Hollywood vs History 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: The story outlined in the movie was just one of many unproven theories, but he presented some elements of it as fact.

The enormous number of conspiracy theories and amount of misinformation advanced after the assassination prompted U.S. president Lyndon Johnson to authorize the U.S. Commission to Report upon the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (popularly known as the Warren Commission report).

The commission took its unofficial name from its chairman, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. After an exhaustive study, including the testimony or depositions of 552 witnesses, the commission issued an 888-page report with more than 3,100 exhibits, concluding that the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, acted alone.

However, this report set off many more objections, with arguably the most famous being the 1966 book "Rush to Judgment" by Mark Lane.

In 1992 Academy Awards "JFK" won two Oscars, and was nominated for Best Picture (but lost to "The Silence of the Lambs"). Tommy Lee Jones (he played accused conspirator Clay Shaw) was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (but lost to Jack Palance in "City Slickers"). Famed newsman Walter Cronkite severely criticized famed film critic Roger Ebert for his favorable review of "JFK," saying that there wasn't a shred of truth to the film.

Answer: The movie character C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard) is a fictional blending of all four of Bonnie and Clyde's sidekicks.

Bonnie and Clyde's four sidekicks were Ralph Fults, William Daniel Jones (nicknamed "W.D."), Ray Hamilton, and Henry Methvin. Methvin's father made the deal with Frank Hamer to set Bonnie and Clyde up for the ambush in which they died. In the 1968 Academy Awards. "Bonnie and Clyde" was nominated for ten Oscars, including Best Picture (but lost out to "In the Heat of the Night"). Estelle Parsons (who played Blanche, the wife of Clyde's brother Buck) won for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Warren Beatty, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway and director Arthur Penn were also nominated for awards but did not win.

This was Gene Wilder's first feature film (he played Eugene Grizzard, the young undertaker whose car was stolen by Bonnie and Clyde). Jane Fonda turned down the role of Bonnie Parker because she was living in France at the time and did not want to move to the U.S. during the filming.

Answer: His portrayal of Susan Alexander Kane as a no-talent shrew

Although "Citizen Kane" is widely regarded as being loosely based on the life of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, with the character Susan Alexander Kane (Dorothy Comingore) being modeled on actress Marion Davies (Hearst's mistress), Wells claimed this was not so.

He claimed the characters in this movie were actually a composite of characters from that era in America. He also maintained the Susan Alexander character was partly based on the wife of Chicago tycoon Samuel Insull, for whom Insull had built an opera house. Welles regretted his portrayal of the Susan Alexander character as a talentless opportunist, and said that Marion Davies actually was a wonderful woman.

She was widely liked in Hollywood, and was considered to be straightforward and full of humor and charm.

In the 1942 Academy Awards "Citizen Kane" won one Oscar, and was nominated for Best Picture (but lost to "How Green Was My Valley"). Hearst was so angered by this film that he forbade any advertisement of it in any of his newspapers.

He also accused Orson Welles of being a Communist in order to keep the film from being released (playing on the red-menace hysteria of that era).

Answer: The real Bugsy Siegel was shot from the back, with the bullet exiting through his eye, while in Moe Greene's movie scene it was just the opposite.

"Bugsy" Siegel was shot from the back while sitting on a couch, reading a newspaper (after his Flamingo casino cost the mob much more than what was originally agreed on). Moe Greene was shot from the front while lying on a massage table. The movie sequence showing the wedding of Vito Corleone's daughter Connie (Talia Shire) to gangster Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo) was supposedly modeled on the real-life wedding of mobster Bill Bonanno (son of Brooklyn Mafia don Joe Bonanno) in 1956 to Rosalie Profaci, niece of one of the heads of another of the five New York crime families.

However, according to Mario Puzo, one movie character that was not modeled on real life was the wedding singer Johnny Fontane (Al Martino). According to Puzo, he was NOT based on Frank Sinatra (even though Fontaine says, "... he [Wolz] bought the movie rights to this book.

A bestseller -- and the main character, it's a guy just like me. I, uh, I wouldn't even have to act -- just be myself. Oh, Godfather, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.") This is a pretty clear reference to Sinatra's role of Private Maggio in the war movie "From Here to Eternity" (for which Sinatra won the 1954 Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role).

However, despite Puzo's denials, everyone assumed that the Johnny Fontane character was modeled on Sinatra, and he was furious. When he ran into Puzo at a restaurant, Sinatra screamed vulgar terms and threats at him. In the 1973 Academy Awards "The Godfather" won three Oscars, including Best Picture, and Marlon Brando for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Al Pacino, James Caan, and Robert Duvall were all nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, but didn't win. The movie's famous quote "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse," is listed at #2 in "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes" (American Film Institute).

Answer: General Cornwallis was not even present at the Battle of Cowpens (the climatic battle in the movie, just before Yorktown).

In the movie, Lord Cornwallis is portrayed as a much older man than he actually was. He was born in 1738, which would make him six years younger than George Washington. The climatic battle in the movie (just before Yorktown) is based on the actual battle of Cowpens, South Carolina (although the American General in that battle was Brigadier-General Daniel Morgan).

The clever American strategy and unique landscape of the area gave the Americans a decisive victory. This movie has the best (measured by Kleenex-count) tearjerker movie scene I can remember seeing - the scene where Martin's young daughter Susan (Skye McCole Bartusiak) finally breaks years of silence (since her mother died) and speaks.

As Martin starts to ride off to war, she runs after him and cries, "Papa! Papa! Please don't go. I'll say anything. Just tell me what you want me to say and I'll say it." In the 2001 Academy Awards, "The Patriot" was nominated for Oscars in three categories but did not win any.

Answer: The story is actually a screenwriter's combination of two separate Minnesota crimes that did occur.

This specific crime never happened, although the story is a blending of elements of two Minnesota crimes that actually did occur (according to co-producer Ethan Coen). According to co-producer Joel Coen the story is based on true events from other cases that they combined together to make one story.

The Coens said the credit note was added so that viewers would be more willing to believe the story. The two crimes were (1) a 1962 crime in which a St. Paul, MN attorney named Eugene Thompson hired someone to kill his wife and (2) a 1972 crime in which the wife of wealthy Orono, MN banker Harry C. Piper, Jr. was kidnapped and held for a million-dollar ransom.

In the 1996 Academy Awards "Fargo" won two Oscars, including one for Frances McDormand, for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

It was also nominated in five other categories, including Best Picture, but lost to "The English Patient".

Answer: The order of flag bearers at the opening ceremony was wrong.

The official report of the games indicates that the Parade of Nations parade was in alphabetical order according to the French language, beginning with South Africa (l'Afrique du Sud). It was not until the 1928 games that Greece would lead off the parade.

In the movie the US team is shown first, then the British team, then the French team. The original Olympics were held from 776BC to 393AD (every four years, in Olympia, Greece each time). After an absence of approximately 1,500 years, the games were revived in 1896 by Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin.

These are referred to as the modern Olympics, and the former as the ancient Olympics. The 1924 games were held in Paris, France, with 44 nations participating. In the 1982 Academy Awards "Chariots of Fire" won four Oscars, including Best Picture. Ian Holm was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, but lost to John Gielgud in "Arthur." The title for this movie at first stumped screenplay writer Colin Welland, with the uninspired title "Runners" at first winning by default.

Then he watched a BBC television show on religious music, which included the hymn "Jerusalem" (which included the words "Bring me my chariot of fire." Welland jumped up and shouted to his wife, "I've got it, Pat! 'Chariots of Fire'!"

Answer: One brother who was reported killed later turned up alive.

This movie was based on the true story of the four Niland brothers. One was killed on D-Day while in the 82nd Airborne, one was killed on Utah Beach with the 4th Infantry Division, and a third was reported killed that same week in Burma (but later turned up alive). Mrs. Niland received all three death notification telegrams on the same day.

The fourth son was serving with the 101st Airborne and was ordered pulled out of the front lines, but couldn't be found. He survived anyway. In the 1999 Academy Awards "Saving Private Ryan" won five Oscars and was nominated for six more, including Best Picture. Best Picture that year was won by "Shakespeare in Love." In a tear-jerker scene (at least for me) at the end of the movie, an old James Ryan is looking at Captain Miller's gravestone in the American Cemetery in Normandy, France, and remembers his dying words, "James, earn this... earn it." He turns to his wife and says, "Tell me I'm a good man." She looks at him and replies back, "You ARE."

Answer: Rommel's book on tank strategy was not published until after WWII ended.

In the scene just after the battle of El Guettar (in North Africa), Patton is jubilant at outmaneuvering Rommel (Karl Michael Vogler) and exclaims, "...I read your book!" Rommel's book, as seen in the movie scene where his aides wake Patton in preparation for this battle, is entitled "The Tank in Attack" (with the title in English). The book Rommel actually published (in 1937) was titled "Infanterie greift an" (about infantry actions in WWI). He was working on a follow-up book to be titled "Panzer greift an" but it was never published before Rommel's forced suicide in 1944. His notes were later published with the sometimes title of the book that was on Patton's night stand, but this book would not have been available at the time of this battle. Two other minor deviations from actual history: 1) Patton slapped two soldiers (not just one, as was shown in the movie), and 2) the "weather prayer" was written a week earlier in Nancy, France (not on the way to Bastogne, as was shown in the movie). However, the writer, Msgr. (Col.) James H. O'Neill (Chief Chaplain of the Third Army, actually did receive a Bronze Star for writing it. "Patton" won seven Oscars in the 1971 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Historical note:
One book Patton might have read is "Achtung Panzer! The Development of Armored Forces, their Tactics and Operational Potential" by Heinz Guderian, the architect of the German blitzkrieg attack with tanks and planes into France in 1940 (his book was published in German in 1937). According to the book "The Patton Mind" by Roger Nye (p. 119) Patton (who could read German) had access to both Rommel's and Guderian's books and read them both thoroughly. British theories by John Fuller and Sir Basil Liddell Hart published in the 1920s are generally considered the origin of many of the ideas on mechanized warfare and were also likely on Patton's reading list. According to the 1972 book "The Patton Papers" by Martin Blumenson, Patton had direct personal contact with Colonel J. F. C. Fuller during World War I.

Answer: Spartacus was killed in battle (the movie showed him as surviving the battle and later being crucified).

In the movie ending, Varinia (Jean Simmons) shows her newborn child to Spartacus while he is dying on a crucifixion cross. Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was on the blacklist (for Hollywood employment), and initially the studio did not want to give him screen credit for his work. However, actor Kirk Douglas used his clout to ensure that Trumbo was in fact listed on the movie credits--check this out the next time you watch the movie. His doing so effectively ended the Hollywood blacklist. In the 1961 Academy Awards "Spartacus" won four Oscars, including Peter Ustinov for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Best Picture that year was won by "The Apartment."

Historical note:
The Hollywood blacklist was a direct result of investigations of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in 1947, the Cold War, and the Red-menace scare. Hollywood witnesses who refused to answer the committee's questions on Constitutional grounds were barred from employment in Hollywood, starting with the "Hollywood Ten" and later including many others. This employment blacklist was not broken until the late 1950s-early 1960s.