Son of Gnat's Wazoo Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sound effects

In 1964-65, it won one Academy Award. Norman Wanstall took home the little statuette for Foley effects. It was also nominated for general special effects, but lost.

During Connery's tenure as Bond, only two of the stories were seriously altered from print to screen. "You Only Live Twice" was one, "Goldfinger" was the other, though "Goldfinger"'s plot was pretty much kept intact. In the book, Pussy Galore was only in about two percent of the story and Tilly Masterson perhaps 55-60 percent of the story. In the movie, this was reversed. Felix Leiter also wasn't as prominent a character in the book. Oddjob was the one sucked out into space, not Goldfinger. The embroglio in Fort Knox between him and Bond didn't go _quite_ the way it did in the movie! The Aston Martin wasn't as tripped up, either. It also might be pointed out that 007 pretty much worked for Goldfinger for a good portion of the story, after having his cover blown, actually recruiting the mobsters brought together to help bring about "Operation Grandslam", with Tilly Masterson, Jill's sister, helping him.

The entire Bond series, which actually lit up with this third installment, was voted by BBC subscribers as 5th on the list of most influential movies of all time. Trust me, "Dr. No" and "From Russia With Love" and everything after would have been just footnotes in film history on their own. "Goldfinger" was the masterpiece that set the tone for all to follow!

Well known touchstones and scenes included things such as the tricked-out Aston Martin; Shirley Eaton's golden "suntan", the laser and the wizard dubbing that helped hide the fact that Gert Frobe's true voice was never heard in the movie. Who could forget that knock down, drag-out fight in the bowels of Fort Knox with Oddjob? These and other aspects of the film warranted at least five or six Oscars for 1) Music, 2) Special effects, 3) Cinematography, 4) Screenplay, 5) an acting Oscar for either Connery or Frobe (and maybe one for Blackman). It's not unusual for truly landmark movies to be underappreciated by AMPAS.

Answer: Boothroyd

This name was mentioned just once, in "From Russia With Love" (1963), Desmond Llewellyn's very first appearance as the equipment supervisor for MI6. He was referred to as "Q" from "Goldfinger" on. The name was first spoken by "M" as he asked Moneypenny to summon Q when 007 was being outfitted with a new gun, his trademark Waltham PPK, and the legendary briefcase.

Answer: Starting with "From Russia with Love", the teaser set-up featured women from the previous film.

In the teaser for "From Russia with Love", Sylvia, from "Dr. No" (1962) was seen fooling around with Bond in his Bentley as he got the call from headquarters. In "Goldfinger", the actress who played Ali Kurham Bey's mistress from "From Russia with Love" was seen dancing to the mariachi band and in the clinches with Bond just before he's attacked by a guy who looks suspiciously like Robert Shaw. "Dr. No's" teaser, of course, had no predecessor.

Answer: "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape"

Get a load of this cast. It included Yul Brynner, James Coburn, Steve McQueen, Horst Bucholz, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Eli Wallach and Brad Dexter. "The Magnificent Seven", a 1960 John Sturges movie, was about the recruitment of seven gunfighters to help a poor Mexican village fend off a group of banditos, headed by Eli Wallach, who had been terrorizing them. It had more stars and action than you could shake a stick at, and one of the most rousing, fantastic scores, written by Elmer Bernstein, that you ever heard in your life! "The Great Escape" also had Bronson, Coburn and McQueen, but also had James Garner, Richard Attenborough and David McCallum. This time, they had to escape from a German prison of war camp _without_ the help of Yul!

Numerous attempts were made to duplicate these movies' successes, but to no avail, until somebody had the idea of moving the same premise to World War II again in "The Dirty Dozen", which also, by the way, co-starred Bronson. All three of these movies springboarded a lot of careers!

Answer: The "Battle of the Bulge" ribbon

Yep, that's right! There was no ribbon for the Battle of the Bulge, unless you're talking about the medal Cramden might get from his exercise class. Flint's sharp eyes probably kept Cramden's Z.O.W.I.E from being infiltrated and taken down by Galaxy, the evil organization in the film.

Just seconds after dispatching the faux "Gridley", and hearing Cramden's objection to Flint beating up his best man, someone discovered the real Gridley and another man in a storeroom, one of whose heart had stopped. Rigging up a chain that included himself and Cramden, Flint attempted to revive the man by using the juice from a light fixture, and he succeeded!

This was a very clever movie for its day (1966)! Everyone I've ever talked to about it says that 007 comes up short next to him, even going so far as to disparage 007's masculinity! I, myself, will never cease to be amazed at the scene where Flint nails that housefly with his blowdart/cigarette holder in Cramden's office.

Answer: False

Though very convincing, there was definitely ape makeup used for "2001"'s prologue. The actors in "The Dawn Of Man" were professional dancers who operated little toggle switches inside their masks to move their prosthetic jaws realistically...with their tongues! Oddly enough, the much less convincing ape make-up for "Planet of the Apes" (also 1968) was much ballyhooed, but was pathetic by comparison.

Answer: True

"Auntie Mame" was the memoir, by Patrick Dennis, of his years growing up with his loveable, eccentric "auntie", Mame Dennis, played by Rosiland Russell. The film followed Mame, Patrick and their extended family of servants and hangers-on as they suffered through the Great Depression, Mame attempting to support her grand lifestyle with an assortment of odd jobs and her marriage to Beauregard Jackson Picket Burnside. It was Russell's best known and best executed role. It also marked one of the few movie appearances of well-known Broadway actress and game show panelist Peggy Cass.

Oddly enough, though Patrick Dennis was brought up in relative wealth and high society, only suffering a wee bit of financial desperation during the Depression, he became a professional butler for the rest of his life, as well as a writer.

In my opinion, this was one of the most charming films ever made, and an archetypical 50's romantic comedy.

Answer: "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

This was done quite well, believe it or not, with Siamese/Buddhist decor and cultural touchstones all through it. Harriet Beecher Stowe's tale of slaves trying to escape the cruel life they led under Simon Legree was used as a metaphor for one of the staging daughter's problems trying to convince her father, the King, to allow her to marry who she wants to marry.

It was staged, primarily by the daughters of the king, very tastefully and cleverly. "Scientific dogs" indeed! (This is a reference to the bloodhounds used by Legree to find his runaway slaves.)

Answer: A sequel to "The Wizard of Oz"

This sequel, "Return To Oz" (1984), was, in a lot of people's opinions, including my own, the best thing Disney has done since Eisner took over. This was the first film for its young star, Fairuza Balk, who went on to star in an eerie film called "The Craft", but it also starred Nicol Williamson, Piper Laurie and Jean Marsh. Will Vinton's Claymation process was used to great effect in producing the "gnomes", a race of goblins that inhabited the rocks and stones of a kingdom downroad from Oz. It also featured a wisecracking hen and the exceptional art direction of Jim Henson's organization. George Lucas' ILM was also in on it for certain special effects. The music was great, as well. All in all, you might actually find yourself comparing it favorably to the original...!

In the film, Dorothy revisited Oz, sent there this time by that old bugaboo, wild, stormy weather, and saw that Oz was in ruins! She learned that Oz had been taken over by someone called "The Gnome King" and his henchwoman, Princess Mombi. All the inhabitants of Oz had been turned into stone and a group of dancing girls had been decapitated to supply the heads for evil Princess Mombi, who changed heads to suit her mood! (Yuck!) Dorothy set out with her new friends, Belina, the wisecracking hen, Tick Tock, the clockwork robot "Army of Oz", Jack Pumpkinhead and the "Gump" to set things aright. Dorothy's original friends from Oz were pretty much out of the picture for most of the movie until the end, when Dorothy's perserverence brought them all back from being stone.

Answer: "The Ipcress File"

This short, three-movie series, starring Michael Caine as British agent Harry Palmer, the first bespectacled spy, and very possibly the _true_ inspiration for "Austin Powers" - considering that both characters wore glasses, combed their hair in similar fashion and spoke with pronounced cockney accents - was a little more down to Earth and realistic than the Bond films. The short franchise was also produced by the very same people who _made_ the "007" movies.

The films, "The Ipcress File" (1965), "Funeral In Berlin" (1966) and "The Billion Dollar Brain" (1967), were based on novels written by Len Deighton, a contemporary and rival of John LeCarre. The plot for "Ipcress" involved scientists being kidnapped and brainwashed, then released back into society, near completely useless. Harry's brief was to find out who was doing it to them and bring him in!

Though he had actually been introduced to the moviegoing public in a colonial adventure called "Zulu", this was the series that actually made a name for Michael Caine, born Maurice Micklewhite to cockney parents in London.

Answer: "Pick your feet in Poughkeepsie"

This was apparently some code for drug abuse, considering the subject matter of the film. This rather intense character, based on Eddie Egan, a real person, was played by Gene Hackman in the Oscar-winning NYPD police drama/action thriller "The French Connection" (1971).

This movie had one of the most hair-raising car chases ever recorded on film. In fact, though "Bullitt" also had a very famous and hairy car chase just a few years before it, this film probably made it mandatory to have a scary car chase in action movies for most of the 70s, so as not to look pale by comparison.

Answer: Pygar, the angel

Pygar was Barbarella's sidekick for the entire movie and they ended up rescuing each other many times. Venerable actor Milo O'Shea played the comical villain, and namesake of the original boy band, Duran-Duran.

This film was one Jane Fonda would probably like to forget she was in. It had, hands down, one of the most embarrassingly bad scores ever composed for a film, tacky art direction, but a curiously good performance from Rolling Stones hanger-on, Anita Pallenberg. She played "The Little Tyrant", a decadent, imperious ruler of the hedonistic city of SoGo in this sci-fi circus. A film tailor-made for MST3K!

Answer: Brian Cruikshank, Adam Canfield, Alexander Dyle and Peter Joshua

This very charming murder mystery was made in 1963 and involved a U.S. government agent (Grant) trying to locate stolen money in Paris, France. Trying to keep poor Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) in the dark so she wouldn't spoil his cover, Grant used three aliases to throw her off the scent. Hepburn, though infatuated with Grant's character, started to suspect him as the dead bodies of "Carson Dyle's" old WWII buddies pile up in pursuit of $250,000 in war booty, with him being the only one left - masquerading as one of them. Brian Cruikshank was his character's real name. Stamp collecting, anybody?

The film also starred James Coburn, pre-"Our Man Flint", George Kennedy, pre-"Cool Hand Luke", Ned Glass, post-"West Side Story", and Walter Matthau, pre-"Odd Couple".

Answer: "What's New, Pussycat?"

"What's New, Pussycat?" (1965) was a zany farce starring O'Toole, Peter Sellers, Romy Schneider, Paula Prentiss, Ursula Andress and Woody Allen. It was the first movie that Allen wrote and had a part in and, thanks to a popular theme song that reached the Billboard top ten, did fairly well at the box office, playing to a world ripe for farcical comedies.

O'Toole played a womanizing magazine editor who, when the light hit him a certain way, "looks almost handsome". Actually, in a lot of shots in this movie, O'Toole looked kind of bizarre! Nonetheless, he proved his versatility as an actor by holding his own with Sellers and Allen, and, in my opinion, was the funniest of the three of them!

Answer: Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau's haunting, dreamlike version of the story (1946) was by far the most famous cinematic retelling before Disney's, making the top of quite a few well-informed cineaste's lists of all time best films. The beast was bear-like and likeably gruff, but the real star of the film was the incredible art direction, involving things like light fixtures consisting of real human arms and paintings with faces and eyes that moved, decades before Harry Potter.

It is one of the true movie masterpieces of all time".