Pick the Original Flick Trivia Quiz

Answer: "A Guy Named Joe" (1943)

"The Postman Always Rings Twice" was remade in 1981 under the same title about a drifter hired by a couple who own a roadside cafe. The drifter and the wife have an affair and plot to kill the husband. "You Can't Take It With You" has been remade several times under the same title (based on the play) about a family of eccentrics. "Always" (1985) is about a married couple spending a weekend together before they get a divorce. "A Guy Named Joe" is about a dead pilot who comes back as a ghost.

In the remake the romance is played up, while in the original he came back more because he had a duty to the war effort (the remake had firefighter pilots).

Answer: "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941)

"Down to Earth" is actually a sequel to "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" where a greek goddess comes down to Earth to change a play she finds offensive. "Only Angels Have Wings" is a romantic comedy about daredevil postal pilots in South America. "It's A Wonderful Life" is about a suicidal man given a chance to see how horrible his town would be if he'd never been born. "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" is about a guy who is taken to heaven before his time and since his own body was cremated he is given another. The play it's based on is called "Heaven Can Wait" and it was remade again in 2001 as "Down to Earth."

Answer: Not a remake

"Bride of the Gorilla" is about a voodoo curse that turns a groom into a gorilla. "Father's Little Dividend" is the sequel to "Father of the Bride" (1950), but "Father of the Bride II" (1995), while being the sequel to the remake "Father of the Bride" (1991) is not a remake of "Father's Little Dividend."

Answer: "The Big Clock" (1948)

"Sleuth" is about two men who play mind games with one another over a woman. "Stalag 17" and "The Great Escape" are both about German POW camps ("Stalag 17" was not the inspiration for the TV show "Hogan's Heroes" as is rumored, a decision that was held up in court). "The Big Clock" is about a guy framed for murder and what he must do to clear his name. "No Way Out" put it in a military setting, adding a new level of urgency and throwing in a twist ending for good measure.

Answer: "Yojimbo" (1961)

"Somebody Up There Likes Me" is about boxer, Rocky Graziano. "The Last Angry Man" is about a cranky doctor who becomes the subject of a TV show. "A Fistful of Dollars" is actually a remake of "Yojimbo" and so is "Last Man Standing." "Yojimbo" is a Japanese Samurai movie that paid homage to American westerns and was then remade into the Italian western with an American star. "Sanjuro" (1962) was the sequel to "Yojimbo." "A Fistful of Dollars" had "For A Few Dollars More" (1965) and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966) as it's sequels though unrelated to the Samurai sequel.

Incidentally, "Yojimbo" was based on the novel "Red Harvest" by American crime writer Dashiell Hammett though uncredited.

Answer: "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948)

"The Looters" is about a rescue team looking for survivors of a plane crash and finding cash among the debris. "The Lavender Hill Mob" is a comedy about a clerk that robs his own bank. "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" is about the hijacking of a subway train (it was remade for TV in 1998). "Trespass" is about a map, a treasure and the obstacles along the way, just like the original. "Trespass" was originally called "Looters" but it came out right after the L.A. riots and so the name was changed prior to release.

Answer: "Out of the Past" (1947)

"Never Give a Sucker An Even Break" is a W.C. Fields comedy. "Winning" is a auto racing drama. "Double Indemnity" is about a plot to make a murder look accidental for the double insurance clause. "Out of the Past" and "Against All Odds" are about someone looking for a missing woman only to fall in love with her at peril to his own life.

The original is a classic of film noir while the remake gave rise to a very colorful Phil Collins music video.

Answer: "La Cage Aux Folles" (1978)

"Girls Just Want To Have Fun" is a comedy about a dance show on tv and the girls who want to get on it. "Where the Boys Are" is about a group of girls on spring break. It was remade into "Where the Boys Are '84" (I'll let you guess what year that came out). "La Cage Aux Folles" is also known as "Birds of a Feather" though I believe "The Cage of the Gays" may be the literal meaning, loosely translated.

It's about future inlaws that meet for the first time. The father of the groom lives with his gay lover above the transvestite club they own.

The groom asks that they conceal all this from the in-laws. Hyjinx ensue.

Answer: "Point Blank" (1967)

"House of Games" is about a woman who gets duped by a con man and what she does about it. "The Trouble With Harry" is a Hitchcock comedy (yep, Hitchcock comedy!) about a dead body. "Hang 'Em High" is a western about revenge for an unwarranted and unsuccessful lynching. "Point Blank" and "Payback" are both based on the novel "The Hunter" also about revenge, but this time over a double-cross.

Answer: "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935)

"The Bounty Hunter" is about a guy hired to find a gang of murderous train robbers. "Wanted: Dead or Alive" is about a gang who break criminals out of jail only to kill them for the reward money. "Hunt the Man Down" is about a murder trial and the race to find witnesses to clear the defendent's name. "Mutiny on the Bounty" is about the real-adventures of a British ship and its tyrannical captain.

The crew removes him from his post and sets him adrift on the ocean. He survives and makes it back home only to bring charges against the men formerly under his command.

There is also a 1962 version based on the historic case.