Movie Music/Theme Songs Trivia Quiz

Answer: West Side Story

1961's "West Side Story" won ten Academy Awards including Best Music and Best Sound, but unusually for a blockbuster, was not nominated for Best Actor or Actress. The movie is a reprise of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". Standing in for the warring families are rival New York City gangs. The star-crossed lovers are a Puerto Rican girl and an American boy, trapped amid violence and poverty in 1950s New York City, the distrust and racial animus of their respective clans complicating and ultimately dooming their innocent love. Natalie Wood plays the girl Maria, and a largely unknown Richard Beymer won the role of Tony. He beat out a veritable who's who of actors who auditioned for the part, including Warren Beatty, Burt Reynolds, Bobby Darin, Anthony Perkins, Richard Chamberlain, Dennis Hopper and Troy Donahue. Elvis was also in consideration, but some stories suggest that his manager Colonel Parker didn't like him being associated with gangs or actually knifing someone on screen.

The clue references three songs from the movie; "Gee, Officer Krupke", "Maria", and "America". Leonard Bernstein wrote the music and Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics for the 1957 Broadway musical from which the movie was adapted.

Answer: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

This western from 1962 stars John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Vera Miles, and Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance, the outlaw terrorizing the town. Stewart plays a good, honest lawyer from the east who must eventually face the notorious renegade, with a gun instead of a law book. Wayne is the local gunslinger who also opposes Liberty, but loves the same woman as Stewart. He eventually bows out of the love triangle and succumbs to the modern ways of law and order, even while figuring in the action to the very end of the movie.

Here is the first stanza of the theme song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David: "When Liberty Valence rode to town, the womenfolk would hide (they'd hide). When Liberty Valance walked around, the men would step aside. 'Cause the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood. When it came to shooting straight and fast, he was mighty good."

Inexplicably, in my opinion, Gene Pitney's inspiring, emotional rendition, which displays his clear tenor voice to perfection, did not make it into the movie. Director John Ford just didn't like it and refused to have it in his film. Listen for yourself and decide.

Answer: The Pink Panther

The theme music from the original "Pink Panther" film is sneaky, saxophone sexy, cool, and instantly recognized by anyone who's into 1960s movies. It is coordinated with the movements of a cartoon animated pink panther who cavorts around the screen interacting with the words of the opening credits of the film. Henry Mancini received three Grammy Awards and a lot of royalty money for the song, which also appears in all but two of the other films in the series, as well as numerous animated offshoot cartoons and commercials.

The Pink Panther comedy/mystery series included eleven films between 1963 and 2009, all featuring the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, and most either directly or indirectly connected to intrigue surrounding a rare diamond known as "The Pink Panther." Its theft drives the plot of the first film. In it, Peter Sellers, as Clouseau, creates one of the great and enduring comedy roles of all time. His co-stars are David Niven, Robert Wagner, Capucine, and Claudia Cardinale. The inspector is on the trail of an international jewel thief (played by Niven), who is attempting to steal the diamond. The elusive stone is owned by an exiled princess (Cardinale). The film's denouement takes place during a costume party at a fancy ski resort, with hilarious consequences. In films ten and eleven of the series, Steve Martin took on the role of Clouseau.

Answer: Dr. Strangelove

Footage of huge nuclear bomb explosions bloom silently on screen as this theme song incongruously plays lovingly behind the images. A British release from 1939, it became a morale booster for soldiers headed off to World War II, and their sweethearts hoping they came back alive. Ross Parker and Hughie Charles, the song's authors, were successful English songwriters who collaborated on several patriotic songs produced during the war era. They might have disapproved of this ironic use of their material.

The 1964 movie is another Peter Sellers tour de force. He plays multiple roles as the President of the USA, a deranged German rocket scientist, and a British colonel trying to stop a crazy US general who has ordered a missile strike on the Soviet Union. George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, and Keenan Wynn also star. The movie is a comedy, but also a biting anti-war statement which relentlessly satirizes the paranoia exhibited on both sides during the cold war. Stanley Kubrick wrote and directed the film.

Answer: What's New Pussycat?

Woody Allen wrote the screenplay of this zany comedy from 1965. Again it's Peter Sellers, this time playing an unhinged psychiatrist trying to cure a patient (Peter O'Toole) who wants to be faithful to his fiancee, but can't resist the numerous other women who invariably fall for him. He calls them all "pussycat" because he can't remember their names. Somehow everyone ends up in the same hotel, with outrageous results including an absurd go-kart race/chase. Warren Beatty was originally cast in the O'Toole role, but left the project when the producer Charles Feldman cast Capucine as Renee. Beatty had his girlfriend Leslie Caron in mind for the role.

Tom Jones belts out the theme song in typical lusty fashion, and it does have a big presence in the movie. Bacharach and David were also responsible for this composition, which garnered them an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song of 1966. For his trouble, Jones got a hit which peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number eleven in the UK.

Answer: Alfie

Alfie is the story of a working class, cockney womanizer, going through his "birds" like tissues. Eventually his selfish behaviors and cavalier attitudes begin to have serious consequences, including a son whom Alfie loves but can't connect with. As he burns out his relationships, his loneliness becomes overwhelming. Michael Caine was really hitting his stride as a 33-year-old leading man in 1966, and his portrait of this funny, sad and ultimately pathetic user of women is compelling.

"What's it all about, Alfie?" is the first line of the pensive ballad which was intended to stir interest in the film. All three women in the question released versions of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song. Black's version was used to promote the film in England, and it made number nine on the charts there. For the US release of the film, Cher's version appeared on the soundtrack. Dionne Warwick, for whom the song was originally intended, had the bigger North American hit, with her release hitting number fifteen on Billboard and number ten on Canada's chart in 1967.

Answer: The Graduate

Perhaps one of the most recognized songs from a '60s movie soundtrack, "Mrs. Robinson" was conceived by Paul Simon in 1967 and performed by Simon and Garfunkel. Simon adapted the original lyric which was "Mrs. Roosevelt" to fit the movie character. The tune was a number one hit in the USA in June of 1968 and was the first rock song to win a Grammy Award (as record of the year at the 1969 ceremony).

"The Graduate" is one of the iconic disaffected youth movies of the decade. It follows a recent college graduate, Ben Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman) who, bored and at loose ends, enters into a morally bankrupt affair with Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), a friend of his parents. Being clueless about the affair, they pressure Ben to date the Robinsons' daughter Elaine. He reluctantly does so and falls for her, creating volcanic anger in Mrs. Robinson and unmanageable complications for all concerned. The movie won a Best Director Oscar for Mike Nichols and no others, a rare occurrence not repeated for the rest of the century.

Answer: 2001: A Space Odyssey

Writing a capsule review of "2001: A Space Odyssey" is like writing Cliff's Notes for the Bible, so I won't try. Suffice it to say that if you have any interest in outer space, where we came from, computers, or humankind in general, this movie will still blow your mind half a century later, or at least make you think.

The music in question, used to marvelous effect in the space station docking scene in the movie, was NOT written by Bacharach/David! "An der shonen blauen Donau" (German- by the beautiful blue Danube), and commonly referred to in English as "The Blue Danube Waltz", was composed by Austrian Johann Strauss in 1866 and was first performed in Vienna in 1867. It remains one of the most popular and most recognized pieces of classical music ever recorded.

Answer: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

The Paul in question is Paul Newman, the star of this classic buddy film from 1969. Newman, as Butch Cassidy, and Robert Redford, as the Sundance Kid, are leaders of a western gang who rob trains. When the law threatens their gang, they strike out on their own, eventually fleeing all the way to Bolivia to "start a new life." Along for the ride is Sundance's lover, played by Katherine Ross. Unfortunately, they are eventually forced to return to robbery to maintain their lifestyle, with dire consequences.

The B.J. in the question is B.J. Thomas who sang "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head", which was written expressly for the film and is indelibly identified with it by Butch's whimsical bike ride with Sundance's woman seated on the handlebars. The songwriters? You guessed it, Hal David and Burt Bacharach. The prolific duo continued lining their trophy case with another Academy Award, this one for Best Original Song of 1969. The single was released in October of 1969, so it was a Billboard chart topper for Thomas in January of 1970, and is considered one of the top songs of that year.

Answer: North to Alaska

John Wayne, Stewart Granger, and Capucine (there she is again!) star in this rollicking western adventure/comedy. The boys are busy staking out their gold claim in the wilds of Alaska and trying to get some romantic action at the same time. Sam, Wayne's character, gets sent to Seattle to fetch the fiancee of George (Granger), but finds her already married and so returns with a hot substitute French woman (Capucine) instead. Also along for the ride is Fabian, as George's younger brother, who of course is smitten with the woman, to much comic effect.

They could have let him sing the theme song, but Johnny Horton's version is a classic. It plays over the opening titles. The song was a number one country hit in the US and also rose to number four on the Billboard chart and number two in Australia late in 1960.