Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 127 Trivia Quiz

Answer: a stake through the heart and burning

Duval fights with Enrique over the body of the unconscious Marta. Duval has a sword; Enrique has a torch. Duval slices the burning end off the torch which ignites the curtains. Duval dives into his coffin as the cock crows but Maria Teresa opens the lid and pounds a stake through the count's heart. The room is in flames which engulf the vampire's coffin.

Answer: Monster from Beneath the Ice

"The Monster That Challenged the World" (1957) is about man-eating sea snails crawling out of California's Salton Sea. "How to Make a Monster" (1958) is about a mad Hollywood make-up artist who controls actors in monster make-up to commit crimes. "The Astounding She-Monster" (1957) is about a female blonde alien wearing a skin-tight leotard who lands in the San Gabriel Mountains.

The 1982 remade movie "The Thing" included this radio distress call from Antarctica "Mayday ... mayday ... can anyone hear me, over? This is US Station 31; can you read me? We found something in the ice. We need some help down here. Can anybody hear me? We found something ... we found something ... we found something ..." There does not appear to have been a 1950s motion picture named "Monster from Beneath the Ice."

Answer: giant leeches

In the Everglades of southern Florida, a pair of novel creatures begin destroying all of the wildlife in the swamp. Having depleted the water of fish and the bayou of alligators, these monsters turn their attention to humans. The bodies of their victims are marked with round welts like those left by the tentacles of a squid or octopus. And their bodies are drained of blood.

They apparently drag victims to the underwater entrance to their cave where they slowly feed on their blood. These human-sized creatures are mutated leeches.

The two actors who portrayed these leeches -- Guy Buccola and Ross Sturlin -- dressed in sack-like costumes made of black plastic raincoat material to which white "suckers" were attached.

Answer: Vera Day

English actress Vera Day (b. 1935) appeared in motion pictures and on television. Beginning as a model, she won small parts in singing and dancing movies. She played many parts as a blonde bombshell. Her appearances in horror and science fiction movies were few: "Quatermass 2" (1957), "The Woman Eater" (1958), and "The Haunted Strangler" (1958). She is the endangered damsel in "The Woman Eater" who is rescued by her suitor Jack Venner, played by Peter Wayn.

Answer: Piltdown Man was a hoax and a fraud.

In the early 1950s, it became the consensus of the scientific community that the Piltdown Man was a fake. The Bulletin of the Natural History Museum (British) said it was "a most elaborate and carefully prepared hoax." The society to which he presented his theories cannot be blamed for rejecting his ideas and expelling him from their collegium.

Answer: Yes

Cannon Pictures produced a remake of "Invaders from Mars" in 1986. Tobe Hooper directed. The cast included Karen Black, Hunter Carson, Timothy Bottoms, and Laraine Newman (who had played an alien in the Coneheads sketches on "Saturday Night Live"). The child star of the 1953 product, Jimmy Hunt, played the role of the police chief in the remake.

He and Officer Keeney climb a sandhill in the 1986 movie and he says to the officer "Gee, I haven't been up here since I was a kid." The US Army soldiers are replaced in the remake by US Marines. Young David's school is named the W.C. Menzies School as an homage to William Cameron Menzies, the director of the 1953 film.

Answer: a fanged creature which bites people's necks

Kindly Dr. Paul Beecher, played by John Beal, is a physician. He accidentally takes pills, invented by his friend and colleague Dr. Matthew J. Campbell, played by Wood Romoff (1918-1998). Campbell was studying aggression in lower animals. The pills contained an extract of the blood of vampire bats. Taking one by accident addicted Dr. Beecher and turned him into a hairy fanged beast. His bite dissolved the surrounding flesh of his victims. He cannot remember what he has done.

While this monster displays some vampiric qualities, he is a rationally, scientifically explicable creature. There are none of the cinematic conventions: crucifixes, garlic, holy water, running water, coffins with dirt in them, no reflection/no shadow, the ability to turn into a bat. Even in his creature mode, Paul Beecher walks around in full sunlight.

Answer: acting

Robert Cornthwaite (1917-2006) distinguished himself as an actor in film and on American television. He was born in Saint Helens, Oregon. After his service in World War II, he began to portray scientists, doctors, lawyers and other educated people in movies. Howard Hawks cast him as Dr. Arthur Carrington in "The Thing from Another World" (1951), a challenging role which led to his induction into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 1993.

Other horror and science fiction motion pictures in his filmography include "The War of the Worlds" (1953), "Reptilicus" (1961), "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962), "Colossus: The Forbin Project" (1970), "Futureworld" (1976), "Time Trackers" (1989) and "The Naked Monster" (2005).

Answer: an uncharted tropical island

The premise of "She Demons" is that a private ship, the Valpaso, sinks in Hurricane Emily. Four survivors make it ashore on an uncharted tropical island: Jerrie Turner, explorer Fred Maklin, radioman Sammy Ching, and local pilot Kris Kamara. Filming took place at Ferndale, California, at Griffith Park, Los Angeles, and at Paradise Cove Pier in Malibu, California, all doubling for the jungly fictional island.

Answer: Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)

In "The Thing That Couldn't Die," a young woman dowsing for water discovers a 16th century chest containing the living head of Gideon Drew, executed and decapitated for sorcery. Drew's head has telepathic powers with which to control others. In "The Brain that Wouldn't Die," a mad scientist's fiancée is decapitated in a sports car accident.

He keeps her head alive in a pan of liquid. "The Head" was made in West Germany under the title "Die Nackte und der Satan" ("The Naked and Satan"). Yet another mad scientist takes Dr. Abel's head and keeps it alive in a solution called Serum Z. "Creature with the Atom Brain" is a zombie movie. Mad German scientist Wilhelm Steigg reanimates the dead which renders them radioactive and subject to his control.