Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 134 Trivia Quiz

Answer: a praying mantis of unusually great size

The first clue to the creature's size was what turned out to be a five-foot-long spur torn from its front leg. By extrapolation, that suggested a mantis 200 feet long. By tracking sightings, in order to get from one to another, it must fly 200 miles per hour. Dr. Nedrick 'Ned' Jackson says it is carnivorous, unlike grasshoppers and crickets.

This is untrue; both grasshoppers and crickets are omnivores. The studio built a papier mâché model (200 feet long, 40 feet high, with a 150 foot wingspan) and hydraulically operated legs. Probably the best monster scenes are of an actual live praying mantis climbing a tiny model of the Washington Monument.

Answer: Vampires in Space

"It! The Terror From Beyond Space" (1958) starred Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith (Shirley Patterson), and Kim Spalding. "Killers from Space" (1954) starred Peter Graves and Barbara Bestar. "Phantom from Space" (1953) starred Ted Cooper and Noreen Nash.

Prolific British novelist Colin Wilson wrote the novel "The Space Vampires" in 1976; it was adapted to make the motion picture "Lifeforce" in 1985. Kerry Nietz' novel "Amish Vampires in Space" (2014) has not (yet) been made into a movie. "Vampires in Space" was a walk-through immersive exhibition of film, poetry and sound by Pedro Neves Marques which occupied a complete floor of La Biennale di Venezia in 2022 where it was first presented. The novella "Vampires in Space" (2013) was written by Jax E. Garson. The film "Teenage Space Vampires" was made in Romania in 1999. There does not appear to have been a theatrical movie made in the '50s called "Vampires in Space".

Answer: volcanic eruption and pyroclastic flow

The Neanderthals attack but are driven off by the airmen's small-arms fire. In anticipation of another attack, pilot Steve Holloway proposes to lead the women up to their mountain temple, which is more easily defended. As they approach the mountain (which is actually a volcano), it begins to erupt explosively and lava streams down in all directions.

The dinosaurs are killed. The giant armadillos are killed. The man-eating philodendron is killed. The Neanderthals are killed. All of the women are killed.

The two surviving members of the air crew are killed. Only Steve escapes in their raft.

Answer: himself/the narrator

Jeron Criswell King (1907-1982) used the stage name The Amazing Criswell. He was a flamboyant psychic on the radio, television, magazines, books and movies. He was the personal psychic to Mae West and shared a studio with Maila Nurmi ("Vampira"). In "Night of the Ghouls", Criswell frames the movie by appearing in a prologue and an epilogue.

At the start, he rises from a coffin and relates a story about the living and the dead. It is unclear whether he is using a coffin as a comfortable place for a nap or if he is rising from the dead.

This issue is resolved near the end of the motion picture. Criswell returns to his coffin at the film's conclusion. He says it is time for the formerly dead and the newly dead to return to their graves. He then reminds the audience that they, too, may be joining them soon.

Answer: "The Fly" (1958)

In "Beginning of the End", agricultural scientist Peter Graves battles giant grasshoppers who grew large by eating giant vegetables he created using radiation. In "Them!", Los Angeles is saved from giant ants made large by the radiation from nuclear bomb testing. In "The Deadly Mantis", a giant prehistoric praying mantis is thawed out of its imprisoning ice at the North Pole and goes on a human-eating rampage. There is no giant bug in "The Fly". A scientist's molecules get scrambled up with a common house fly's molecules resulting in a grotesque hybrid.

The formula for a Big-Bug Movie appears to be this: an ordinary insect of ordinary size + nuclear radiation = a carnivorous bug of gigantic size. A scholarly look at this is afforded by William M. Tsutsui, "Looking Straight at 'Them!' Understanding the Big Bug Movies of the 1950s" (April 2007). Environmental History. 12 (2): 237-253.

Answer: Hammer Films

Hammer Films was a small filmmaking concern until it scored a major success with "The Curse of Frankenstein". This was followed quickly with "Dracula" (1958) and "The Mummy" (1959). Much of their success was built upon the work of director Terence Fisher and actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. The horror films produced by Hammer became a model for Gothic scary cinema for decades.

Answer: True

The resin model of the Sun Demon was produced in 1988. Resin From the Grave is a British company which produces kits from which resin models of movie monsters can be constructed, including Gorgo, Son of Frankenstein, the Werewolf of London, Monster of Piedras Blancas, and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Answer: directing

Ib Jergen Melchior (1917-2015) was a Danish-American filmmaker with credits for writing, producing and directing motion pictures. He both wrote and directed "The Angry Red Planet" (1959) and "The Time Travellers" (1964). He wrote scripts for "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" (1964), "Reptilicus" (1961), "Journey to the Seventh Planet" (1962), and "Planet of the Vampires" (1965). Melchior claimed to have conceived the idea for the "Lost in Space" television series but, when denied credit by the producers, he crafted the comic book series "Space Family Robinson" (1962 to 1982). See Robert Skotak, "Ib Melchior: Man of Imagination" (2009) and David C. Hayes, "Return To The Angry Red Planet", "Planet X Magazine", October 2000, Vol. 1 No. 4.

Answer: a small island off the coast of Peru

A petroleum engineer, William Fitzgerald, played by Richard Derr, is on board the freighter Pedro Queen when the ship explodes. Fitzgerald's lifeboat washes ashore on Isla de Sangre, a small island off the coast of Peru. The rolling credits of the movie say it was filmed in Manila in the Philippines. Exteriors were actually shot on Corregidor Island.

Answer: They die of radiation poisoning.

Dr. Loring places a sealed protective container filled with plutonium in the jeep. He intends to emplace this in the warhead of the Jove missile. The juvenile delinquent auto thieves foolishly open the box containing the plutonium. Plutonium is fissile and radioactive.

While exposure to it might not kill adolescent malefactors quite as quickly as it does in the movie, sufficient doses for a sufficient length of exposure are routinely terminal.