'Memphis Belle': The Story Behind the Film Quiz

Answer: England

It was filmed at three locations in England. Its producer and director were British, as were many others in the crew. Many of the extras who played the ground crew were British actors pretending to be Americans.

Answer: Her father had made a wartime documentary about it.

William Wyler, the legendary Hollywood director, was the father of Catherine. He had flown five missions with the 'Memphis Belle' as a war correspondent, making a propaganda film - clips of which are often shown today in many a documentary.

Catherine fleshed out the idea with David Puttnam while they were both at Columbia during the mid-1980s but it was grounded, apparently indefinitely, upon Puttnam's return for England.

Answer: B-17s, Me.109s, P-51s and a B-25.

There were only eight B-17s still flying in the world by the late 1980s, and the film used five of them. In addition to these, it also used three Me.109s and eight Mustangs, as well as a B-25 which was a flying camera platform.

Answer: True

Puttnam had been inspired by the Len Deighton novel, 'Bomber', about an RAF crew's final mission over Germany at night. His fledgling company, Enigma Productions Limited, could not raise the capital to realise the project, however, so he joined up with Catherine Wyler. They managed to get Warner Bros. on board to finance it.

Answer: Michael Caton-Jones

Although the Scottish Caton-Jones became famous just before the release of 'Memphis Belle', with his first film 'Scandal' (1989), he was selected by Puttnam on the strength of some short films he had made while still at film school.

Answer: Pinewood

In addition to Pinewood, the exterior shooting was carried out at the RAF Museum at Duxford, Cambridgeshire and RAF Binbrook in Lincolnshire.

Answer: It stands as an non-flying exhibit in a museum.

The real B-17F that was the 'Memphis Belle' was patched up and preserved for posterity after the war. It now stands as an exhibit at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio. It is in a non-flyable condition.

Answer: True

Modine notched up a few hours as a trainee pilot under the supervision of the film's technical directors (most of them war veterans). "One of the things the guys insisted upon was that if I was going to be the pilot then I'd have to really fly," Modine said.

He flew the B-17 for about eight hours during the shooting. Talk about boyhood dreams!

Answer: One of the B-17s crashed.

The crash happened on 25 July, 1989, at RAF Binbrook in Lincolnshire, England. Ten people suffered injuries, including one broken collar bone and a broken leg. Once Caton-Jones had ascertained that no one was killed, he admits that he went straight back into director mode and thought, "I wonder if that's screwed up the shot".

Answer: William Butler Yeats

It did sound suspiciously polished and professional for an amateur poet's scribblings! It was 'An Irish Airman Foresees His Death', a poem from the First World War by Yeats. Danny did credit the poet in one of the later scenes of the film.