Movies in the Want Ads Trivia Quiz

Answer: Back to the Future

"Back to the Future" is the story of Marty McFly, a high school student who goes back in a Delorean time machine and meets his parents, inadvertently interfering with their courtship and thus jeopardizing his own existence and, as is seen in each of the two sequels, possibly the future of the whole city.

The sequel to "Back to the Future" resulted in one of the more interesting legal cases to come out of Hollywood. Much of "Back to the Future Part II" is archive footage from the first film, and as such, much of it includes Crispin Glover, who played George McFly in the first film. However, he didn't agree to appear in the second film and was replaced by Jeffrey Weissman. Had they reshot the archive footage, there would have been no problem. But as it were, Glover appeared in the second film against his will, and as such, filed suit.

I went to college in Southern California and found myself in a place one time that looked a little familiar. I went to Puente Hills Mall in the City of Industry and thought I'd been there before... Then I realized--that's the Twin Pines/Lone Pine Mall from "Back to the Future".

Answer: Notting Hill

William Thacker is a mild mannered, English travel bookshop owner who has a chance encounter with the most famous actress in the world, which turns into an improbable romance. Everybody knows her and his own mother sometimes forgets him. Can they maintain a relationship amidst the paparazzi, the pressure, and his desire to be normal?

Interesting parallels between the film and real life. Julia Roberts is Anna Scott, perhaps. When asked at the birthday party how much she was paid for her last movie, Anna Scott answers $15 million, the amount Julia Roberts was paid for "Notting Hill". Can someone like that have a relationship with a normal person? Or would that person be swarmed with paparazzi?

Well, according to the movie's official website, when they filmed the film (including the scenes where she was swarmed with paparazzi), the producers made donations to over 200 charities in exchange for people leaving them alone to shoot the film in peace.

Answer: The Dukes of Hazzard

The Duke Boys find themselves leaving Hazzard County, where they are folk heroes in their feud against the corrupt Boss Hogg and going to Atlanta where they are seen as relics of a past wanting to be forgotten, all in the hopes of gathering support for a road race to save their farm in Hazzard County.

The movie was based on the TV show, which was based on the 1975 film "Moonrunners", which was based on the life of Jerry Rushing, a bootlegger in North Carolina. Throughout his 20s, Rushing would run illegal, homemade moonshine whiskey through the backwoods of the deep South, late at night, driving at high speed without headlights in his modified 1958 Chrysler (called "The Traveler", after a horse of General Robert E. Lee). Gy Waldron interviewed him for "Moonrunners", then combined that story with the stories of his childhood in Kentucky for "The Dukes of Hazzard".

Answer: Field of Dreams

Ray Kinsella is an Iowa farmer who, upon hearing a whispered "If you build it, they will come", sacrifices much of his farm and its profits to build a baseball field. He then seeks out a Boston writer and finally returns to the farm to find that an old-time baseball team is working out on it.

Started out as a book, "Shoeless Joe", by W.P. Kinsella.

The baseball players, including Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, were real players. Most of them were the "Black Sox", who were banned from baseball for throwing the 1919 World Series. Graham, however, predated them by a decade. He appeared in his only game in 1905, and as is mentioned in the movie, never made it to the plate. He only played a little in the outfield.

Answer: The Color of Money

Fast Eddie Felson is a retired pool hustler who now makes a living selling whiskey and staking pool players. He sees Vincent, a young, cocky, toy store employee with some incredible talent and absolutely no street smarts whatsoever, and decides to teach him how to be the hustler that Felson himself had once been. And since hustling involves looking like less of a player than you really are, so that people think they can beat you, the last thing you want to do is play with a professional cue like a Balabushka.

The most famous pool player of all time is probably Minnesota Fats, real name Rudolph Wanderone. Minnesota Fats was also the name of the pool player, played by Jackie Gleason, who takes on Fast Eddie Felson in "The Hustler".

The interesting bit of trivia from that: Rudolph Wanderone took the name Minnesota Fats from the movie, not the other way around.

Answer: The Gods Must Be Crazy

One of the few films ever to mix comedy and documentary successfully, "The Gods Must Be Crazy" is the story of Xi, a Bushman whose village exists peacefully until a Coke bottle magically appears (thrown from the window of a small airplane). The village finds many uses for it, starts fighting over it, and decides it must be disposed of, so Xi leaves to throw it off the end of the earth. Along the way, he meets civilization, in the form of an inept scientist, a band of revolutionaries, a schoolteacher, and the court system.

The sequel "The Gods Must Be Crazy II" is also excellent. A South African zoologist and American corporate lawyer are in a small plane crash, encounter a couple soldiers fighting each other and a couple wildlife poachers, all while Xi (now called Xixo) is trying to find his two children who accidentally climbed aboard the poachers' truck.

Also by filmmaker Jamie Uys, "Animals are Beautiful People", which is perhaps the funniest wildlife documentary ever made.

Answer: Fried Green Tomatoes

An interesting tale of the old South versus the new South and a friendship, in each time frame, between one person who fit in with that time and one who did not. Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) is the old South in the 1980s, meeting elderly Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy) who is certainly far more modern. Ninny tells of the 1920's friendship between old South Ruth Jamison (Mary-Louise Parker) and far more modern Idgie Threadgoode (Mary Stuart Masterson). Intermingled is the murder mystery of who killed Ruth's abusive husband Frank Bennett.

A fantastic movie, and a very interesting novel ("Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" by Fannie Flagg), especially for its writing style--the story is intermingled with articles from a local newspaper called "The Weems Weekly".

Oh, and the author, Fannie Flagg? Yes, game show buffs will remember her from the Match Game!

Answer: The Wizard of Oz

Dorothy and her dog Toto are swept up in a tornado and wind up in the mythical land of Oz, where they meet the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion, battle the Wicked Witches of the East and the West, and follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City.

Was it a children's book or a political allegory? We will never really know. L. Frank Baum denied the politics consistently, but he was well known for his involvement in politics in the 1890s, as was his illustrator, W.W. Denslow. And he does make his first denial in the introduction to the book--methinks he doth protest too much (why deny before the accusation is made?).

Anyway: Oz. Is this as in Ounce? The gold standard? The yellow brick road? The gold standard? The Emerald City--a place that appears to have wealth but it is all an illusion--emerald--green--paper money--actually worthless. Dorothy--The innocent everyman from the heartland. The Tin Man--the disgruntled worker. The Scarecrow--the farmer. The Munchkins--the Little People. The Cowardly Lion--William Jennings Bryan. Wicked Witch of the East--Grover Cleveland. Wicked Witch of the West--William McKinley.
Who knows? As Freud said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Answer: A Christmas Story

Ralphie Parker is a child in the 50s, in search of the perfect Christmas gift, the Red Ryder BB Gun, as advertised on the Little Orphan Annie radio shows. He endures all sorts of 50's era challenges in his quest--an overprotective mother, an unsympathetic teacher, the bully and his toady, and a particularly evil department store Santa.

Jean Shepherd, the narrator in the film, is also the writer of the film (and, of course, its main character). He is well known to fans of old-time radio dramas as the host of a radio show called "Shepherd's Pie", and "A Christmas Story" comes from a series of stories called "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash".

Answer: His Girl Friday

Walter Burns is the editor of a big city newspaper, and Hildy Johnson the ace reporter--who also happens to be his ex-wife. She has just returned from vacation, where she has met her newfound love, and she will be leaving town and the newspaper business for good. She has one last story to cover--the execution of questionably convicted murderer Earl Williams. While she is following that story, Burns is sabotaging the new relationship, and the corrupt sheriff and mayor are conspiring to move the execution to before the election and preventing any reprieves from the governor. On the night of the execution, Williams escapes, Burns and Johnson find him and hide him in a rolltop desk, and then the fun begins...

There are actually several versions of this story on film. The original was "The Front Page", with Walter Burns and Hildy Johnson as two male newspapermen. "His Girl Friday" made Hildy the ex-wife to add additional plot twists.

Then Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau remade "The Front Page", and Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner redid "His Girl Friday" as "Switching Channels".

"Switching Channels" makes some interesting updates to "His Girl Friday." For example, the newspaper is now a television station and the killer is now hiding inside an office copier.