Movie Stairs Trivia Quiz

Answer: Georges

This animated movie was set in Paris in 1910. Madame Adelaide Bonfamille, a retired opera diva who adored her cats, decided to alter her last will and testament. She wanted that all of her belongings should go to her white cat Duchess and the three kittens: Marie, Toulouse and Berlioz. So Madame invited the notary Georges Hautecour. When Edgar the butler suggested the notary take the elevator, he replied with the aforesaid quote. But Georges seemed to have forgotten he just commented on his arthritis with the words "Not so spry as I was when I was 80, eh?".
When Madame dictated her last will to Georges, Edgar listened in and he decided to get rid of the cats, hoping to be Madame's sole heir. So he "catnapped" them and left them outside Paris. But they met a ginger alley cat who introduced himself as "Abraham Delacey, Giuseppe Casey, Thomas O'Malley the Alley Cat". Now you know where the red herrings stem from. (Herrings and cats? A combination that goes well for the cats but not for the fish).
Charles Lane voiced the notary Georges Hautecour, and Hermione Baddeley delivered the lines spoken by Madame. But the true protagonists were of course the cats: Duchess (voiced by Eva Gabor), O'Malley (spoken by Phil Harris), Marie (voice part by Liz English), Toulouse (spoken by Gary Dubin) and Berlioz (lines delivered by Dean Clark).

Answer: Vertigo

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) frequently used stairs and staircases in his thriller movies, such as these four examples.
"Vertigo" (1958) starred James Stewart as the former police detective John Ferguson. In the opening scene, John got troubled by vertigo during a chase on high rooftops, and a colleague of his fell to death. John was then hired by a rich acquaintance named Gavin Elster (role by Tom Helmore) to keep track of Gavin's wife Madeleine (played by Kim Novak). Gavin suspected that Madeleine was obsessed by the ghost of a deceased relative and would try to commit suicide. In the climactic scene Madeleine ran up a flight of stairs in the tower of a monastery, and as John hesitated to follow her because of his vertigo, he saw her body falling to her death. But of course first impressions could be deceitful...
The idea for this quiz came to me when I saw "Psycho" (1960) once again. The shower scene in which Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh) was stabbed to death was quite shocking, but personally I was more scared when the private detective Arbogast (role by Martin Balsam) ascended the stairs in the main house of the Bates motel, not knowing that he would meet a person dressed as an old woman and armed with a sharp knife at the top of the stairs...
In "Spellbound" (1945), the psychiatrist Constance Petersen (role by Ingrid Bergman) took a patient with amnesia to her former mentor Dr. Brulov (played by Michael Chekhov). At night the patient and suspected murderer (role by Gregory Peck) came down the stairs with a sharp razor blade in his hand...
"Rebecca" (1940) starred Joan Fontaine as the second wife of Maxim De Winter (role by Laurence Olivier). At the first costumed ball, Mrs. De Winter appeared on top of the stairs in a dress similar to one that once belonged to Rebecca, the first Mrs. De Winter, who died in a tragic way. Needless to say this scene brought back to Maxim all the bad memories...

Answer: Theodore Roosevelt

"Arsenic and Old Lace" was a dark comedy directed by Frank Capra. The main character, Mortimer Brewster (played by Cary Grant), was a theatre critic, noted for his mocking of marriage. But the story started with Mortimer marrying Elaine Harper, the girl next door (role by Priscilla Lane). Mortimer's brother Teddy (played by John Alexander) thought he was in fact Theodore Roosevelt, and so every time he went up the stairs he imagined it was San Juan Hill to take in a storm attack.
On the day he married, Mortimer found out several morbid secrets of his family: his two aunts Abby and Martha (played by Josephine Hull and Jean Adair) had killed a dozen gentlemen, and Teddy had buried them in the cellar. Teddy thought them to be victims of yellow fever and dug locks for the Panama canal in the cellar, burying the corpses in the locks.
Mortimer hoped to end his aunts' weird habit by having Teddy committed to a mental asylum. When Mortimer phoned Mister Witherspoon (role by Edward Horton), the director of the asylum, Witherspoon made objections that there were already several 'Teddy Roosevelts' in the asylum. He added "We're a bit short of 'Napoleons' at present.".
Things got even more complicated with the return of Mortimer's other brother Jonathan (role by Raymond Massey), accompanied by a person escaped from a mental asylum and calling himself Doctor Einstein (played by Peter Lorre). Jonathan was one of the "most wanted" list, for he had killed a dozen men too. The so-called Doctor Einstein had performed plastic surgery on Jonathan's face, so he now resembled Boris Karloff.

Answer: Odessa

"Battleship Potemkin" is the international title of Sergei Eisenstein's movie "Brosenosets Potemkin". It told the story of a mutiny in the harbour of Odessa (nowadays Ukraine) in 1905. The movie started with sailors being served rotten meat, on which they started a (successful) mutiny.

But one of the ringleaders of the mutiny, Grigory Vakulinchuk (role by Aleksandr Antonov), was killed. When the battleship halted in the harbour of Odessa, sailors carried Vakulinchuk's body ashore, and the citizens of Odessa supported the mutineers by donating supplies.

But then the Czarist army intervened. When hundreds of citizens gathered on a long and broad steep staircase, the army marched in and started shooting into the crowd. Eisenstein included several individual incidents in this scene: a mother presenting her dead son to the army only to be shot herself, a mother shot in the chest, on which she released her baby carriage, an older woman with a monocle shot in the eye... The baby carriage running down the stairs inspired a scene from Brian de Palma's movie "The Untouchables" (1987) set in Chicago. Alfred Hitchcock filmed a similar shot in the eye on a stairs in Amsterdam in "Foreign Correspondent" (1940). And Martin Scorsese was inspired for one of the scenes in "The Godfather" (1972), with New York as the background: Moe Greene (role by Alex Rocco) was shot in the eye, and Barzini (played by Richard Conte) was shot and fell down the stairs.

Answer: The Pink Panther Strikes Again

The original "Pink Panther" series consisted of ten movies, but Peter Sellers starred live only in five of them. Peter Sellers (1925-1980) created the character of the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, the nightmare of the French Sūreté (secret service). Although Clouseau was the worst police officer ever portrayed in fiction, he always solved his case. Clouseau's antics drove Chief Inspector Dreyfus, his superior, to insanity, and in the fourth movie "The Return of the Pink Panther" (1975) Dreyfus was committed to an asylum because of his repeated murder attempts on Clouseau.
"The Pink Panther Strikes Again" (1976) continued on this plot line. Dreyfus escaped from the asylum, bombed Clouseau's apartment (without hurting Clouseau though), and finally decided to kidnap the inventor of a very powerful laser beam, so powerful it could destroy any building. Dreyfus then made a television appearance calling for the secret service of all countries to murder Clouseau. When Clouseau finally discovered the whereabouts of Chief Inspector Dreyfus, he disguised himself as a dentist and went for Dreyfus, who happened to have a tooth ache. Clouseau pretended to apply some anesthesia on Dreyfus, but meanwhile he intended to hit Dreyfus over the head with a heavy bludgeon. Of course Clouseau's plan backfired, and he fell down the stairs. When climbing back to Dreyfus, Clouseau then uttered this line.
Earlier in the same movie Clouseau also fell down a staircase when he leapt from a gymnastic equipment known as the parallel bars. His comment at that time was "That felt good".
"Inspector Clouseau" (1968) starred Alan Arkin as Clouseau.
"Curse of the Pink Panther" (1983) was based on an equally clumsy police officer, the American Sergeant Clifton Sleigh (role by Ted Wass).
"Son of the Pink Panther" (1993) concentrated on Clouseau's illegitimate son, Gendarme Jacques Gambrelli (played by Roberto Benigni).

Answer: Percy Weasley

The exact quote from "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (2001) was "And keep an eye on the staircases. They like to change". It was Percy Weasley (played by Chris Rankin) who delivered this line. Percy was a fifth year student and prefect for Gryffindor (one of the four houses, and the one in which Harry Potter and his best friends were sorted), and he warned the first-years for this magical fact on the way to Gryffindor common room. Later on Harry was surprised by a sudden change of direction of one of the stairs, and landed on the forbidden third floor - which hid a well-guarded secret.
Harry Potter was of course played by Daniel Radcliffe - even muggle quizzers know as much.
Sirius Black (played by Gary Oldman) was a character introduced in the third movie "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004). Sirius was Harry's godfather, but was during the first two years locked away in the dreaded jail Azkaban.
Cho Chang (role by Katie Leung) was introduced in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2005). This Ravenclaw student was one year older than Harry and became his first love interest. Cho was the first girl Harry ever kissed (in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", 2007).
Bellatrix Lestrange, the most evil witch of Harry's era, was first seen in the fifth movie, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". Helena Bonham Carter excelled in this role.

Answer: The Italian Job

"The Italian Job" (1969) involved an elaborated heist, in which Charlie Croker (played by Michael Caine), Mr. Bridger (Noel Coward) and their gang would capture a gold transport in Turin, load the booty into three Mini Coopers and escape during a traffic jam created by Professor Simon Peach (role of Benny Hill), who would hack the computer controlling the traffic lights.
In 2003 an American remake of this British movie was made, this time set in Los Angeles.
"The Bourne Identity" (2002) featured a car chase in Paris, in which a Mini escaped down the stairs, followed by several cops on motorbikes.
In the "James Bond" movie "A View to a Kill" (1985) James (Roger Moore) commandeered a taxi to drive along the Seine river in pursuit of the assassin May Day (Grace Jones).
"Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation" (2015) had a car chase on some stairs somewhere in Morocco. According to the script this happened in Casablanca.

Answer: Pai Mei

Pai Mei (played by Gordon Liu) was an unlikely mentor because of his advanced age. He would be about 1000 years. And yet he taunted Beatrix Kiddo by jumping up and balancing on the blade of her sword when she was ordered to strike him.
"Kill Bill: Vol. 2" (2004) and "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" (2003) told the story of Beatrix Kiddo (played by Uma Thurman), probably the most talented of the members of a small assassin squad. When Beatrix got pregnant and left the assassin squad in order to marry and start a normal life, the other members of the squad attacked her and left her for dead. But after four years in a coma, Beatrix regained consciousness and went out for vengeance on the other assassins: O Ren Ishii (role by Lucy Liu), Vernita Green (played by Vivica A. Fox), Budd (Michael Madsen), Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) and Bill (David Carradine) - the leader of the pack and father to Beatrix' child.
Zatoichi was a blind masseur and sword fighter. Shintaro Katsu portrayed this fictive character in 26 movies between 1962 and 1989.
Yoda (performed by Frank Oz and others) appeared alive in five "Star Wars" movies as the diminutive Jedi master. Although he was no taller than 66 cm (26 inches), he showed certain prowess with the light sabre in "Episode II: Attack of the Clones" (2002) and "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" (2005).
Benjamin Vandervoort was a real person: a colonel in the 505th Parachute Infantry regiment. During the landing in Normandy, Vandervoort broke his ankle but continued fighting while crippled. In "The Longest Day" (1962) he was portrayed by John Wayne.

Answer: Cleopatra

"Cleopatra" (1963) starred Elizabeth Taylor in the title role, Richard Burton as Mark Anthony and Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar - the two Romans who fell for Cleopatra's charms. After Caesar had spent some years in Egypt at Cleopatra's side, he went back to Rome to be chosen to imperator (supreme commander) for life. Then Cleopatra came to Rome and made a grandiose entry on a humongous sphinx, drawn by hundreds of slaves. And then about a dozen of slaves helped Cleopatra and her son Caesarion (played by Loris Loddi in this scene as a four year old) down the stairs in this contraption that stayed level.
"Ben Hur" (1959) contained a quote on stairs which you may have missed: the dialogue between Judah Ben Hur (role by Charlton Heston) and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate (played by Frank Thring) after Hur won the famous chariot race. Pilate told Hur "I crossed this floor in spoken friendship (...). But when I go up those stairs, I become the hand of Caesar, ready to crush all those who challenge this authority."
In "Spartacus" (1960) the slaves training to become gladiators had to walk the stairs where hung the corpse of Draba (portrayed by Woody Strode) after he had refused to kill Spartacus (played by Kirk Douglas).
"The Ten Commandments" (1956) showed Moses (Charlton Heston) and Aaron (John Carradine) descending a stairs to the right (seen from the audience) of a statue of the Nile god, while Rameses (Yul Brynner) and his companions descended a stairs to the left of this statue. Rameses poured water from a vase as an offering to the god, when Aaron dipped Moses' staff into the water, thus turning the water into blood. Rameses was surprised when the water he poured from the vase suddenly turned red too.

Answer: Legolas

"The Two Towers" (2002) was the second instalment in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, after "Fellowship of the Ring" (2001) and before "The Return of the King" (2003).
The plot of the trilogy revolved on a golden ring, found after more than a thousand years. As this ring incorporated the soul of the evil wizard Sauron, it had to be destroyed - in Mount Doom, at the very centre of Sauron's armies.
The elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), the dwarf Gimli (John Rhys Davies) and the human Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) joined the men of Rohan at the Battle of Helm's Deep, and with 300 men they defended a fortress against an army of 10,000 orks.
In one scene Legolas skated down a staircase whilst shooting down multiple orks. And as he landed down the stairs, he stabbed an ork in the eye with one of his arrows - the ork was too close to shoot.
During the Battle of Helm's Deep, Boromir (Sean Bean) was already dead - he died at the end of the first movie. Frodo (Elijah Wood) and his best friend Sam (Sean Astin) went their own way to Mount Doom, so they never had a scene in or near Helm's Deep. And Gandalf the wizard (Sir Ian McKellen) volunteered to ride out searching for help. Gandalf only came to Helm's Deep on the last day of the Battle, with 2,000 cavalry troops.