Odd One Out: Just Movies! Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

Peter Lorre did feature in two Hitchcock films, namely "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934) and "Secret Agent" (1936). Lorre had come to Hitchcock's attention in the brilliant Fritz Lang film "M" (1931) in which he played the lead role, a child-murderer. "M" was Lang's first sound film and Lorre's fragile yet creepy voice was definitely a good way to start.

Lorre also starred in what is often cited as the first true film noir: "Stranger on the Third Floor". To my mind "Stranger on the Third Floor" has a lot in common with Hitchcock's "The Lodger" although Lorre's character in the former is even more sinister than Ivor Novello's in the latter.

In "The Maltese Falcon", Lorre played Joel Cairo. Lorre managed to make his character skin-crawlingly menacing despite being somewhat effeminate. He played alongside Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet (who had played Sam Spade and "The Fat Man" respectively in "The Maltese Falcon") again in "Casablanca" (1942), and the lesser-known "Passage to Marseille" (1944).

Peter Lorre was born László Löwenstein in 1904 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in a town now called Ruzomberok in present-day Slovakia. He died in Los Angeles in 1964 after a fabulous career. He was often typecast because of his peculiar appearance and thick central-European accent, but in my book he stole every scene nevertheless.

Question supplied by thula2.

Answer: Postman Pat: The Movie

Three of my favorite films have "postman" in the title. "Il Postino (The Postman)" is a 1994 Italian film directed by Michael Radford. It is the fictional account of the relationship that develops between an illiterate Italian postman and the exiled Chilean poet, Neruda. Through their conversations, Neruda opens the world of poetry to the postman and helps him in his quest to conquer the love of a young girl before leaving to return home to Chile. The performances by two outstanding actors, Philippe Noiret as Neruda and Massimo Trossi as the postman, were both brilliant. It was Trossi's final film as he died the day after filming was completed.

It is impossible for me to say whether I prefer the 1946 version of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" starring Lana Turner and John Garfield or the 1981 version starring Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange. Based on the crime novel by James M. Cain, the film recounts the torrid affair of a drifter and a married woman, their plot to kill her husband, and the suspenseful aftermath which is filled with many twists and turns.

"The Postman" is a 1997 science fiction film starring Kevin Costner in which an apocalyptic war has nearly destroyed civilization in the United States, leaving only small pockets where survivors are struggling in face of roving bands of militia. Costner plays a drifter who finds and dons a pre-war postman's uniform, inadvertently becoming a symbol of hope as he creates a Pony Express-style network which slowly re-links the isolated settlements. The movie is based on two books by David Brin.

The odd one out is "Postman Pat: The Movie", a 2014 animated film based on a British children's series.

Question supplied by pitegny.

Answer: The Enforcer

In the 1951 movie "The Enforcer" (USA), "Murder, Inc." (UK), Humphrey Bogart plays ADA Martin Ferguson. He is trying to prosecute Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane), the leader of a gang who commit murder for money. The movie was directed by Bretaigne Windust.

In 1938 Bogart played gangster James Frazier in "Angels With Dirty Faces" starring James Cagney and directed by Michael Curtiz.

In 1939 Bogart played gangster George Hally in "The Roaring Twenties" starring James Cagney and directed by Raoul Walsh.

In 1939 Bogart played outlaw Whip McCord in "The Oklahoma Kid" starring James Cagney and directed by Lloyd Bacon.

Question supplied by shipyardbernie.

Answer: Fred Thompson

Harrison Ford has played the role twice, in "Clear and Present Danger" and "Patriot Games".

Ben Affleck played the role in "The Sum of All Fears", and Alec Baldwin played the role in "The Hunt for Red October".

Fred Thompson, an actor turned politician, did appear in "The Hunt for Red October" but not as Jack Ryan. He became a US Senator in 1994, and ran for President in 2008 unsuccessfully. He died in November of 2015.

Question supplied by Fifiscot.

Answer: "Day of Wrath", directed by Carl Th. Dreyer

"Day of Wrath" is a 1943 sound film by Danish director Carl Th. Dreyer. It was hardly a box office hit at the time and got some critical flack for its slow pace, but it has since become something of a classic. Dreyer was never one for lightheartedness, and "Day of Wrath" is indeed not recommended for those who don't enjoy unhurried, serious films.

"Nosferatu" (1922) is arguably Murnau's best-known film, and to my mind the greatest horror film ever made. German actor Max Schreck played Count Orlok (based on Bram Stoker's Count Dracula) to terrifying effect. Add a generous helping of Murnau's transcendent use of chiaroscuro and you've got such a creepy atmosphere that I get the willies just thinking about it.

Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927) is equally supreme. Although it's not as viscerally horrifying, on an intellectual level it's just as frightening.

The highly-influential and much-lauded "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920) was Robert Wiene's fourteenth film although he's really remembered for this one. It's an absolute joy to watch, especially since it was restored to its former glory in 2014.

Question supplied by thula2.

Answer: Avatar

James Cameron directed Avatar in 2010 and that movie was nominated for several Academy Awards. Some of the movies he also directed are "The Terminator" (1984), "Aliens" (1986), "The Abyss" (1989), "True Lies" (1994), and "Titanic" (1997).

James Cameron is a producer, director, screenwriter, engineer, inventor, philanthropist and a deep-sea diver. He was the first man to go solo to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and only the third person to reach that depth. He was born in 1954 in Ontario, Canada. Two of his movies, "Titanic" and "Avatar", have held the box office records, both grossing over two billion dollars.

Question supplied by wenray.

Answer: Henry V

Richard Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in Pontrhydyfen, Wales, in 1925. He first acted on stage and for the BBC and his film debut came in 1947 with "The Last Days of Dolwyn". He first played Henry V at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1951. He was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Actor but never won. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage in Celigny, Switzerland, in 1984 aged 58.

Burton played Thomas Becket in the 1964 movie "Becket" starring Peter O'Toole as Henry II.

Burton played Leon Trotsky in the 1972 movie "The Assassination of Trotsky" starring Alain Delon as Frank Jackson.

Burton played Richard Wagner in the 1983 movie "Wagner" starring Vanessa Redgrave as Cosima von Bülow.

Question supplied by shipyardbernie.

Answer: Tyrone Power

Douglas Fairbanks produced, wrote and starred in 1922's "Robin Hood". Sixteen years later in 1938, Errol Flynn starred in "The Adventures of Robin Hood", which used some of the sets from the Fairbanks movie. In 1950, John Derek played Robin Hood in "Rogues of Sherwood Forest". Incredibly, Alan Hale Sr. played the part of Little John in all three!

The first movie about Robin Hood was a silent film made in 1908 and was titled "Robin Hood and His Merry Men". There have been at least 20 movies since that early silent film. Some of the other actors to have played the man in Lincoln Green are Cornel Wilde (1944), Lex Barker (of Tarzan fame, 1960), Sean Connery (1976), Kevin Costner (1991), Patrick Bergin (1991), and Russell Crowe (2010).

Robin Hood was also known as Robin of Lockskey, Sir Robin of Locksley, the Earl of Huntingdon, and Robin Longstride.

Ballads and stories about Robin Hood go back to the 13th century and according to some of them he was born about 1160 in the village of Locksley in Yorkshire, England. Stories were first printed about him around the 15th century. William Shakespeare mentioned Robin Hood in two of his plays: "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and "As You Like It". Tales of Robin Hood have entertained millions of people for the last 600 years or so, and will probably endure for another 600 years.

Question supplied by wenray.

Answer: Valmont

"Valmont" (1989), was an adaptation of a 1798 French play called "Les Liaisons Dangereuses". It starred Colin Firth and Annette Bening and was directed by Milos Forman.

The three incorrect choices were all directed by Ang Lee. "Sense and Sensibility" (1995), starred Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant. "Brokeback Mountain" (2005) starred Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000), starred Yun-Fat Chow and Michelle Yeoh. These movies give some idea of the very wide range of the talent of Ang Lee.

Question supplied by elmo7.

Answer: King of Hearts

One of my favorite cult films is the "King of Hearts" by French director Philippe de Broca. It is a whimsical anti-war parable in which a Scottish soldier, sent into a French village near the end of the war to disarm a time bomb left by the retreating German army, interacts with inmates from the local insane asylum who have been inadvertently freed as everyone else from the village has fled.

"Lawrence of Arabia", by English director David Lean, is set in the Arabian Peninsula. It is the based on the life of T.E. Lawrence, who was initially sent to assess the progress Arab forces were making against the Turks but ended up serving as their adviser and helping to orchestrate guerrilla war efforts.

"The African Queen", by American film director John Huston, is set in German East Africa at the beginning of World War I. In it Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn rig a small river steamer with torpedoes and attack a much larger German gunboat which has been blocking British efforts.

"Gallipoli", by Australian director Peter Weir, is set in the Peninsula of Gallipoli in what is present-day Turkey. It focuses on the participation of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) troops, as well as the British and French, in the disastrous campaign in which more than 500,000 allied and Turkish soldiers would be wounded or killed.

Question submitted by pitegny.