Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 154 Trivia Quiz

Answer: a giant native Rarámuri woman

The uranium deposits in the valley are intensely radioactive and cause animals of all sorts to grow to unusual size. The search party witnesses a giant raptor (Bradford calls it a hawk) kill a giant rodent. They see a fight between a giant iguana and a giant lizard.

There are giant insects, giant spiders, and giant snakes. While there are indigenous people called Rarámuri who live in the Tarahumara Mountains, none of them, male or female, appeared to be enlarged in this movie.

Answer: The Beast from Outer Space

"Beast from Haunted Cave" (1959) is a giant cave-dwelling spider with a taste for human flesh and blood. "The Beast of Hollow Mountain" (1956) is a giant dinosaur with a taste for Mexican cattle. "The Bride and the Beast" (1958) is about a woman who was a gorilla in her former life and leaves her present-day human husband to take up with a gorilla in the jungle.

While there does not appear to have been a 1950s feature-length motion picture called "The Beast from Outer Space", there was a short (15-minute) film called "Return of the Beast from Outer Space" (2021). Director Max Ward also wrote the script. The film was shot in Wales. It was shown at the 2021 Interrobang Film Festival in Des Moines, Iowa.

Answer: all of these things

When the boys first arrive on Venus, they are attacked by an enormous fire-breathing spider from which they flee. Leaping off a cliff to escape, they find a talking unicorn with its horn stuck in some rocks. The unicorn leads them to the outskirts of a city made of nothing but electrical energy.

The city is run by a sentient computer who says he is the master of the world. The computer/robot shrinks the boys, imprisons them in a birdcage, and makes lifelike robot replicas of them.

Answer: James Mason

Almost from the conception of the 1959 filming of "Journey to the Center of the Earth", Clifton Webb was set to be cast as Professor Sir Oliver Lindenbrook. Webb was excited about playing the part, up to the moment, a fortnight before shooting was to begin, when he went into hospital for an examination, which discovered a double hernia. That major surgery took him out of the cast.

The physical demands of playing Sir Oliver were clearly too great. James Mason, who had performed as Captain Nemo in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954), was available and accepted the part at the last minute.

Answer: The Black Ghost turns her into an undead spectre.

Sheila knows that Karl is not a real psychic and, obviously, that she is not a real ghost. She plays the part of the White Ghost to scare people away from the lake house and to impress the victims of Karl's scams. When the police arrive, Karl and Sheila attempt to flee through the mortuary room.

A group of undead men detain Karl there, but Sheila escapes. Outdoors, she meets the Black Ghost, who is not an imposter. The Black Ghost uses hypnotic powers to lure Sheila into the mist and tells her that it is her time to join the others among the dead.

The film ends with Sheila transformed into a real White Ghost.

Answer: It was inspired by a Jules Verne novel.

While "Unknown World" was made from scratch, there can be little doubt that it was inspired by Jules Verne's "Voyage au centre de la Terre"/"Journey to the Centre of the Earth" (1867). Both stories begin with a discovered entrance to the lower Earth in a northern volcanic location: Iceland in the novel; Alaska in the film. Both stories include the discovery of an ocean underground. Both stories conclude with an escape from the centre of the Earth which is both unanticipated and quick.

Answer: False

Some sources insist that "The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock" is the only motion picture in which Lou Costello appeared without his comedy teammate Bud Abbott. This is untrue as Costello appeared as a stuntman (he was a former boxer) and extra in the late 1920s. Abbott and Costello became a twosome in 1935 burlesque and made their first picture together in 1940.

Filming of "The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock" occurred 3 through 22 December of 1958. Nine weeks later, on 28 February 1959, Costello had a heart attack. A second myocardial infarction occurred in hospital on 4 March 1959 ended his life. Nine weeks after completing the film, Lou collapsed of a heart attack on February 28, 1959. He was hospitalised and seemed to be improving when a second attack on March 4 claimed him. "The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock" was released on 8 August 1959.

Answer: directing

Monte Hellman (1929-2021) was a theatrical director before he met Roger Corman. His first motion picture as a director was "Beast from Haunted Cave" (1959). He went on to distinguish himself as a producer, writer and film editor. He directed Jack Nicholson in both "The Shooting" (1966) and "Ride in the Whirlwind" (1966).

He also directed "Two-Lane Blacktop" (1971). He was the second-unit director on "RoboCop" (1987). He was an executive producer on Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" (1992).

Answer: a boarding school in Surrey, England

Meba lands in Surrey in South East England. The Venusian alien meets and is, in some sense, adopted by four residential school students there. There is a brief sojourn to London but all the good stuff takes place in the English countryside.

Answer: the director himself, his family and friends

"The Hideous Sun Demon" (1959) was written, directed, and produced by Robert Clarke, who also played the lead in the motion picture. He recruited his film crew from students at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. Without an adequate budget, Clarke recruited his cast from his family, his in-laws, and family friends.

He took the lead role himself. Clarke's sister-in-law, Marilyn King, a member of The King Sisters, was set to play Trudy Osborne -- a voluptuous pianist-chanteuse -- but could not, due to advanced pregnancy. Suzy, the little girl who befriends Gil, was played by Xandra Conkling, the daughter of Clarke's wife's sister.

His mother-in-law Pearl Driggs had a small part as the woman on the hospital roof (uncredited).

His nephew was cast as a newsboy. The voice of the radio announcer was provided by Del Courtney, his sister's fiancé.