Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 178 Trivia Quiz

Answer: John Carter

Tarzan, the Ape Man, was first named John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke. The protagonist of Burrough's "Venus" series (four novels and a short-story collection) is Carson Napier. When writing for pulp magazines, Burroughs used the pseudonym Norman Bean. The novels in the "John Carter of Mars" series include: "A Princess of Mars", "The Gods of Mars", "The Warlord of Mars", "Thuvia, Maid of Mars", "The Chessmen of Mars", "The Master Mind of Mars", "A Fighting Man of Mars", "Swords of Mars", "Synthetic Men of Mars", "Llana of Gathol", and "John Carter of Mars" (which was published posthumously).

The opening credits to "It Came From Beneath the Sea" include the notice "The characters and incidents portrayed and the names used herein are fictitious, and any similarity to the name, character or history of any person is entirely accidental and unintentional." Maybe. The scientist John Carter is a marine biologist at Harvard University. He and Professor Lesley Joyce are dispatched to help identify the monster. Carter nearly loses his life trying to save the Golden Gate Bridge; he is rescued by Commander Pete Mathews. Carter then returns the favour, rescuing Mathews from the octopus in the film's culmination.

Answer: The Burbank Invaders

The feature-length movies "Invasion of the Animal People" (1959), "Invasion of the Saucer Men" (1957), and "Space Invasion of Lapland" (1959) are all actual, not-made-up, existent, and authentic motion pictures. "Invasion of the Animal People" was known in Sweden as "Rymdinvasion i Lappland" and "Terror in the Midnight Sun" in the U.S. "Invasion of the Saucer Men" (1957) was made in black-and-white whereas the remake "The Eye Creatures" or "Attack of the Eye Creatures" was made in colour. "Space Invasion of Lapland" (1959) is the same movie as the film called "Invasion of the Animal People" noted above.

On what some people call Black Friday, the Battle of Burbank was fought. The Conference of Studio Unions blocked the gates to Warner Brothers. The 800 members who congregated brought knives, bats, chains, and, pipes which they used to combat Los Angeles Police officers. Visitors note (and hear) the presence of many parrots in Burbank, California. The Los Angeles Times explains that this was the result of the parrot invasion. Some say these birds are the progeny of escapees from the Busch Gardens theme park (1966-1979); others claim that it began with a fire in a Pasadena bird farm and store in 1991. However, there does not appear to have been a 50s movie called "The Burbank Invaders".

Answer: A freeway accident reveals a truck full of pods.

In Jack Finney's novel, the aliens leave Earth after meeting strong resistance. In the motion picture, the pod people are sending truckloads of pods to other communities to spread the plague. Dr Bennett escapes to Los Angeles but is arrested and confined in a hospital psychiatric ward based on his unbelievable story. Psychiatrist Dr Hill, played by Whit Bissell, and the attending physician Commander Pete Mathews, Bassett, played by Richard Deacon, diagnose him as paranoid and delusional.

A truck driver is wheeled into the ER in serious condition from an MVA.

The report says he was dug out from under a truckload of giant pods coming from Santa Mira into Los Angeles. This confirms Dr Bennett's story. Dr Hill calls the local police to block the roads from Santa Mira and alerts the FBI. An exhausted Miles is much relieved.

Answer: Anton Diffring

Hammer Films wanted (and thought they had) Peter Cushing to play the role of the evil Dr. Bonnet. Six days before shooting began, Cushing said he was exhausted from shooting "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1959). The lead was given to Anton Diffring who had played the role two years before in a television production of the play on which the movie was based.

Answer: Al Lewis

Al Lewis (1923-2006) worked twice in television with Fred Gwynne: once as Officer Leo Schnauser with Gwynne as Officer Francis Muldoon in "Car 54, Where Are You?" (1961-1963) and again as Grandpa Munster with Gwynne as paterfamilias Herman Munster in "The Munsters" (1964-1966). "The Devil's Commandment" was his first appearance in a feature film, the first of twenty four. "I Vampiri" was released in 1957 in Italy. Lewis appeared in additional scenes which were added to the highly re-edited film which was released in the US as "The Devil's Commandment" and in the UK as "Lust of the Vampire" both in 1960.

His other horror film credits include "The Night Strangler" (1973), "My Grandpa is a Vampire" (1992), and "Night Terror" (2002). In addition to his acting career, Lewis was a left-wing political activist.

He ran for Governor of New York in 1998 as the candidate of the Green Party. He received 52,533 votes which, far from winning, qualified the Green Party's candidates to automatically appear on the ballot for the next four years.

Answer: Robert Shayne

Robert Shayne (1900-1992) plays the "mad scientist" Clifford Groves in "The Neanderthal Man" (1953). Shayne's acting career extended over sixty years. He played in a dozen horror and science fiction films. Joan Crawford plays anthropologist Dr. Brockton in "Trog" (1970). Robert Vaughn plays the Symbol Maker's Teenage Son in "Teenage Caveman" (1958). David Stifel plays the Tribal Leader in "Teenage Caveman" (2002).

Answer: No matter; it is neither singular nor plural.

In "The H-Man", there are obviously more than one H-Person killing the residents of Tokyo. The original Japanese title, transliterated, is "Bijo to Ekitai-ningen". This may be correctly translated into English as "Beauty and the Liquid Men" or "Beauty and the Liquid People".

The Japanese word "ningen" may be translated man, person or human being. "Ningen" is neither singular nor plural. Unlike in English, where nouns that refer to only one thing are singular and nouns that refer to multiple things are plural, Japanese makes no such distinction. Thus "ningen" can mean one specific human being, one random human being, the entire human race, or a random group of humans (less than all).

Answer: make-up/monster making

Jerry Warren (1925-1988) was an actor, a director, a producer, a screenwriter, a cinematographer and a film editor. His first film and producer-director was "Man Beast" (1956). Warren met cinematographer Brianne Murphy while making "Man Beast". He persuaded her to wear the yeti costume and stomp around a bit in this film. He also persuaded her to marry him shortly thereafter in Las Vegas.

He directed, produced and appeared in "The Incredible Petrified World" (1960), wrote, produced, directed and edited "Teenage Zombies" (1960), edited and distributed "Invasion of the Animal People" (1962), wrote, produced, directed and edited "Terror of the Bloodhunters" (1962), produced, directed and photographed "Attack of the Mayan Mummy" (1963), produced, directed and edited "Curse of the Stone Hand" (1965), wrote, produced, directed and edited "Face of the Screaming Werewolf" (1965), wrote, produced, directed and photographed "Creature of the Walking Dead" (1965), wrote, produced, directed and edited "The Wild World of Batwoman" (1966). His last film (after a 15 year hiatus) was "Frankenstein Island" (1981) which he wrote under the pseudonym Jacques LaCatier, produced, directed and for which he composed the score under the pseudonym Erich Bromberg.

Answer: the planet Ergro

The planet Metaluna is under attack by Zagon spaceships which capture and guide burning meteors to land explosively on the planet's surface. The movie is "This Island Earth" (1955). The planet Mongo (in the Flash Gordon comic strip, comic books, and 1936 theatrical serial/motion picture) is ruled by Ming the Merciless who Flash overthrows. The planet Tralfamadore was invented by author Kurt Vonnegut and placed in several different spots in the Universe depending upon the novel in which it appeared. In "The Sirens of Titan" (1959), for example, it is located in "the Small Magellanic Cloud" and occupied by machines.

The Mount Vulcan earthly headquarters of the evil Dr. Grood were filmed at Iverson's Movie Ranch in the Simi Hills on Santa Susana Pass near Chatsworth in San Fernando Valley. The surface of the planet Ergro is depicted by the area around the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park in the Sierra Pelona in Los Angeles County.

Answer: prenatal phylogenetic evolution

Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (1834-1919) was a naturalist who popularised the theories of Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882). Haeckel added to Darwin's thoughts on evolutionary biology his own notion that "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny". Comparing the embryonic development of many organisms, he observed that the biological development of an organism (its ontogeny) appears to parallel, summarise, express, and recapitulate the evolutionary history of its forebears (its phylogeny). This theory has some merit but has largely been debunked.

In "The Maze", the 200-year-old master of Craven Castle, Sir Roger MacTeam had an appearance partly human and partly frog. His head and eyes were ranine. His voice was like the trumpeting of an elephant. His damp feet left behind web-footed footprints. He loved to swim in the castle's pond. Gerald explains to Kitty that Sir Roger never developed beyond the amphibian stage as an embryo. Thus he was born as a froglike creature and never progressed to a fully human state.