Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 141 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Boris Karloff

Dr. Meissen is Count Carl von Bruno's personal physician. He overhears Ronald and Elga declare their love for each other, does not inform the Count of his wife's infidelity, and prevents Count Steiken from revealing it to Count von Bruno. He tells Ronald that Count von Bruno plans to kill his wife Elga. Ronald and Elga end up in a dungeon (with which all Austrian castles are equipped). Dr. Meissen gives them a drug which causes them to appear to be dead but the Count is not fooled, kills Meissen, and attempts to bury Ronal and Elga alive. By all accounts, Karloff brought a great deal to this role and was very helpful to Nathan Juran, the art director who became director for the first time on this film.

Answer: Gorgon the Unknown

"Unknown World" (1951), also known as "Night Without Stars", is a journey-to-the-centre-of the-Earth sort of movie. "The Creeping Unknown" (1955), also known as "The Quatermass Xperiment", is an astronaut-who-returns-from-space-with-a-mutating-parasite sort of movie. "Giant from the Unknown" (1958), also known as "Giant from Devil's Crag" and as "The Diablo Giant", is a resurrected-500-year-old-homicidal-giant sort of movie.

Actor Peter Cushing starred in a motion picture called "The Gorgon" in 1965. Author Alex Hunter published the novel "Gorgon" in 2014 as part of a ten-volume series. Author John North published a YA novel titled "Gorgon - the Crimson Witch" in 2021. Director John Carpenter released a short (5 minutes) movie called "Gorgon, the Space Monster" in 1969. Nobody appears to have made a feature film called "Gorgon the Unknown" in the 1950s.

Answer: electrocution

Dynamite detonated at the spider cave's entrance does not kill the spider. The DDT sprayed inside the spider's cave immobilises the spider for a time but it revives. Gunfire apparently has no effect on it. Electricity is tapped from power lines, the spider is electrocuted, and falls onto the stalagmites below it, impaling itself and dying.

Answer: Ed Nelson

Nelson's role in "Teenage Cave Man" is little more than that of an extra in a play or a spear carrier in an opera. He is one of several young, good looking men whose bare muscular chests are on continuous display throughout the film. Nelson (1928-2014) acted in many B movies: "Swamp Woman" (1956), "Invasion of the Saucer Men" (1957), "Attack of the Crab Monsters" (1957), "Night of the Blood Beast" (1958), "The Brain Eaters" (1958), and "A Bucket of Blood" (1959).

Answer: He was exposed to meteorite dust.

When the canopy over the cockpit of the Y-13 shatters, the pilot is covered in meteorite dust. This forms an encrustation which protects him but also alters his blood chemistry. His brain is starved for oxygen so he must consume oxygen-rich blood to stay alive.

Answer: Yes

The producer, Abel Salazar, the director, Fernando Méndez, and the screenwriter, Ramon Obon, all of whom made "El vampiro" in 1957, collaborated to make a sequel. The 1958 sequel, titled "El ataud del vampiro" (The Vampire's Coffin), starred German Robles as Count Karol de Lavud, Ariadne Welter as Marta, and Abel Salazar as Dr. Enrique, which were their original roles.

Answer: Christian minister / disintegrated

The Rev. Dr. Matthew Collins is a minister of the Gospel, played by Lewis Martin. He lives with his niece Sylvia van Buren, played by Ann Robinson. Pastor Collins attempts to make contact with the aliens, but he is disintegrated by them. Pastor Collins is a pacifist, distressed by the bellicose reception of the landing aliens. Disregarding instructions not to approach the cylinders, Pastor Collins heroically attempts to contact the invaders.

He recites Psalm 23 ("The Lord is my shepherd") as he walks toward the spacecraft.

The Martians turn one of their death rays on him, and he dies a martyr's death.

Answer: acting

Edwin Stafford Nelson (1928-2014) acted using the name Ed Nelson. He is probably best known for playing Dr. Michael Rossi on the American television programme "Peyton Place" (1964-1969). He worked in radio and also did stunt work for Roger Corman in numerous B-movie horror films, e.g. "Swamp Women" (1956), "Attack of the Crab Monsters" (1957), "Night of the Blood Beast" (1958), "Teenage Cave Man" (1958), and "A Bucket of Blood" (1959).

He both acted in and produced "The Brain Eaters" (1958). Other films in which he had acting credits were "Invasion of the Saucer Men" (1957), "She Gods of Shark Reef" (1958), "Night of the Blood Beast" (1958), "Devil's Partner" (1962), "The Screaming Woman" (1972), and "The Boneyard" (1991).

Answer: from the North Pole to Washington, DC

While not a "road movie" in the sense of "Sideways" (2004) "Wild Strawberries"(1957), or "Easy Rider" (1969), "The Deadly Mantis" follows an adventure which begins at the North Pole, continues through Red Eagle One (a DEW Line military outpost in northern Canada), southward to Washington, DC.

The premise is that a gigantic praying mantis with a hunger for human flesh finds prey more plentiful in southern climes.

Answer: a panther

William Fitzgerald discovers that Dr. Charles Girard is repeatedly operating on a panther in an attempt to "advance" it to human form. There being no panthers native to South Pacific islands, Fitzgerald discovers that Girard purchased the panther from a dealer who sells wild animals to circuses and zoos.

The result of over fifty such surgeries is a human-shaped creature with cat's eyes, cat's ears, and whiskers and a predilection for killing humans. The only person on the island safe from the panther-man appears to be Frances Girard who has been kind to him/it.