The Wilhelm Scream Trivia Quiz

Answer: Distant Drums

'Distant Drums' was released in 1951, directed by legend Raoul Walsh and starring Hollywood icon Gary Cooper as a U.S. Army scout engaging the enemy during the long and disjointed Seminole Wars of early 1800s Florida. Among the list of (mostly) uncredited actors were Darren McGavin (Old Man Parker in 1983's 'A Christmas Story') and singer Sheb Wooley, who hit the music charts in 1958 with the novelty hit 'Purple People Eater'.

Although the person behind the voice may never be officially known (and if it becomes known remind me to fix this), sound effects wizard Ben Burtt believes Wooley supplied the famous scream.

Answer: The Charge at Feather River

Released in 1953, 'The Charge at Feather River' was originally a 3-D movie, hence there are a lot of scenes involving close-ups of flying arrows and one character spitting tobacco juice at a rattlesnake that looks out of place without the effects. The character Private Wilhelm (played by Ralph Brooks) is sitting on a horse filling his pipe when he's struck by an arrow and released the famed scream.

This was not the only instance of the scream in the film; it happened twice more during the climactic battle scene.

Answer: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

In the second of Steven Spielberg's serial-type films, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and company attempt to save a village in British-run India from an evil cult. The sound comes toward the end of the film as a character (I won't say which character, but it's played by legendary Bollywood actor Amrish Puri) falls into a river and is torn apart by crocodiles.

As far as I know, this film, 1951's 'Distant Drums' and 1955's 'Land of the Pharaohs', are the only movies where the scream is used as it was originally intended.

Answer: Star Wars

Burtt, along with two fellow cinema friends at the University of Southern California, discovered the sound effect in the Warner Bros. sound studio and was credited for giving the effect its official name. The surprise hit movie of 1977, chronicling the exploits of Luke Skywalker against the Galactic Empire, would later be retitled 'Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope' by director George Lucas.

The scream would later appear in the 'Star Wars Christmas Special' and several 'Star Wars' video games.

Answer: Howard The Duck

Released (some say 'escaped') in 1986, 'Howard' was based on a popular Marvel Comics series of a talking duck yanked from his own dimension of other talking ducks and placed in our dimension of Cleveland, OH. The film starred Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones and a rather young Tim Robbins. Broadway star Chip Zien (best known as the Baker from Stephen Sondheim's fairy-tale musical 'Into The Woods') provided the voice of Howard. 'Duck, You Sucker' was a 1971 spaghetti western directed by Sergio Leone, 'Million-Dollar Duck', also made in 1971, was a Disney fluff piece starring Sandy Duncan and Dean Jones and 'Duck Soup' was the 1933 Marx Brothers classic.

Answer: True

In the 1954 classic 'A Star Is Born', with Garland and co-star James Mason, there are two Wilhelms. One of them is heard as Garland is leaving a movie theater that is actually showing 'The Charge At Feather River', where the scream got its name. Forward to 1968 and John Wayne's Vietnam War epic, 'The Green Berets' has the Wilhelm in a pivotal battle scene as mortars are exploding around charging enemy troops.

Answer: Quentin Tarantino

The scream can be heard within the first 30 minutes of the movie as Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) knocks someone over as he runs from police.
Tarantino liked the sound effect enough to use it in the epic sword fight of 'Kill Bill Vol. 1', a faux Nazi propaganda film used in 'Inglourious Basterds' and one of the more 'explosive' scenes of 'Django Unchained'.

Answer: Cinderella

The Wilhelm in Disney's 'Beauty And The Beast', based on the classic story by French novelist Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, is heard as a member of an angry mob is thrown out of the front door of the Beast's castle. In Pixar's 'Up', the sound is heard as dogs chasing Carl, Russell and Dug fall over a cliff into a river.

In the climatic scene of Disney's 'Aladdin', as Jafar orders the Genie to remove the palace from Agraba, a falling man can be heard giving out with the scream. Disney's 'Cinderella', the classic tale of the girl and the glass slipper, was released in 1950, one year before the Wilhelm was first recorded.

Answer: Them!

This classic movie about radiation-enhanced ants threatening a New Mexico community starred James Arness, James Whitmore and Oscar-winner Edmund Gwenn ('Miracle on 34th Street'). Plus, if you look closely, you can also see future stars Leonard Nimoy and Fess Parker. Hard to believe, but all the movies listed here deal with ants. 'The Naked Jungle', also made in 1954, pitted Charleton Heston and Eleanor Parker against normal-sized South American army ants (several billion of them), 1974's 'Phase IV' dealt with normal ants in Arizona that had achieved collective intelligence and 1977's 'Empire of The Ants' featured nuclear economy-sized bullet ants in Florida.

Answer: Star Wars (1977)

'Star Wars' was the film that really established the career of Ben Burtt, who rediscovered the Wilhelm and used it to the greatest effect. His sound crew not only won the Best Sound Editing Award, but he received a Special Achievement Award from the Academy for his creation of the various alien and robot voices used in the movie. The giant-ant movie 'Them!' was nominated for best Special Effects, but lost out to Disney's take on the Jules Verne classic '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea'. 'Sergeant Rutledge', John Ford's tale of a black soldier accused of rape may have been critically acclaimed (and rightly so), but was not nominated for any awards for the year of its release. 'The Wild Bunch', Sam Peckinpah's tribute to the Old West as aging outlaws go for one last hold-up, was nominated for two Oscars, but again not related to sound.