In Short Trivia Quiz

Answer: The African Queen

This film is set in Africa around 1914. It starred Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart as a disparate couple who join forces in attacking a German boat out in a large lake.

They have met by chance under dire circumstances, and each helps the other in understanding their situation and relationship. Charlie is a boozehound and a grimy adventurer, Rose has been doing missionary work in the jungle. Rose soon straightens him out. After he finds her pouring his gin into the river, she informs him that 'temptation is what we are put on this earth to resist'.

After overcoming many obstacles over the course of many days, they finally arrive at the lake, narrowly escaping discovery by the Germans.

This is an excellent film with two of the best actors Hollywood ever churned out.

Answer: Some Like it Hot

Many children sang this nursery rhyme without being quite sure what Pease Porridge was. The 1959 film (set in 1929) starred Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe aided by many worthy co-stars in a rip roaring tale of adventure, romance, cross dressing, intrigue and a bit of 'happily ever after'. Both Curtis and Lemmon played flapper girls quite well - a somewhat daring challenge particularly in the 1950s.

Pease porridge is a gruel made from... peas!

Answer: Fargo

Frances McDormand won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as a pregnant Minnesota Chief of Police, complete with the accent, the morning sickness and the very matter-of-fact dialogue. The film garnered seven Academy Award nominations, of which three were winners. It also won the BAFTA award and Award for Best Director for Joel Coen at the 1996 Cannes Film Fest. In 2006, the Library of Congress inducted "Fargo" into the U.S. National Film Registry, as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi and others star in this bizarre story, which revolves around greed, deceit and murder. The plot thickens and it's up to the police to unravel it. No spoilers. The film is well worth seeing.

Answer: Zulu

This is an historical war film about the Battle of Rorke's Drift which took place in 1879 between 150 British soldiers, many wounded or sick, and 4,000 Zulu warriors. The film was directed by American Cy Endfield. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures (Int'l) and Embassy Pictures (US), and opened in January, 1964 at the West End's Plaza Theatre in London.

The film featured Michael Caine's first major role, and included Jack Hawkins, Nigel Green and Stanley Baker, among others. The British hold out valiantly against the horde of Zulu warriors, having suffered defeat just before at the Battle of Isandlwana (depicted in the prequel "Zulu Dawn" released in 1979.)

The ending of "Zulu" is a surprise of sorts and renders due respect to the British soldiers.

Answer: Seven

It refers to the seven deadly sins: envy, lust, greed, gluttony, pride, wrath and sloth. Starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey and Gwyneth Paltrow, this is the tale of a search for a demented and sadistic serial killer and the two detectives who are pursuing him. The killer poses his victims in such a way that it is obvious how they died. Gluttony is represented by an obese man who died while being force fed till his body could no longer stand it. The connection becomes apparent when more victims are found in similar circumstances, some rather grisly: an attorney who died from bloodletting (signifying his greed and what he did to his clients), the body of an emaciated man found strapped to a bed. He is barely alive, having been kept there for a year, just on the brink of death - he had been a child molester and drug dealer before he was taken - his sin was sloth.

There are some disturbing scenes, and the ending is a bit gruesome, but the film is well done.

Answer: Ran

This film is usually credited to being inspired by Shakespeare's "King Lear", as the basic plot is similar. An aging monarch decides to step down and split his kingdom among his three sons (Lear's children were daughters). Hidetora Ichimonji had been a powerful and ruthless warlord, but he is growing old, so he calls his three sons together to explain his plan. Taro, Jiro and Saburu are the sons in order of age. Taro and Jiro support him, but Saburu claims that the plan is foolish and will divide the kingdom and its power. Saburo is banished and Hidetora finds that his expectations are just a dream turned into a nightmare. He and his fool wander aimlessly, unwanted at his sons' castles; enemies and inner battles are tearing the kingdom apart.

This film is a masterpiece of color, music, drama, treachery, vengeance, and lust for power, and does not end happily. Hidetora becomes frail and disillusioned as he loses his grip on reality, and Kabuki makeup is used to good effect toward the end, as he is just a ghost of his former powerful self. Saburo remains loyal to his father, the only one who had been honest with him from the start.

Akira Kurosawa received much acclaim from this epic film, as director. He also wrote part of the screenplay. At the time of its release, "Ran" was the highest costing film ever made in Japan. The word "Ran", both in Chinese and Japanese, means rebellion, revolt, disturbed or confused.

Answer: Them

"Them" was a typically Hollywood BEM (Bug-Eyed Monster) film of its time and involved giant ants as the disaster to be overcome. James Whitmore, James Arness, and Edmund Gwenn lead the cast in the race from the New Mexico desert where the monsters are discovered. The protagonists pursue the pregnant queen ant fleeing to safety with her protectors to find a secure place to breed.

The film was based on a story by George Worthing Yates and directed by Gordon Douglas for Warner Bros. It was the forerunner of many 'mutant' species horror/sci-fi/B films and was advertised as " horror horde of crawl-and-crush giants clawing their way out of the earth from mile-deep catacombs!"

Answer: She

Directed by Robert Day, this film stars Ursula Andress as Ayesha, aka "She", who rules the lost city of Kuma in northeast Africa. She is immortal and has a very
complex history and many enemies. She is still searching for her lost lover (by reincarnation) to make him immortal as well, and she chooses from the explorers one to fulfill that role. Leo (played by John Richardson) is chosen and she entices him to undertake a perilous trial. But a warring tribe disrupts the best laid plans and chaos ensues.

The cast includes Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Rosenda Monteros and Bernard Cribbins.

Answer: Blood Simple

This film was the debut for the Coen brothers as directors. They also wrote and produced it. Frances McDormand starred in this, her first feature film, along with Dan Hedaya, John Getz, M. Emmet Walsh and Samm-Art Williams. The title is derived from Dashiell Hammett's 1929 novel "Red Harvest" in which he describes the state of being 'blood simple' - a traumatic posture often seen in the frightful mindset of those who have undergone serious violent stimulation of any sort; here it applies to criminal acts.

The plot is very complicated, and to add to that, none of the key characters has full knowledge of what really happened in the situations they face. Only the audience does. This fact leads to many misunderstandings and confusion.

This was also one of the first times that spots of illumination appeared one by one as bullets pierced a wall. This film is well worth watching at least twice. There's blood, dead or presumably dead bodies, a confusing love story, deceit, lust, vengeance and violence. What's not to like!

Answer: M

Fritz Lang and his wife wrote the screenplay for this thriller. It was Lang's first 'talkie' and when it was discovered that Peter Lorre ("M" for morder in German) was unable to whistle, Lang filled in the sound for him. The tune was Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and Hans Beckert, the antihero, whistled it as he stalked children to kill. Rather than graphic violence, the absence of a child is noted by an empty chair at the dinner table, or a ball rolling away in the street.

Beckert taunts the 'incompetent' police with a letter about his murders, and they are spurred on by this enough to disrupt the underground criminal element, who decide to take matters into their own hands. By vigilance and some trickery, the criminal network captures the killer and brings him to an abandoned building to hold a kangaroo court. Beckert pleads for his life, and to be handed over to the authorities. "Who knows what it's like to be me?" is one of his cries.

This film became the typecaster for Lorre as villain, for many years, as he had formerly been a comedic actor. But "M" was a major undertaking and was the beginning of his rise to stardom.