Some Cheese With That Sci-Fi Flick? Online Quiz | Movies

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1. (1957; Director: Gene Fowler, Jr.) This flick features Michael Landon as a crazy mixed-up teenager with some, ahem, anger issues. He reluctantly agrees to go to a shrink (Whit Bissell), who turns out to be the biggest crackpot in the state, and mayhem ensues. The plot gets hairy and so does Landon. He'll tear you up! AAGGGRRR! What is the name of this flick?

Answer: I Was a Teenage Werewolf

Once you see that image of a werewolf in a high school jacket, it's burned into your brain forever. One thing I love about this genre of movie: it's all based on some kind of crackpot theory that couldn't possibly be true. In this case, scopolamine is supposed to regress you back to your early evolution and presto! You're a werewolf?! Another humorous thing: all the "teenagers" look like they're late twenty-or middle-thirty-something; Landon's one of the very few who looks in the right age range (he was actually 21 at the time of the movie's shooting.)

2. (1953; Director: William Cameron Menzies) Some kid (played by Jimmy Hunt) has a dream in which a Martian flying saucer is buried beneath a sandpit by the kid's house. The kid has all sorts of scary encounters with the Martians but, in the end, the U.S. Army blows them all up. All of the adult-sized Martians are robot-like, controlled by the "head" Martian - literally a basketball-sized head inside a fishbowl with tentacles. The kid wakes up, but we the audience then see a similar spaceship land. Oh, no! What is the name of this movie?

Answer: Invaders From Mars

"Invaders From Mars" does have some selling points; it has a fascinating sound track, rich color, and a believable plot once you accept the premise. It's still pure cheese, however. You can see the zippers in the costumes of the robot-Martians as they plod through the sand caverns, and one scene that shows them using their ray-gun to melt the rock is repeated ad nauseam.

The fishbowl-guy who controls them is a hoot. An oddity: the British version of this film ends differently - it turns out NOT to have been a dream, but all the Martians are happily gone in the end anyway.

This film spawned a remake (1986) which stars Karen Black, but it has none of the charm of the original.

3. (1954; Director: Jack Arnold) Watch It!! Gill-Man's on the loose! This is another film where had two busybodies from America left well enough alone, there would have been no tragedy. But science had to be satisfied, so they (Richard Carlson and Richard Denning) bring the monster from his native Amazon to Florida USA, where he escapes, and well, mayhem ensues again. The scene in the experimental pool where they're "conditioning" the Gill-Man is bound to make you smile, especially when he busts loose! Name this flick.

Answer: Creature From the Black Lagoon

"Creature From the Black Lagoon" spawned two sequels: "Revenge of the Creature" and "The Creature Walks Among Us." The last is the cheesiest, because Gill-Man's decked out in a suit. All of the "Creature" movies feature an attractive chick for the scientists' love interest, but she always manages to end up in the arms of the creature, thus contributing to his downfall. If you actually prefer cheese with your sci-fi (like I do), the wooden performances of "know-it-all-dominant-males" Carlson and Denning will more than satisfy your yen.

4. (1953; Director: Phil Tucker) What do you get when you dress a guy up in a gorilla suit and put a diving helmet plus TV antenna on his head? Pure cheese! One of the most un-terrifying "monsters" ever created, the above-described Ro-Man has destroyed all humanity on Earth with his Calcinator Death Ray except for our cast because... the darn thing doesn't work on them! George Nader and Claudia Barrett star (if you can call it that) in this flick, which got such bad reviews that director Tucker supposedly attempted suicide! What is the title of this movie?

Answer: Robot Monster

As a serious effort, this flick has nothing to redeem it. However, it does have all the right elements for a regular laugh riot: incomprehensible dialog, zombie-like performances from the players, choppy sequences and a plot that begs to be mocked. There are lots of long-distance shots that show Ro-man and the cast wandering very slowly all over the countryside; rarely does anyone break into a run, or break a sweat. Oh, and if you find bubbles terrifying, don't see this movie. Ro-Man has more bubbles than Lawrence Welk!
SPOILER: The whole thing turns out to be a dream. AWW!

5. (1958; Director: William Castle) This black-and-whiter revolves around a bet: ten thousand bucks to stay in a spooky house overnight (which was a goodly sum in those halcyon years). It stars an erudite but untrustworthy Vincent Price, a super-suave Richard Long and every cheese fan's favorite creep, Elisha Cook, Jr. Like any flick directed by schlockmeister Castle, it had a gimmick: "Emergo-vision." Name this movie.

Answer: House on Haunted Hill

This movie is HAM-and-cheese with all the overacting going on. Truth be told, however, it does have a pretty creepy musical score, which Castle used to his advantage. Some standard cheese: telegraphed special effects, and the featured "helpless chick" (Carol Ohmart) who never thinks of simply running away when she can. Last but not least, at the movie's climax and in selected theaters only, a mechanical skeleton was rigged to jump out at the audience ("Emergo-vision")! Sadly, this last effect ONLY worked if you were sitting down in front, dead-center; those seated to the extreme left or right were more puzzled than terrified.

However, if you're a cheese fan, avoid the remake (1999); it's boring, vulgar and decidedly un-funny.

6. (1959; Director: William Castle) Hey, you know when you're genuinely scared and your spine tingles? Well, does this movie have a theory for that! Vincent Price plays a coroner who "discovers" that there is a weird centipede-type creature, living in everyone's spine, that becomes stimulated when its host becomes terrified. The only way to stop this creature from "tingling" you to death is to scream, scream, SCREAM. Darryl Hickman co-stars with his contemporary real-life fiancee Pamela Lincoln. Name this cheesy entree.

Answer: The Tingler

Greatest scene in the movie: the tingler, which Dr. Vincent Price has removed from a corpse, escapes into a movie theater. So you, the audience, are now watching a tingler movie about a tingler in the movies! At this moment, William Castle had a special buzzer set off. (It had been strategically placed under certain theater seats, and called "Percepto" Vision.) While all this was happening, Price's voice was telling everybody to SCREAM! Although cheesy because of a totally crackpot premise and un-scary special effects, the movie sports some truly witty dialog which Wikipedia quotes: Price's cheating wife Isabel says, "The only way Dave Morris will marry my sister is over my dead body." Vincent Price's character responds, "Unconventional but not impossible."

7. (1955; Director: Joseph M. Newman) A gathering of scientists are brought to a secret Alien hideaway after they prove they're smart enough to assemble an "interocitor" communication device. The main characters: scientists Meacham and Adams (played by Rex Reason and Faith Domergue) and big-headed Exeter (played by Jeff Morrow, who, in this flick, bears an uncanny resemblance to Robin Williams.) They all go to the planet Metaluna which is under attack by its arch-rival Zagon. Worth watching: REALLY big headed insect-like mutants with pincers for hands who are running (well, actually shuffling) amok. Exeter dies; Meacham and Adams turn out fine. What is this film's title?

Answer: This Island Earth

Cheesy plot but spectacular color: a treat for the eyes and your funny-bone. Rex Reason is your typical '50s over-confident alpha male and Faith Domergue, although a "scientist," is still the helpless female. I kept expecting Exeter to say something funny because of his resemblance to Robin Williams, but sadly, it never happened. I love the insectoid mutants, though.

They're soooo slow-moving and have such big balloon craniums that, even as a kid, I wanted to take a Louisville Slugger to the back of their heads. Batter up!

8. (1957; Director: Dan Milner) This movie is so obscure it's not even listed in my "Leonard Maltin's 2010 Movie Guide." Would you be terrified by a walking snarling tree-trunk, who was definitely after you but never really hurried? Would you be amused? The plot: a South Seas prince is killed and his body is put in a tree trunk. After a nuclear test, the body, tree trunk and all, is re-animated, and goes on a rampage. They named him/it the Tobonga. You name the movie, please.

Answer: From Hell It Came

"Starring" Tod Andrews and Tina Carver, this movie is perfect late-night cheesy fare: black-and-white, obscure setting, wooden acting, dumb dialog, silly plot, and fodder for humorous dreams. Everything is perfectly predictable, the monster is slow-moving and decidedly not scary, and American scientists make everything right (again). Of course, if America had not set off the nuclear bomb in the first place... but, we'll let it go at that.

9. (1957; Director: Roger Corman) This film stars granite-jawed Paul Birch and always sexy, with-it Beverly Garland. The plot is relatively simple: Aliens come to earth because they need human blood to survive. They all wear sunglasses to disguise the fact they have no pupils or irises (which is pretty creepy - if you're a kid.) But watch out when they raise those shades! They shoot a radioactive death ray. Looks CAN kill! What is the name of this movie?

Answer: Not of This Earth

Roger Corman is well-known as a "B-movie king," having been responsible for dozens of them over his career. His science-fiction movies are cheese masterpieces, featuring such standards as wooden acting, easily mocked dialog, and dumb special effects. There is one hilarious scene in this movie.

Head alien Paul Birch (who a few years down the road will become the original "Marlboro Man") and virtual nobody Bill Roerick are engaged in a 100-mile-an-hour car race down a lonely road. Birch keeps shouting out the car window for the human to "look into his eyes," but Roerick keeps staring expressionlessly ahead. Nothing like making it hard on yourself when you have to kill a guy!

10. (1956; Director: Roger Corman) Extraterrestrial lands, hides in cave, and starts broadcasting feel-good messages to scientist Anderson (played by Lee Van Cleef) in order to get him to join in, well, taking over the world. The alien excretes (no other word for it) these little bat-like drones who stick humans in the back of the neck, turning them into automatons. Good scientist Peter Graves convinces Van Cleef to turn against the alien after Van Cleef's wife, played by Beverly Garland, goes to the cave to kill the monster with a rifle. She dies, Van Cleef dies, but the Earth is saved! Name this cheesy flick.

Answer: It Conquered the World

One of the ways you can tell this movie is from the fifties is the way "the Hispanic soldier" - camped in the woods with an Army detail - is a source of "comic relief." (As if you needed it!) Acting-wise, Van Cleef is pretty solid, considering the flick's cheesy construction, but Peter Graves is as yawn-provoking as ever. Beverly Garland is Beverly Garland.

Her death, though, is rare for films of those times. The cave monster is so fake, it's pretty hard to engender any enthusiasm for it, pro or con.

Source: Author snediger

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor jmorrow before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Some Cheese With That Sci-Fi Flick? Quiz

How about some cheese with that "supernatural" flick, guys and girls? This quiz features ten science fiction/fantasy films from the 1950s, some watchable, some yawners, but all cheesy. Get some bread and dig in.

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