Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Quiz

Answer: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor are at virtual war throughout most of the film, tearing at each other viciously.
George and Martha are in their forties. George's career as a professor has not amounted to much, and Martha resents him for it. He resents the fact that Martha's father is the president of the university.
Burton and Taylor were married (1964-74), divorced and then remarried (1975-76). Burton was one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation; he was nominated for Best Actor for "Virginia Woolf" but lost to Paul Scofield. Elizabeth Taylor won her second Best Actress Oscar in what is arguably the best film of her career; her first Oscar was for "Butterfield 8" (1960).

Answer: Sunday Morning

The film begins at just around 2 AM on a Sunday morning -- that is one of Richard Burton's first lines. The film ends just as the sun is rising, and the last shot is through the window at the sunrise.

Answer: "What a dump!"

Martha repeatedly quotes "What a dump" and gives a lengthy description of "Beyond the Forest" (1949), the film where Bette Davis delivers the line. The line ranked #62 on the AFI 100 Years, 100 Quotes list. What is funny is that Davis did not deliver the line in the exaggerated fashion that Taylor claims she did.
Bette Davis was one of the most quotable of actresses. Four of her quotes made the ballot, and three made the final list. "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night" is from "All About Eve" (1950). It is ranked #9 on the AFI 100 Quotes list.
"Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars" is the last line of "Now Voyager" (1942), and is ranked #46 on the AFI 100 Quotes list.
"I'd love to kiss, but I just washed my hair" is Davis as Madge Norwood in "Cabin in the Cotton" (1932). It was on the list of nominees for the AFI Quotes.

Answer: Biology

Nick states multiple times that he is a biologist. Martha mistakenly believes he is in the Math department. George is a member of the History department. "You've got history on your side. I've got biology on mine," Nick notes at one point.
George Segal was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Nick, the young academic just starting his career. Segal was 30 when he played Nick, a few years older than the 28 he stated in the film.
Segal has appeared in dozens of films, several television series, and was still acting at age 80 in the ABC series "The Goldbergs."
Robert Redford was offered the role of Nick, but turned it down. Warren Beatty was also considered for Nick.

Answer: Brandy

The drinking is pervasive in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". At the start of the film, George and Martha are returning home, already drunk, from a party, and continue drinking throughout the entire film.
Honey drinks a great deal of brandy during the course of the film. "Never mix, never worry" is her motto, but it proves to be mistaken; Honey winds up vomiting several times due to over drinking.
Sandy Dennis won the Best Supporting Actress award for playing Honey, the somewhat naive wife of Nick. "Virginia Woolf" was her second film, after "Splendor in the Grass" (1961). Dennis was active in films, television and theatre until she died of cancer in 1992; she was only 54.

Answer: Bested

Bested. George says this during the scene where he is alone in the living room with Nick. He is testing Nick, seeing how intelligent he is, as one of the first games of the evening. Nick refuses to play George's game, and is inclined to leave, but sticks around even though he knows he should go.
George refers to the statement as a declension.
The film's screenplay by Ernest Lehman is almost verbatim from the play by Edward Albee. The play won the Tony Award for Best Drama of 1962.

Answer: Hurt the Hostess

George mentions "Hump the Hostess" not "Hurt the Hostess." And "Hump the Hostess" does happen later, when Nick has sex with Martha. "Humiliate the Host" is carried out by Martha, when she shreds George to bits over his lack of ambition and achievement. In "Get the Guests", George reveals the sordid details of Nick's life that a drunken Nick had confessed earlier. "Bringing up Baby", when the truth about George and Martha's son is finally revealed, happens at the end of the film.

Answer: Red Basket cocktail bar

The four get in a car, with the intention of taking Nick and Honey home. Honey insists they go to the bar, because she wants to dance. Honey dances alone until Nick tells her to quit, sparking an argument. Martha then dances with Nick quite seductively. This leads to an all-out battle between George and Martha in the parking lot. Martha takes the car, picks up Nick and Honey, and heads back to the house.
Frank Flanagan, who was a gaffer on "Virginia Woolf", plays the roadhouse manager. Agnes Flanagan, his wife, plays the waitress.

Answer: Car accident

The secret revealed at the end of the film is that the son is a fantasy created by George and Martha, but a private one. George becomes outraged when Martha tells Honey about the fictional son, and the revelation provides much of the drama between them.

The son is often used as a weapon. They argue about his actual paternity, and George accuses Martha of physical abuse and possible incest. George kills off the son in a car accident, which echoes the description of the accident which killed George's father. The fantasy son's birthday is the day after the party, and he would have been 16. Martha describes him as being born in September, and having blonde hair and green eyes.

Answer: Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols had been part of comedy team of Nichols and May before going into directing. He has directed around 20 films since 1965, including "The Graduate" (1967), "Catch 22" (1970) and "Working Girl" (1988).
Haskell Wexler was the cinematographer for "Virginia Woolf." He would work on many of the best films of the 1970s, including "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975).
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" made history as the first film to be nominated for every Academy Award category it was eligible in. Along with Taylor and Dennis, cinematographer Wexler, art directors Richard Sylbert and George James, and costume designer Irene Sharaff took home Oscars. The film was nominated for Best Picture and Nichols was nominated for Best Director. The next year, Nichols would win for "The Graduate" (1967). "The Graduate" made the 2007 AFI 100 list at #17.
Pollack's first feature film was "A Slender Thread" (1965) with Sidney Poitier and Anne Bancroft. Jewison's first film was the Tony Curtis comedy "Forty Pounds of Trouble" (1962).