, who promises to help her reunite with her boy friend in exchange for an exclusive story. They end up on a road trip hitchhiking and sharing a motel and falling in love.

At the 1935 awards, Gable and Colbert won Best Actor and Actress while Frank Capra accepted the Best Picture and Best Director awards. Robert Riskin's screenplay was the fifth recognition.

"It Happened One Night" was filmed in 1934 just before the Hays Office began its censorship mission. Otherwise we would not have seen the unique way Colbert hitchhikes nor the creative way she and Gable share the motel.

Initial reception to the film was moderate but grew through word-of-mouth by moviegoers.

Answer: You Can't Take It With You

Capra had previous won also for "It Happened One Night" (1934) and again for "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" (1936).

"You Can't Take It With You" was based on the Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart and adapted for the screen by Robert Riskin. James Stewart plays Tony a young man working in the family business that is seeking land to build a new factory but are blocked because one landowner refuses to sell. Meanwhile, Tony has fallen in love with his secretary (Jean Arthur) but does not realize she is from the family blocking the sale. When he does, he sort of arranges for his rich stuffy family to meet family patriarch Lionel Barrymore and his expansive and eccentric family. The result is chaos and everyone ends up in jail.

The ageless Spring Byington received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Answer: She Done Him Wrong

Mae West was in a constant conflict with studio censors long before the Hays Office opened. West's double entendre were often cleverly concocted and went over the heads of would be censors.

In 1933 "She Done Him Wrong" was nominated for Best Picture, one of the shortest films (66 minutes) ever to be honored.

West plays Lou, a singer in a disreputable night club whose owner runs a gang of pickpockets and dabbles in prostitution. One of Lou's ex-boy friends, Gus, blames her for his 15 year imprisonment and has vowed revenge. An undercover cop pretending to be a minister is gathering evidence to break up the gang in a break through role for Cary Grant. When all the bad guys are hauled off to jail, Grant takes West away and presents her with an engagement ring.

Answer: To complete his reconstruction of a Brontosaurus

If one wanted to know what a screwball comedy is, they need only to view "Bringing Up Baby". It has all the elements: zany antics and pratfalls, absurd situations, misunderstandings, professional cast with comic timing, lunatic misadventures, disasters, lighthearted surprise, in the context of a romantic comedy.

Grant plays David Huxley a mild-mannered paleontologist engaged to marry Alice, partially in hopes that her aunt will give him a grant to continue his research. However, the day before the wedding he meets Hepburn who takes an immediate liking for him. From there the two engage in a series of misadventures, often involving a South American leopard, culminating with a jail scene involving the leopard. (Interesting also is that leopards are not native to South America.)

For the past four years, he has been trying for four years to assemble a Brontosaurus but is missing the "intercostal clavicle". Hepburn tries to help him place the last bone but the ladder collapses and the Brontosaurus crumbles into a heap of bones. But they confess they love each other so all's well the ends well.

The film was a moderate success and was re-released in 1940. Its popularity grew when television began to run it. The film has an early reference to the word 'gay' as Grant ad libs in a scene where he wears a dress. Also, the film was over budget as the actors were laughing so much.

Answer: A Midsummer Night's Dream

To name a few: Mickey Rooney, James Cagney, Joe E. Brown, Dick Powell, and Olivia de Havilland. Most had never acted in a Shakespearean play and perhaps had never read one. Since many were under contract they had little leeway in rejecting a role. Nonetheless, they seemed get into the spirit. Max Reinhardt, who had directed a stage version, was chosen to direct but since he did not speak English his directions came through an interpreter. The script of the three hour play was adapted to 117 minutes when first released. It ran counter to the prevailing Hollywood films of that era as it was not accessible to mass audiences in the midst of the great depression. But it did receive some recognition with two academy award wins for Cinematography and Film Editing.

However in recent years it has been reappraised and received an 89% approval from Rotten Tomatoes.

The plot is difficult to describe as it has no true protagonist. Hermia is in love with Lysander but they can not marry without her father's approval or face death or chastity. Meanwhile the townspeople are preparing a play on cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe. Oberon, the king of the fairies, and Titania, his queen, are having an argument about attending the wedding of Duke Theseus and Hippolyta. Samuel Coleridge in his critique said not to worry about the plot but experience as intend--a dream.

Answer: No live males in any scene

No live men appear except on the cover of a magazine and a representation of a bull during a fashion snow scene but they are the chief topic in nearly every scene. The film had no Oscar nominations and was directed by George Cukor.

The film is based on a Broadway play by Clare Boothe Luce and adapted for the screen by Anita Loos. It is an ensemble cast including Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Mary Boland, Florence Nash, Virginia Grey, Marjorie Main, and Phyllis Pova. Showing up in cameo were Hedda Hopper and Butterfly McQueen. Of the 130 speaking voices heard in the film, none are male.

The film winds its way through luxury apartments, lady's rooms, Reno divorce lodgings, perfume counters, beauty salons, and fashion shows. The center of gossip is always men and how they effect the lives of more than one of the characters. Each scene has ironic commentary on the pampered lives of rich, bored wives and others within their circle.