Movie Props Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Caine Mutiny

The neurotic, despotic Captain Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) often rolled a pair of small steel ball bearings in his hand when upset, nervous or angry, as he did in the Herman Wouk bestseller. Today such finger fidgets are sold by the millions, so Wouk's Queeg was definitely ahead of the curve! There was also a dramatic version of the novel and film's climactic court-martial trial that ran on Broadway.

Answer: Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid

In the "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" sequence, Paul Newman's Butch takes Katharine Ross' Etta for a morning ride on his new bicycle. The scene ends with Butch crashing into a rail fence and having to flee an irritated bull with Etta. Later, When Butch, Etta and Sundance prepare to travel east to escape a posse, Butch shoves the bike into a creek, shouting, "The future's all yours, ya lousy bicycle!"

Answer: Goldfinger

Harold Sakata's henchman Oddjob was far more formidable than his boss Goldfinger (Gert Frobe), not only because of his strength and martial arts prowess, but also his razor-rimmed bowler hat. Tossed with deadly accuracy, it decapitates a statue before Sean Connery's James Bond. Later, in the climactic battle in Fort Knox, Bond hurls the hat at Oddjob and misses, lodging it in a wall of steel bars, but Oddjob's retrieving his weapon gives Bond the chance to put a severed cable on the bars and electrocute his foe!

Answer: Strangers On A Train

The lighter belongs to tennis pro Guy Haines (Farley Grainger) who meets psycho Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker in a spellbinding performance) on a train to Washington, D.C. When Guy mentions he'd like to rid himself of his present wife, Bruno proposes he'll do the job if Guy will kill Bruno's father. Guy laughs at the deal, not realizing Bruno is serious, then absentmindedly leaves the lighter on the train... with Bruno.

Answer: Stalag 17

In Billy Wilder's WW2 classic, prison camp hustler J.J. Sefton (William Holden's Oscar-winning role) is accused of being a Nazi informer. After being beaten by his fellow inmates, he accidentally discovers the messages by the real informer are passed to the Nazis within hollowed queens in his barracks' chess set.

He soon learns the real identity of the informer, a Nazi spy posing as American, and later sets the spy up to be killed by his Nazi masters.

Answer: The Spirit of St. Louis

James Stewart plays Charles Lindbergh in the Billy Wilder biopic based on Lindbergh's memoir. Lindbergh readies himself for his historic solo flight across the Atlantic. In his compact plane, the magnetic compass must hang from the ceiling; an unknown girl gives Lindy her compact mirror so he can read the compass. Later, the mirror saves his life by flashing sunlight on his face when he dozes off and keeping him from crashing in the sea!

Answer: Pulp Fiction

In the "Gold Watch" segment of the film, Christopher Walken's Captain Koons gives young future boxer Butch Coolidge a gold wrist watch once owned by his grandfather and father, both prisoners of war. Growing up to be Bruce Willis, Coolidge wins a prize fight he was ordered to throw and goes back to his former digs to retrieve his watch.

The act sets off a brutal chain of events culminating in Butch's redemption, when he saves his enemy (Ving Rhames) from an attempted rape.

Answer: Sweet Charity

In Bob Fosse's movie directorial debut, Shirley MacLaine's title character runs into Ricardo Montalban's Italian movie star on a rainy night. At his pad, Montalban gives MacLaine a signed photo of him, a cane and a collapsible opera hat that can be pressed flat. In the "If My Friends Could See Me Now" number that follows, MacLaine uses the hat and cane to strut her song and dance chops!

Answer: Citizen Kane

Orson Welles' movie debut has been dubbed the greatest movie of all time. Its best known prop is the "Rosebud" sled, but the snow globe with a Swiss chalet is just as important. In the first scene of Kane's death, he is holding the globe as he whispers "Rosebud" and lets it fall and shatter on the floor as he dies.

It's later revealed to belong to Kane's future second wife Susan (Dorothy Commingore). When Susan leaves Kane later on, he destroys her room, only to stop on seeing the snow globe and murmur "Rosebud"; the globe symbolizes Kane's lost childhood.

Answer: Dr. Strangelove

In Stanley Kubrick's Cold War satire, General Mandrake (Peter Sellers also plays the President and the title character) is informed by General Ripper (Sterling Hayden) that a Russian nuclear attack has occurred. Ripper orders all radios be confiscated, but Mandrake finds one radio and discovers no attack has happened.

He points this out to Ripper, only to discover Ripper's a paranoid maniac bent on starting WW3 because of his impotence!