Too Early for Those Movies! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Garry Marshall

To be fair, it was the Christmas movie that I said wouldn't be a romance, OK?

The huge cast included Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, Jessica Biel, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher and many more. One segment was about a man who was in hospital, another involved problems with the famous ball drop in Times Square. Others followed couples of varying ages as they waited for midnight.

Garry Marshall (1934-2016) seemed to like holiday movies, having also directed "Valentine's Day" (2010) and "Mother's Day" (2016). His other directing credits included "Pretty Woman" (1990) and "The Princess Diaries" (2001). He was also a writer, an actor, and actress/director Penny Marshall's older brother.

Oh, yes! The incorrect choice, Frank Capra, directed perennial Christmas favourite "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946).

Answer: Jason Robards

"The St Valentine's Day Massacre", directed by Roger Corman, took a pseudo-documentary approach to the retelling of the story of the brutal murder of members of the Bugs Moran (Ralph Meeker) gang by members of Capone's rival mob, which took place on 14 February 1929 in a garage in Chicago.

Jason Robards (1922-2000), sometimes billed as Jason Robards Jr., had a career in movies from the late 1940s until shortly before his death. He won two Best Supporting Actor Oscars, for "All the President's Men" (1976) and "Julia" (1977). Steiger and Gazzara have both played Capone, in other movies.

Glenn Ford played a gangster named Dave the Dude in yet another Frank Capra-directed Christmas movie, "Pocketful of Miracles" (1961).

Answer: Holi

Todd was a young man who has been sent to oversee the outsourcing of his workplace to India (and to train his replacement!) The film is quite charming, and Todd not only grew to admire his new colleagues, but fell in love with one of them. One morning, he failed to see a note warning him to stay inside, and headed out dressed for work. To his surprise, he was accosted by people throwing coloured powder and soon had a blue face and his white shirt had become multi-coloured. A friend told him it was Holi, a celebration of colour, and Todd joined in the fun.

The three incorrect choices are all associated with January 5th/6th and the end of the twelve days of Christmas, when the wisemen (kings) were said to have arrived from the East.

Answer: Peter Lawford

Not known as a singer, Peter Lawford did the job here, as one of two men who were interested in Judy, Fred being the other. Fred and Judy were vaudeville performers, Ann Miller played Fred's former partner, and Lawford was a young gentleman who met Judy one rainy day and sang this song to her. Fred and Judy performed the majority of the songs, including the title number.

Peter Lawford (1923-1984) was born in England, and was a member of the Kennedy family by virtue of his first marriage, which lasted until 1966. His film credits included "Ocean's Eleven" (1960) and "The Longest Day" (1962).

Gene Kelly's umbrella-wielding song was the title number of "Singin' in the Rain" (1952).

The incorrect choice, Irving Berlin, not only wrote the songs for "Easter Parade", but was also responsible for the iconic ditty "White Christmas".

Answer: Boston marathon

The movie, directed by Peter Berg, starred Mark Wahlberg, J.K. Simmons and John Goodman, amongst others. It told the story of the attack on the 2013 Boston marathon by a pair of terrorist brothers who carried their home-made bombs in backpacks which they left alongside the route of the race. The film continued to cover the ensuing manhunt for the bombers, which proved successful.

The inclusion of cricket as an incorrect choice is a sideways nod to the Christmas story "The Cricket on the Hearth" by Charles Dickens.

Answer: Vietnam

The movie, directed by Oliver Stone, was based on the autobiographical book by Ron Kovic, a young man, who really was born on Independence Day, who was paralysed due to wounds suffered during his service in Vietnam. Tom Cruise played Kovic, who became disillusioned after his return to the States and became an anti-war activist. Stone won his second Best Director Oscar for this movie, and Cruise was nominated as Best Actor, losing to Daniel Day-Lewis.

World War I was the setting for a different sort of Christmas movie; "Joyeux Noel" (2005) was about the Christmas truce on the Western Front in 1914.

Answer: Picnic

"Picnic" (1956) was directed by Joshua Logan and won Oscars for Art Direction and Film Editing. Besides Novak and Holden, the cast included Susan Strasberg, Arthur O'Connell and Cliff Robertson. Holden's character arrived in town to see an old friend, played by Robertson, and proceeded to move in on his friend's girl (Novak). Everybody went to the Labour Day picnic and romantic complications ensued.

Of the incorrect choices, Novak was in "Pal Joey" (1957) and Holden was in "Sabrina" (1954).

"The Holiday" (2006) was set around Christmastime, and starred Cameron Diaz, Jack Black, Jude Law and Kate Winslet. It was a romantic comedy...

Answer: Jamie Lee Curtis

In fact, Jamie Lee Curtis played Laurie Strode at least five times, including in the two cited movies, surviving her encounters with the villainous Michael Myers over the years. Many other characters in the series of slasher movies set around the spooky October holiday were not so lucky.

Ms Curtis was born in 1958 to actors Tony Curtis ("Some Like It Hot" (1959)) and Janet Leigh ("Psycho" (1960)) and had appeared in a number of television roles before hitting the big screen as Laurie. She won a Golden Globe for her performance in "True Lies" (1994). Other movies include "A Fish Called Wanda" (1988) and "Knives Out" (2019).

As may have become clear, I've attempted at least a weak link to Christmas throughout, and there is one here too. Jamie Lee Curtis appeared in "Christmas with the Kranks" as Nora Krank, who along with her husband, Luther (Tim Allen), was attempting to skip Christmas!

Answer: By the Light of the Silvery Moon

Like all of their neighbours, the Winfield family in "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" (1953) bought a live turkey to fatten up for Thanksgiving. The young son of the family, Wesley (Billy Gray) had made a pet of the bird, naming it Gregory, and rather than take it to the butcher he set the turkey free, then stole an already prepared bird from a neighbour. Chaos ensued when a very healthy Gregory crashed Thanksgiving dinner!

The main theme of the movie was the romance between Marjorie Winfield (Doris Day) and Bill Sherman (Gordon MacRae), continuing on from the earlier film "On Moonlight Bay" (1951).

The three incorrect choices are all set around Thanksgiving.

The Christmas link here was from "On Moonlight Bay", which had a scene where that same Wesley Winfield, having been up to more mischief, dressed as an angel and joined a group of Christmas carol singers. Marjorie and Bill then also joined in to sing "Merry Christmas to All".

Answer: The Silent Partner

"The Silent Partner" (1978) was made in Canada and starred Christopher Plummer, as the bank-robbing Santa; Elliott Gould as the bank clerk who decided to outwit the robber; and Susannah York as another bank employee. Canadian comedian John Candy also had a role.

Gould's character had guessed that a robbery was going to happen, and set his own plan in motion, hoping to effectively rob the robber. When an alarm was tripped, Santa took off up an escalator in what was obviously Toronto's Eaton Centre (rather jarring when you're sitting in a cinema in that very place, as I was) and escaped by stealing a car from someone trying to take home a Christmas tree. The plot thickened when "Santa" realised that he'd been duped. It's well worth seeing for anyone who's become jaded with syrupy holiday fare.

The other choices are all of the syrupy romantic comedy or straight comedy variety, though tolerable Christmas fare.