Key Titles Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alan Ladd

The 1942 movie "The Glass Key" also starred Brian Donlevy and Veronica Lake. The plot revolved around shady politician Donlevy's being suspected of the murder of Lake's gambler brother. Ladd played Donlevy's best friend who tried to discover the truth, while both falling in love with Lake and being kidnapped and beaten up by gangsters. The title refers to a warning given by Ladd to Donlevy about the fragility of a political bond the latter had formed.

The mysterious cowboy of the hint is the title character of "Shane" (1953), played by Ladd (1913-1964), whose career spanned 1932-64. He appeared in "This Gun for Hire" (1942) as well as westerns like "Shane" and "The Proud Rebel" (1958), war movies and other dramas, ending with "The Carpetbaggers" (1964).

Answer: Boris Karloff

In "Night Key" (1937), Karloff played an inventor who didn't want his ingenious new security system of the title to be misused by criminals. Although he felt his work to be undervalued by his boss, he steadfastly refused to help the criminals even when kidnapped by them. There was no 'monster' make up for Karloff in this one, just white hair and a moustache to make him appear elderly and frail. One of the thugs is played by the seemingly omnipresent Ward Bond.

The clue refers to Karloff's more well-known roles, as the Monster in "Frankenstein" (1931) and Imhotep in "The Mummy" (1932). Throughout his career, which began in silent movies, Karloff (1887-1969) appeared in many movies in the horror genre. Others of the non-horror variety included "The Lost Patrol" (1934) and "Targets" (1968). Though the latter was a crime movie, Karloff's character in it was a horror movie star!

Answer: Clark Gable

"Key to the City" (1950) was a romantic comedy about a mis-matched couple who met at a convention for mayors being held in San Francisco. Gable (1901-1960) played a no nonsense, rough around the edges ex-longshoreman who had become mayor of his blue collar town, and Loretta Young was the refined, well-educated mayor of a community in Maine. As often happened in this sort of film, they were attracted to one another and complications ensued.

Gable's Oscar was for "It Happened One Night" (1934), and he was also nominated for "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935) and "Gone with the Wind" (1939), all for Best Actor. He lost the latter competitions to Victor McLaglen in "The Informer" (1935) and Robert Donat in "Goodbye, Mr Chips" (1939).

Answer: George M. Cohan

Since 1916, there have been at least six movies, as well as a number of television productions, with the title "Seven Keys to Baldpate", all based at least in part on a play written by George M. Cohan. "House of the Long Shadows" (1983) was also based on the play. Cohan himself starred in the 1917 version, playing a writer who was given a key to the supposedly "closed for the winter" Baldpate Inn, as a quiet place to finish a project. The existence of six more keys, in the hands of various people, resulted in a less quiet than expected sojourn for the author, as the others arrived to make their own use of the Inn.

Better known as a composer and song and dance man, Cohan (1878-1942) acted in a few movies between 1917 and 1934, including one of the silent versions of "Seven Keys to Baldpate". The hint refers to James Cagney's Oscar-winning portrayal of Cohan in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942).

Answer: Jeffrey Hunter

In "Key Witness" (1960), Hunter played the title witness to a gang killing, who put himself and his wife in danger by saying as much to the police. Pat Crowley played his wife, and the young hoodlums were led by Dennis Hopper, later to star in "Easy Rider" (1969).

The hint referred to Hunter's role in "Hell to Eternity" (1960), a true story of a young man who had been adopted by a Japanese-American family in the years before WWII. Hunter (1926-69) also appeared in films such as "The Searchers" (1956), "King of Kings" (1961) and "The Longest Day" (1962).

Answer: William Holden

"The Key" (1958) took place during World War II, and the key of the title was to an apartment that came with a young widow (Sophia Loren) to be looked after by the key holder. A series of tug boat officers, engaged in dangerous salvage work, were the holders succeeding each other as war took its inevitable toll on the men. William Holden played an American who had joined the British in the effort, and Trevor Howard (who won a BAFTA as Best British Actor for this film) was one of the British officers.

William Holden (1918-1981) won his Best Actor Oscar for "Stalag 17" (1953) and was nominated in the same category for both "Sunset Blvd." (1950) and "Network" (1976). He lost those bids to Jose Ferrer in "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1950) and Peter Finch, also for "Network". Holden's other films included "Golden Boy" (1939), "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" (1955) and "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957).

Answer: Gérard Philipe

The original French title of this film was "Juliette ou la clef des songes" (1951) and it was based on a play of the same name. M. Philipe played a young man who had gone to jail for the sake of Juliette, the woman he loved, and about whom he dreamed whilst incarcerated. Suzanne Cloutier played Juliette.

Handsome Frenchman Gérard Philipe (1922-59) was only 36 when he died of liver cancer, leaving a wife and two small children. His career was almost entirely in French cinema, and included such films as "Le rouge et le noir" (1954) and "Monsieur Ripois" (1954).

Answer: Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart played the good guy in "Key Largo" (1948), helping his wartime friend's widow (Lauren Bacall) and disabled father (Lionel Barrymore) to regain control of their Florida hotel from mobsters led by Edward G. Robinson. Oh, there was a hurricane bearing down on them, just to make things more interesting. Claire Trevor won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Robinson's ill-treated girlfriend. John Huston directed.

Bogart (1899-1957) won his Best Actor Oscar for "The African Queen" (1951), also directed by Huston, and co-starring Katharine Hepburn. He had two other nominations in the same category, for "Casablanca" (1942), which he lost to Paul Lukas for "Watch on the Rhine" (1943) and for "The Caine Mutiny" (1954), losing to Marlon Brando's performance in "On the Waterfront" (1954).

Answer: Milburn Stone

"The Master Key" (1945) was one of those movie serials that kept people coming back to the movie theatre every week to see the next instalment. Its typically far-fetched plot involved federal agents, led by Tom Brant (Stone) trying to keep a machine that turned seawater into gold out of the hands of Nazis who were trying to steal it.

The hint referred to Milburn Stone's long-lasting role as Doc Galen Adams on TV's "Gunsmoke" (1955-75). Stone (1904-80) started out in the movies in 1935, making several films that year. He also appeared in such films as "Siege at Red River" (1954) and "The Long Gray Line" (1955).

Answer: Gregory Peck

In "The Keys of the Kingdom" (1944), in one of his first roles, Peck portrayed a Catholic priest who struggled against many obstacles to establish a parish in China. The film explored his life before becoming a priest, as well as his accomplishments in China. Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price and Roddy McDowall also appeared. The movie's four Oscar nominations included one for Peck as Best Actor, but he lost out this time to Ray Milland in "The Lost Weekend" (1945).

Peck (1916-2003) had to wait until his fifth nomination (all for Best Actor) to win the Academy Award, for "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962). The nominations between those two were for "The Yearling" (1946), "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947) and "Twelve O'Clock High" (1949). The winners in those cases were Fredric March for "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946); Ronald Colman for "A Double Life (1947); and Broderick Crawford for "All the King's Men" 1949).