Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 47 Trivia Quiz

Answer: the teenagers

The Air Force is more interested in covering up the UFO landing than in anything else. They accidentally blow up the (empty) flying saucer and then groom the scene to look like a military aircraft accident. The police are put off of the case because the army tells them it was an airplane crash and because they don't believe teenagers in general.

It is the teenagers who figure out how to kill the aliens and who organize themselves in such a way as to destroy them all. This movie was made for a largely teenage audience so this message -- teens are smarter than the military and the police -- goes down pretty well with the intended viewer.

Answer: the archcriminal Dr. Krupp

The evil Dr. Krupp is played by Luis Aceves Castañeda. He escapes from police custody, with the aid of his minions, and once again sets out to steal the Aztec treasure. He calls himself El Murciélago, the Bat. The Bat kidnaps Flor Sepulveda, played by Rosa Arenas, believing her to be the reincarnation of the Aztec princess Xochitl, who, under hypnosis, will disclose the location of her treasure. Bad Bat!

Answer: he was shot and fell off Hoover Dam

The Colossal Man goes on a rampage, killing people and destroying parts of the Las Vegas Strip. He flees to Hoover Dam where an attempt is made to tranquilize him by means of a giant hypodermic needle. This failing, the US Army troops gathered there shoot him and he falls to his apparent death in the waters of the Colorado River at the bottom of the dam.

Answer: Raymond Burr

In a role unlike those normally played by Raymond Burr, he stars in "Bride of the Gorilla" as a lazy, unprincipled, licentious, and homicidal character. His best-remembered roles were heroic on television's "Perry Mason" and "Ironside."

Answer: a drug which induces suspended animation

In the narration with which this motion picture begins, the voice of Basil Rathbone says, "The ancients who wrote in the sensory tongue made first mention of the strange drug they called Nind Andhera. This drug was first introduced into the city of Lahore in the Punjab in the 703rd year after the death of the Prophet, praise his memory.

This drug has the power to place a man's body and limbs into helplessness and his soul sleeps. Nor does he feel pain. He is as a dead man, yet he is not of the dead." The exotic Indian drug here called "Nind Andhera" is colloquially named "The Black Sleep" because it renders one unconscious with no memory of what intervenes.

Answer: a novel by Jules Verne

The script for this motion picture was somewhat freely adapted from Jules Verne's novel "Vingt mille lieues sous les mers" (1870). Before its publication as a novel, the story was serialized in 1869-1870 editions of the fortnightly "Magasin d'éducation et de récréation." The film does not precisely follow the order of events in the book.

The submarine is battery powered in the novel, nuclear powered in the movie.

Answer: Ishirô Honda

Ishirô Honda directed "Godzilla" (1954) and most of the "Godzilla" movies thereafter. In addition, he directed "Varan the Unbelievable" for Toho Films. The picture's name in Japanese is "Daikaiju Baran" which means "Giant Monster Varan." A decade after the film's release, Honda expressed disappointment in it. Having begun filming as a made-for-television movie and then switching to a theatrical film mid-shooting damaged this picture beyond repair, from his perspective.

Answer: acting

Edmund Gwenn (1877-1959) was an English actor who appeared on stage, on radio and on the screen. His most memorable role was as Kris Kringle in "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947). He rarely played in science fiction or horror films but did appear in "The Walking Dead" (1936) as a medical doctor who revives Boris Karloff after he is executed and in "Them!" (1954) as an academic expert on ants.

Answer: Lapland, Northern Sweden

"Invasion of the Animal People" was a Swedish-American project set in Lapland in the far north of Sweden, above the Arctic Circle. This is the land of the indigenous Sámi people who appear throughout the film. All of the location scenes were filmed in Lapland (which creates its own set of chilly difficulties for camera operators).

Answer: to readily recoup his investment

Professor Jarrod, played by Vincent Price, and Matthew Burke, played by Roy Roberts, were equal business partners in a wax museum. Burke needs a return on his investment and urges Jarrod to create more lurid scenes as a sort of chamber of horrors. Burke proposes to burn the place down and split the $25,000 insurance policy they carry. Jarrod dissents.