Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 165 Trivia Quiz

Answer: a resurrected mummy and a cyborg

The evil criminal scientist Dr Krupp has been defeated by the Aztec mummy Popoca twice before. He invents what he calls "El Robot Humano" but which is, in fact, a cyborg in that it has a metal body topped with a human head. This cyborg has steel claws which can burn an adversary with electric shocks. The human head atop the mechanical body contains a human brain which is regulated by a remote control device possessed by Dr Krupp. Popoca is an Aztec mummy cursed to spend eternity guarding the tomb of his princess/lover and an Aztec treasure entombed with her.

Answer: Day of the Morlocks

In "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), Michael Rennie played a humanoid alien named Klaatu. (Hence the classic phrase "Gort, Klaatu barada nikto!") In "The Day the Sky Exploded" (1958), Paul Hubschmid plays John MacLaren, a United Nations astronaut launched into space from Australia. In "Day the World Ended" (1955), Richard Denning, who starred in Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), plays Rick, the geologist.

The horrid race of the Morlocks was first imagined by author H.G. Wells in his novel "The Time Machine" (1985). K.W. Jeter's novel "Morlock Night" (1979) has the Morlocks time-travelling to Victorian England. It would not have made much semantic sense to call a movie "Day of the Morlocks" because the Morlock's intense sensitivity to light prevents them from attacking during the day.

Answer: Artie's thinking machine named Max

After Artie Pinsetter's thinking machine demonstrates its ability to function as a time machine, Artie decides it must be just as able to restore his fiancée Emmy Lou to her original non-gigantic size. Max successfully shrinks her but unfortunately Artie's dog Corporal is simultaneously enlarged to the size of a giant.

Answer: True

Whitman appears in "When Worlds Collide" in a small role as one of the rioters seen near the bank. He thereafter appeared in numerous horror and science-fiction films including "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), "City Beneath the Sea" (1971), "Revenge!" (1971), "Night of the Lepus" (1972) (the one about the giant killer bunnies), "The Cat Creature" (1973), "Eaten Alive" (1976), "Demonoid" (1981), "The Monster Club" (1981), "Horror Safari" (1982), "Deadly Intruder" (1988), "Omega Cop" (1990), and "Sandman" (1993).

Answer: like a brave space pilot in the future

The scientist's remark relates to Dan Dare, a comic-book space-exploring hero popular in Britain in the 1950s. British illustrator-author Frank Hampson created Dan Dare in 1950. Dare is a space pilot and hero. He has appeared in comic books, newspaper comic strips, radio series, television series, and computer games. See Norman Wright and Mike Higgs, "The Dan Dare Dossier: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future" (Hawk Books, 1990).

Answer: Roger Corman

Roger Corman vacillated between making science-fiction and horror films, Western films, and films of especial interest to teenagers. Corman reports that he was solicited by special-effects creators Irving Block and Jack Rabin to shoot this Louis Goldman script.

They induced his participation by agreeing to do the special effects themselves. Rabin and Block were the special effects team on "Rocketship X-M" (1950), "Kronos" (1957), and "Invisible Boy" (1957). American International Pictures agreed to finance the movie; the budget was the largest Corman had ever enjoyed.

Despite the large special effects budget, Block and Rabin failed to produce what they had promised. Corman wrote "they had simply promised something they could not deliver". TV Guide described this motion picture as "one of the strangest films to emerge from the fertile imagination of Roger Corman".

Answer: American

Although all of the other scientists working on the space project at the Deanfield research facility are British, Doctor Mitchell, played by Howard Duff, is an American. It appears that the government of the United States has assigned Mitchell to the task group as a sort of long-term loan.

Answer: acting

Charlotte Austin was born in 1933 in Charlotte, North Carolina, and named after the city. She was the daughter of Gene Austin, a popular crooner and songwriter. She appeared in a number of musical motion pictures before turning to horror films, e.g. "Gorilla at Large" (1954), "The Man Who Turned to Stone" (1957), "Frankenstein 1970" (1958), and "The Bride and the Beast" (1958).

In that the beast in the latter film was a gorilla, Austin may have had a partiality to gorilla movies.

Answer: False

The setting of "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (1957) is intended to be modern (1957) middle-class America. In order to give the motion picture the sense that the events (exposure to radiation, exposure to insecticide) could happen to anyone anytime anywhere in the U.S., no locale is identified in order to depict any locale. The setting grows progressively smaller as Scott moves into a dollhouse and continues to shrink until he is too small even for that accommodation.

Answer: Their parts in the serial were edited out.

Eddie Parker, Michael Ferro, Buddy Roosevelt acted roles (more than one each) in the 12-part serial "King of the Rocket Men". When these 12 exciting episodes were condensed and abbreviated to create the 65-minute feature film "Lost Planet Airmen", much of the action and some of the actors were edited out.

Others (e.g. Tom Steele and David Sharpe) had fewer of their multiple roles seen in the shortened feature.