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Quiz about First Lady of the 30s Irene Dunne
Quiz about First Lady of the 30s Irene Dunne

First Lady of the 30s: Irene Dunne Quiz


Though fans often rated her as the most popular actress during the 30s, Irene Dunne isn't well known to later generations. Her films were so popular that an unusual number were remade, and so for decades, the originals were not available.

A multiple-choice quiz by RivkahChaya. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
RivkahChaya
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
377,684
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
253
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. Though she frequently portrayed aristocrats from the Eastern United States, Irene was from the mid-West. Much of her childhood was spent in the south, and she thought of herself as a Southerner. What state was she originally from? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. In "Penny Serenade", Irene Dunne and Cary Grant play a couple who lose a child, then adopt a baby girl who later dies of influenza. What about this film was very personal for Dunne? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Irene Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for best Actress without winning. Even winning actresses do not usually collect that many nominations. One nomination was for only the second film she had ever made, a pre-Hays code film, where she plays a frontierswoman in a tumultuous relationship with her difficult husband. What film is it? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. The 1963 Doris Day-James Garner film "Move Over, Darling", is about a woman who returns home to her husband and now school-aged children, after being stranded on an island for 7 years. It is a nearly shot-for-shot remake of a 1940 screwball comedy starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. What was the name of the 1940 film? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Irene Dunne remained so youthful-looking in middle age, that when she was fifty, playing a character in her late 40s, she needed age make-up to play the mother of four teenagers. The film she was in was based on Kathryn Forbes' reminiscences of her life as the daughter of immigrants. What was the film? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Irene Dunne made only one film in color, using a three-color process (the process nearly every color film since 1935 has used). It is set in New York in the late 1800s, and she co-stars with William Powell, who plays her demanding, financier husband, and father of her four sons. It is based on the New Yorker series by Clarence Day, Jr., who writes that his father tried to run the house as efficiently as he ran his business, but his mother still really was the one in charge. What was the film? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. This 1937 screwball comedy, which opens with a couple contemplating divorce, then follows their escapades as they interfere in each others new romances, and fight for custody of their dog, swept the Academy Awards, with six nominations. The only award it won, however, was Best Director for Leo McCarey. The nominations included Best Actress for Dunne, and the film had been broadly predicted to be the one that won her the award; again, she did not win. What was the film? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Although she never won an Academy Award, Dunne won many other awards. But, along with the Oscar, what did she also NEVER win? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Dunne was a classically trained singer, and managed to work a song into most of her films. What was one film where she did NOT sing? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. After she retired from films, she was appointed a special US delegate to the United Nations. Which president appointed her? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Though she frequently portrayed aristocrats from the Eastern United States, Irene was from the mid-West. Much of her childhood was spent in the south, and she thought of herself as a Southerner. What state was she originally from?

Answer: Kentucky

Irene Dunne was born in Louisville, Kentucky, where her father was a riverboat inspector. She often rode the riverboats as far south as Mississippi, and as a result, when called upon, could produce a flawless Southern accent, which she did for the film "Show Boat", among others.

She also lived for a while in Madison, Indiana, on the Kentucky border, just across the river from Louisville.
2. In "Penny Serenade", Irene Dunne and Cary Grant play a couple who lose a child, then adopt a baby girl who later dies of influenza. What about this film was very personal for Dunne?

Answer: Her only child was an adopted child.

Cary Grant was married five times, but never to Irene Dunne. She was married only once, to a dentist who was far-removed from the Hollywood life. Her marriage lasted from 1928 until his death in 1965.

Her daughter, Mary Frances, called Missy, was never in the limelight, like many Hollywood children. Dunne adopted her outside of California because she "dreaded the reporters and cameramen who would wait for us outside the Judge's chambers." As a teenager, Missy went to a girls' boarding school outside Hollywood, with a reputation for strong academics, and stronger values. Mary Frances Griffin has written short, fond reminiscences of her mother, and no tell-all books along the lines of "Mommy Dearest".

Although Dunne was a private person, who never shared the reason for choosing to adopt, she is not known to have ever been pregnant, and she never lost a living child.
3. Irene Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for best Actress without winning. Even winning actresses do not usually collect that many nominations. One nomination was for only the second film she had ever made, a pre-Hays code film, where she plays a frontierswoman in a tumultuous relationship with her difficult husband. What film is it?

Answer: Cimarron

Without winning, Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award, and all the nominations were for Best Actress. She was nominated for these films in the following years: "Cimarron" (1931), "Theodora Goes Wild" (1936), "The Awful Truth" (1937), "Love Affair" (1939) and "I Remember Mama" (1948).

One reason Dunne never won despite her immense popularity with the public, and her talent at both comedy and drama, was the fact that she bucked the studio system, and was a free-lance performer for much of her career, rather than a contract player. Thus, she didn't have the studio backing to campaign for her in the months leading up to each voting, and she wasn't popular with many of the executives who did some of the voting.

"Cimarron" is based on an Edna Ferber novel, and in spite of being made during the Depression, was a very big budget film, which earned back its investment very quickly after immediate positive reviews. It took seven Oscar nominations, with three wins, but neither Dunne, nor her co-star Richard Dix, also nominated, won.
4. The 1963 Doris Day-James Garner film "Move Over, Darling", is about a woman who returns home to her husband and now school-aged children, after being stranded on an island for 7 years. It is a nearly shot-for-shot remake of a 1940 screwball comedy starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. What was the name of the 1940 film?

Answer: My Favorite Wife

This film is loosely based on the epic poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Enoch Arden". There were previous filmings of "Enoch Arden", notably one by DW Griffith. Tennyson is said to have based his poem on the myth of Odysseus, in a reversal of the faithful wife who waited for him. However, there was a true event in Medieval France, known as "The Return of Martin Guerre", which may also have influenced Tennyson.

"My Favorite Wife" came out in 1940, the same year Jean Arthur and Fred MacMurray made a film called "Too Many Husbands", another version of the story, and also a comedy, whereas previous versions had always, like the Tennyson poem, been tragedies. "My Favorite Wife" was far more successful.

In 1940, Irene Dunne was still a bigger star than Cary Grant, and gets top billing.
5. Irene Dunne remained so youthful-looking in middle age, that when she was fifty, playing a character in her late 40s, she needed age make-up to play the mother of four teenagers. The film she was in was based on Kathryn Forbes' reminiscences of her life as the daughter of immigrants. What was the film?

Answer: I Remember Mama

Irene Dunne was not the first choice for the role -- it was initially offered to Greta Garbo as a comeback role, but she was not interested in a comeback. Marlene Dietrich actively campaigned for the role, but was not considered maternal enough.

Dunne also wore padding to make herself look heavier for the role, and studied with a dialect coach for several months. She was said to speak in the Norwegian dialect even when not rehearsing, just to immerse herself in the role.
6. Irene Dunne made only one film in color, using a three-color process (the process nearly every color film since 1935 has used). It is set in New York in the late 1800s, and she co-stars with William Powell, who plays her demanding, financier husband, and father of her four sons. It is based on the New Yorker series by Clarence Day, Jr., who writes that his father tried to run the house as efficiently as he ran his business, but his mother still really was the one in charge. What was the film?

Answer: Life with Father

"Leathernecking" (1930), her film debut, had some scenes that were filmed using a two-color process, but none of them survive.

Many people were surprised to find out that Irene Dunne actually had very deep blue, almost violet eyes (like Audrey Hepburn or Elizabeth Taylor), because they were so dark, they looked brown in black and white films.
7. This 1937 screwball comedy, which opens with a couple contemplating divorce, then follows their escapades as they interfere in each others new romances, and fight for custody of their dog, swept the Academy Awards, with six nominations. The only award it won, however, was Best Director for Leo McCarey. The nominations included Best Actress for Dunne, and the film had been broadly predicted to be the one that won her the award; again, she did not win. What was the film?

Answer: The Awful Truth

"The Awful Truth" shockingly lost Best Picture to "The Life of Emile Zola" and Irene Dunne lost Best Actress to Luise Rainer in "The Good Earth", proving again the well-known but often ignored truism that comedies rarely win awards, despite their popularity.

Irene Dunne starred in the original version of "Magnificent Obsession". Her performance here was not nominated; however, when Jane Wyman starred in the 1954 remake, she received a nomination, although she did not win. In retrospect, many critics consider the original version of the film to be superior though, and Dunne's performance much better than Wyman's.
8. Although she never won an Academy Award, Dunne won many other awards. But, along with the Oscar, what did she also NEVER win?

Answer: a Golden Globe

The Golden Globe Awards have been around since 1944, but that was still later than most of Dunne's greatest pictures; still, having a star on the Walk of Fame, and a Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award, ensure her a spot among the truly great film performers of all time.
9. Dunne was a classically trained singer, and managed to work a song into most of her films. What was one film where she did NOT sing?

Answer: Ann Vickers

"Ann Vickers" is one of Dunne's issues films, where she plays a prison reformer. It's based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis.

In "Love Affair", she sings a rendition of "Plaisir d'Amour".

It is interesting the way "Roberta" and "Joy of Living" are typically marketed. They both star Dunne, while "Roberta", a musical vehicle for Dunne, costars a very new and not yet well-known Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. However, DVDs of "Roberta" were usually packaged as "starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers", which is misleading. Even more misleading is the way DVDs of "Joy of Living" were packaged, and the way it is billed when it appears on television. Lucille Ball, who was not by any means a household name, has a minor role as Dunne's sister, but her name is usually listed first, and not Dunne's.

The song that Dunne sings in "Joy of Living" is a cute children's song to sing her twin nieces to sleep.
10. After she retired from films, she was appointed a special US delegate to the United Nations. Which president appointed her?

Answer: Eisenhower

Dunne was a lifetime Republican, and campaigned for Republican presidents and Republican causes. However, she was selected for her widespread appeal, and her dedication to civic causes, so she might have been appointed by a Democratic president. A Republican happened to be in office at the time of her retirement from films.

While she did campaign on behalf of Republican politicians, she also worked for a number of non-partisan civic causes, including restoration projects in her hometown, and many children's causes.

She was also in favor of integration and civil rights: in a hospital scene in a 1948 film, which is set in 1910, the children's ward of the hospital set shows children of all races. Dunne touches and comforts many of them, including some of the non-white children, although she is there to visit her own daughter. It was a very daring scene for its time. The political significance may be lost on later generations, but it is still a very poignant and lovely scene.
Source: Author RivkahChaya

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor skunkee before going online.
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