Real to Reel: Real People on the Silver Screen 2 Quiz

Answer: The Story of the Kelly Gang

Much of the original film has been lost and we are left with about twenty minutes of what was apparently an hour-long feature.

Apart from a few moments, "The Story of the Kelly Gang" is only really noteworthy as a first in cinema history rather than an artistic triumph. The acting is abominable, as is the cinematography. The former is inexcusable since the art of acting had been around for ages, but I suppose the unimaginative style can be overlooked taking into account how pioneering the filmmakers were.

One curio is the use of of Ned Kelly's gang's authentic home-made armour in the scene when Ned is caught by the fuzz.

Answer: Pancho Villa

The film was actually a mixture of real-life footage taken of Villa and his revolutionary army, staged re-shoots of events which hadn't been caught on camera, and some background flashbacks. It's amazing to think battle scenes in which soldiers were dying were included in a theatrically-released entertainment film.

Despite an inevitable certain amount of vanity of starring in a film about yourself, Pancho Villa was essentially motivated by the money the studio, Mutual Film, was offering. Why did General Villa need the cash? To bankroll a revolution of course!

Sadly, "The Life of General Villa" is considered a lost film and we can only judge its merits based on some stills and some reviews (generally positive) published at the time.

Answer: Mata Hari

The highly entertaining film "Mata Hari" is also highly fictitious. Mata Hari's career as a dancer ended in early 1915 and she became a German secret agent in late 1915, whereas in the film the two occupations overlap. She was a courtesan to high ranking military officials amongst other powerful and influential people, but the plot of the film in which she seduces Russian pilot Lieutenant Alexis Rosanoff in order to get top secret dispatches he is carrying, is all made up. It provides a wonderful twist in the tale, however. What is true in the film is that Mata Hari was convicted of pro-German espionage by French military courts and executed by firing squad in 1917.

The film is dominated by Greta Garbo's spellbinding performance, although Lionel Barrymore as the smitten General Serge Shubin is also fabulous. Casting Mexican-American heartthrob Ramon Novarro as the Russian pilot was a bit far-fetched though. One of the silly highlights has to be Garbo's bizarre pronunciation of the word Russia, which never fails to make me chuckle.

Answer: Sergei Eisenstein

Sergei Eisenstein was a cinematic genius who led the way in film montage theory. He'd been making films since the 1920s, worked abroad in France and Mexico, and had a fruitful if strained rapport with the Soviet authorities.

The plot of the historical drama "Alexander Nevsky" is very simple: the Teutonic knights have rampaged through the city of Pskov and will soon be upon Novgorod. The only person capable of rallying the peasants is exiled Prince Aleksandr Nevsky. Despite reservations on the part of some, Nevsky is asked to come to the rescue, which he does.

"Aleksander Nevsky" functions as a blatant piece of propaganda since anti-German sentiments needed stirring up in 1938. What that meant for the filmmakers was that they could portray the Germans as unmitigated scoundrels who burnt children alive, and also depict them dying cruel deaths.

"Alexander Nevsky" was withdrawn following a non-aggression pact signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, but reared its head again in 1941 after the Nazis had changed their minds and invaded the Soviet Union.

The climax of the film is the depiction of the Battle of the Ice. It must have been a logistical nightmare, but Eisenstein pulled it off. The most dramatic scene is when the ice breaks and the fleeing knights spill into the lethal gelid water. The scene of the Rus women slowly combing the battle field looking for loved ones among the wounded and the dead is so poignant, whether it's propaganda or not is besides the point.

Answer: Yul Brynner

"The Ten Commandments" featured Charlton Heston as Moses, Edward G. Robinson as Dathan, and Vincent Price as Baka. It also starred Anne Baxter as Nefertari, and Yvonne De Carlo as Zipporah. The cast included John Carradine, and even Woody Strode. However, for my money it was the inimitable Yul Brynner as Rameses II who stole the show.

Brynner had a fascinating life on and off the screen. He was born in Vladivostok in 1920, grew up in Russia, China and France. He emigrated to the USA in 1940. During World War II, his war effort was broadcasting in French to occupied France. After the War he got seriously into the theatre, TV, and eventually cinema. When he got the role as Rameses II, he'd already caught many people's attention with his striking look as The King of Siam (aka King Mongkut) in the film "The King and I" which was released a few months earlier.

Maybe it's just because I am also follicly challenged so identify with Yul, but I find him utterly captivating whenever he is on screen, whatever the film, no matter what the character he's playing.

Answer: Genghis Khan

"The Conqueror" probably deserves its reputation as one of the worst films ever made, although it falls squarely into the category of awful films which are awfully good fun to watch.

Unfortunately, John Wayne is one of the main reasons it's such a turkey. It would appear nobody had told him the film wasn't a western and he strides around jumping on and off horses as if it were. His delivery of the lines is straight out of a horse opera too.

Having said that it's not all his fault since the script is atrocious. For some reason everybody talks about themselves in the third person and much of the language is almost ecclesiastical, no doubt in an attempt to give it gravitas.

However, the main flaw is the casting, and not just of Wayne. The film-makers appear to have judged it sufficient to just put dodgy moustaches on all the men to make them look Mongolian. Luckily they didn't do the same to the stunning Susan Hayward as Bortai.

In a weird twist of logic there are a couple of Mexican actors such as Pedro Armendariz as Jamuga and Thomas Gomez as Wang Khan, and Greek-American Peter Mamakos as Bogurchi. Mamakos often played "ethnic types", almost invariably sinister bad guys, whether they be Greek, Indian, Hispanic, French, Italian, Middle Eastern, or in this case, Mongolian.

Answer: Tony Curtis

"The Boston Strangler" was highly fictionalised, and heavily criticised for being so. Maybe the film was made so soon after the event (the murders attributed to DeSalvo took place between 1962 and 1964) that it was seen as insensitive to make what is essentially a gritty police thriller out of it while wounds were still sore.

Years later, the film stands out for several reasons. The first is director Richard Fleischer's use of split screens in the first part of the film, which chronicles the murders and police procedure. Second, although we don't get to see the star, Tony Curtis, until after about an hour, his enthralling performance takes over the whole second part of the film. Not to be overlooked, Fonda is equally brilliant despite having a much subtler role. George Kennedy as Detective Phil DiNatale also deserves a mention.

Answer: Serpico

"Serpico" was based on a book of the same title written by Peter Maas about Italian-American NYPD police officer Frank Serpico. Serpico fought against the odds and exposed widespread, deep-rooted police corruption, a battle in which he not only risked his life but sacrificed all sorts of human relationships. It seems he just couldn't do otherwise. Apparently, this became clear to the man who played him in this film, Al Pacino, when he asked Serpico why he had done it and got the wonderful answer "if I didn't, who would I be when I listened to a piece of music?".

Frank Serpico's stance and courage were far-reaching since the Commission to Combat Police Corruption was set up partly thanks to him.

The film was also instrumental in the film career of Al Pacino. He had already become something of a name in the excellent "The Panic in Needle Park", and even more so thanks to his role as Michael Corleone in "The Godfather", although in the latter he was slightly overshadowed by Marlon Brando. A year after "Serpico", he really cemented his reputation as one of the best actors around in "The Godfather Part II".

In "Serpico", Pacino is at his best. He really put together a character, right through to his idiosyncratic gait.

Answer: Alaska

In the film, Christopher McCandless, played by Emile Hirsch, is an frustrated youth who decides to shed himself of the trappings of contemporary capitalist American society and flee. After various vital yet still unfulfilling encounters, he ends up in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, where he attempts to live off the land. He is understandably unprepared for such a task and eventually dies.

What it's all about is as subtle as it is obvious, but what makes the film so special is the treatment director Sean Penn gives the film. It manages to avoid being either patronising or celebratory in a way which is very rare. It is, of course, touching but neither Penn nor Hirsch ever opt for trite sentimentality.

Answer: What Happened, Miss Simone?

I have never understood the point of making biopics about performers we have so much footage of. Thankfully Liz Garbus made the excellent "What Happened, Miss Simone?" using live footage and vintage interviews with Nina Simone. She also interviewed some of those who were close to Nina Simone and skillfully wove these recent interviews in with the footage.

Nina Simone was such a complex character that any actress would have floundered in the role. She oozed with both talent and class, struggled with both personal issues and world issues, and made the most bizarre choices.

The film is particularly interesting for shedding light on Simone's involvement in the civil rights movement and her staunch militancy. It would seem that it was the repercussions of that, with both the entertainment business and Simone herself bearing a grudge, which led to her career unravelling.

Simone herself unravelled in the 1980s and she led a wretched life until she was offered a lifeline by old friend Gerrit De Bruin. He, along with others, got her career back on track for one last time in the 1980s and 1990s. Perhaps his greatest help was getting her diagnosed as bipolar and thus on medication. This diagnosis also explained some, if not all, of her unpredictable behaviour throughout her fascinating life.