True Crime Movie Time Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bonnie and Clyde

The real Bonnie and Clyde captured the imagination of many Americans in the 1930s; the 1967 film secured their legacy. It chronicles the criminal adventures of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow - glamorously portrayed by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway - from the day they meet until the day they die together, ambushed on a roadside in Louisiana by a Texas ranger and his posse of lawmen. Nominated for 10 Oscars (it won two), "Bonnie and Clyde" is a genuine milestone in the history of the American cinema.

Its bold and vivid depiction of violence revolutionized moviemaking. Its complex and multilayered exploration of character remains scintillating 50 years after the film's release. The real Bonnie and Clyde were, let's face it, a couple of punks.

The movie elevated them to the level of true folk heroes. Thus is the power of the cinema.

Answer: In Cold Blood

With "In Cold Blood", author Truman Capote pioneered the 'non-fiction novel' and set the gold standard for the true crime book. In November of 1959, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock invaded the home of farmer Herbert Clutter, mistakenly believing that Clutter kept $10,000 in a safe. Before they left, Smith shot and killed Clutter, his wife, and their two teenage children. Capote worked his literary magic with this dark tale, allowing us to sympathize with Smith and Hickock without losing compassion for their victims. Brooks' film takes us through the crime and the killers' thankfully brief period of freedom before their arrest. We follow the men to death row and, ultimately, to the gallows. Robert Blake's portrayal of Perry Smith is particularly affecting.

Jump ahead to 2001 - Robert Blake is arrested for the murder of his second wife, Bonnie Bakley. While he was ultimately acquitted, the incident created an eerie parallel to this fine film.

Answer: Compulsion

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were two wealthy students at the University of Chicago in the spring of 1924 when they kidnapped and murdered 14 year old Bobby Franks as a demonstration of their intellectual superiority. Surely, their unmatched brilliance would result in the perfect crime! Ironically, a series of stupid mistakes had the boys behind bars in less than two weeks. Meyer Levin's novel "Compulsion" changes the names and some of the details and the film follows suit. The film starts shortly after the murder and tells the story of the investigation, the arrest, and the epic trial in which legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow's eloquent appeal for compassion saved the killers from the electric chair. Not a great film but it contains some splendid performances, most notably Orson Welles' memorable turn as Darrow stand-in, Jonathan Wilk.

Leopold and Loeb provided the inspiration for other films, such as Hitchcock's "Rope" and the more fact-based "Swoon" from 1992. "Never the Sinner" by John Logan is an excellent stage play about the crime that was an off-Broadway hit in the 1990s.

Answer: To Die For

Pamela Smart returned to her Derry, New Hampshire condo in May of 1990 to find the place ransacked and her husband, Gregg, murdered. After 15 year old Billy Flynn was arrested for the murder, it was revealed that Smart had been sleeping with the teen and, in fact, had threatened to stop the sex unless he killed her husband. Smart was convicted of first-degree murder. Flynn and his accomplices received second-degree murder convictions and have since been paroled. Author Joyce Maynard used this story as the basis for her 1992 novel "To Die For", which Gus Van Sant adapted into the excellent 1995 film starring Nicole Kidman.

The film tells the story of ambitious wanna-be TV star Suzanne Stone Maretto. So fervent is her ambition that she must destroy whatever gets in the way, including her husband (Matt Dillon).

As in the actual case, she seduces a teenager and persuades him to do her bidding.

Answer: Parkland

Unlike 1991's "JFK", "Parkland" accepts Lee Harvey Oswald's guilt as fact and focuses on the impact that JFK's assassination had on some lesser known figures - the doctors and nurses who toiled in vain to save the President's life, the guilt-ridden FBI and SS agents, the brother and mother of the accused assassin. Paul Giamatti is especially good as Abraham Zapruder, the Dallas businessman who captured the assassination on his home movie camera.

The film's most chilling moment, however, is a post-assassination encounter between Lee Oswald and his innocent, good-hearted brother, Robert.

Answer: Zodiac

"Zodiac" tells the story of the infamous, unsolved killings from the perspectives of the journalists at the San Francisco Chronicle and of the police assigned to the case. Robert Graysmith, whose book on the case was the basis for the screenplay, was a cartoonist at the Chronicle who became obsessed with the Zodiac murders. David Toschi, homicide investigator, became equally transfixed with the case. Fincher's excellent film chronicles these obsessions with intense focus and detail.

David Toschi is a legendary figure, having served as the model for both Steve McQueen's "Bullit" and Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry". Even George Lucas, whose imagination was captured by the Zodiac when he was a teen, claims to have named the Toschi station on Tattooine in "Star Wars" after the SFPD homicide investigator.

Answer: Badlands

Martin Sheen's 'Kit' and Sissy Spacek's 'Holly' stand in for Charlie Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, the teenagers whose 1958 killing spree-starting in Lincoln, Nebraska and ending in the Badlands of Wyoming was the inspiration for Malick's brilliant and haunting film. Kit falls for Holly but her father (Warren Oates) disapproves, a problem Kit solves by shooting and killing the old man. From there, it's murder upon murder until the two are finally captured. As it was for Starkweather, Kit, we learn, dies in the electric chair.

Starkweather served as a muse for other filmmakers-notably for Oliver Stone with "Natural Born Killers"-but he also compelled several songwriters to pick up a guitar and bash out a tribute. Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska", a first-person narrative told from the killer's point of view, is the most famous and most eloquent example.

"They declared me unfit to live
Said into that great void my soul'd be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did
Well sir I guess there's just a meanness in this world."

Answer: Dog Day Afternoon

"Dog Day Afternoon" chronicles the ill-fated bank robbery from its inception, through its discovery by police, to its eventual devolution into a media circus, and finally to its bizarre and tragic conclusion. John Stanley Wojtowicz received $7,500 for selling the film rights to his story. He also received 1% of the film's profits, allowing him to pay for his lover's sex reassignment surgery, his motivation for the bank robbery in the first place. Mission accomplished!

Wojtowicz could have done a lot worse than having the incomparable Al Pacino play him in "Dog Day Afternoon". Pacino was on one heck of a hot streak in the early to mid '70s - "The Godfather", "Serpico", "The Godfather II", "Dog Day Afternoon". Wow! He received Oscar nominations for all four but didn't get an Oscar until 1993 for his far less compelling performance in "Scent of a Woman".

Answer: A Place in the Sun

Yes, "An American Tragedy" was the name of Dreiser's novel; but the movie was called "A Place in the Sun". The story was also updated to 1951 America and the names were changed. One more significant change was that the romance between George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) and Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor) was given greater emphasis than in the novel. This was largely due to the intimate chemistry between Clift and Taylor. Director Stevens was so taken by the connection between the two stars that he began to add scenes for them to play together. Taylor and Clift became close friends and remained so until Clift's untimely death in 1966.

"An American Tragedy" and the subsequent film version are based on the true story of Chester Gillette, a young man who met Grace Brown at the factory where he worked in Cortland, NY. They began an affair and when, at the tender age of 18, Grace announced that she was pregnant, Chester took her out onto Big Moose Lake and murdered her. He was ultimately found guilty of the murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair. "A Place in the Sun" takes this seedy story and raises it to the level of high art.

Answer: United 93

I first heard about the film "United 93" when it showed up as a 'coming attraction' at my local cineplex in late 2005. My immediate response was like that of many others: "It's too soon! The scars from 9/11 are still too deep and we should not be crafting 'entertainment' from that earth-shattering day!" What I failed to anticipate was that Paul Greengrass would approach the story with such artistry and sensitivity. Indeed, he created a much-needed tribute to the courage of the brave Americans who died in a Pennsylvania field that day.

"United 93" splits its focus between the passengers, the terrorists, the air traffic control officials, and the military to provide us with a remarkably textured and detailed portrait of the events of the day. The final 15 minutes of the film are among the most harrowing of my film-going life. Terrifying and heartbreaking but ultimately inspiring.