Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 183 Trivia Quiz

Answer: 3-D

William Cameron Menzies (1896-1957) had an eye for dimensions. His two-dimensional filmmaking is marked by its "layering" - the use of shots focused in multiple layers. This technique adds a sense of depth to films shot in 2-D. Most of his four-decade career in Hollywood was as a production designer and art director. "The Maze" was the second feature-length film designed and directed by Menzies. It was his last film as production designer and director. He shot it in 3-D.

Answer: Man Without a Soul

The feature-length movies "Teenage Cave Man" (1958), "Terror Is a Man" (1959), and "Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man" (1951) are all actual, not-made-up, existent, and authentic motion pictures. "Teenage Cave Man" was directed Roger Corman. "Terror Is a Man" was directed by Gerardo de Leon. "Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man" was directed by Charles Lamont.

Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel "The Monster Men" (1913) was first published as a short story in All‑Story Magazine under the title "A Man Without a Soul" (also 1913). A much later novel by Victoria Quinn called "The Man Who Has No Soul" was published in 2020. Also in 2020, Lucinda Williams released her song about President Donald Trump called "Man Without a Soul." A collection of the sermons preached by the Rev. Dr Billy Graham in New York City in 1957 is titled "Man Without a Soul." No movie named "Man Without a Soul" appears to have been made in the 1950s.

Answer: A power-line transformer explodes

After Nancy wakes from her sedated sleep, she goes to town to find her philandering husband Harry. She rips the roof off of Tony's Bar, finds Harry and Honey, kills Honey, and carries Harry away. Sheriff Dubbitt shoots her with his shotgun, but this fails to harm her. A shotgun blast detonates a transformer on a power line, which stuns her, electrocutes her, and kills her. The authorities find Harry's dead body clutched in her dead hand.

Answer: Vampira

Maila Nurmi (1922-2008) was an American actress raised in Astoria, Oregon, who moved on to a career as Vampira, the hostess of a late-night horror-movie show on KABC-TV in Los Angeles. She played this same role in "Plan 9 from Outer Space". Nurmi was paid $200 for her performance.

She insisted on being silent in the film because she did not like the lines written for her by Ed Wood. She recalled that she put on her costume and make-up at home and then rode a public transit bus to Quality Studios for filming.

She is herself portrayed in the 1994 biopic "Ed Wood" by Lisa Marie Smith. Her work in "Plan Nine from Outer Space" is also recalled in the 2006 documentary "Vampira: The Movie" by Kevin Sean Michaels.

Answer: Charlie Buckholtz, the gas-metre reader

Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984) directed such films as "Straw Dogs" (1971) and "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" (1974). He worked as a dialogue coach for director Don Siegel on four films before he contracted to be the dialogue coach on "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." He was also given the very small part of Charlie, the meter reader in that film.

In addition to his work as dialogue director and minor actor, Peckinpah claimed that he had done extensive work editing and revising the script. The only writer credited on the motion picture, Daniel Mainwaring, denied this claim and threatened to file a complaint with the Writers Guild of America. Peckinpah stopped telling that story and making that claim.

Answer: The Philippines

"Terror Is a Man" was made by Lynn-Romero Productions, a Filipino-American motion picture company. In just under twenty years, Eddie Romero directed, produced, and/or wrote more than twenty films, all made in the Philippines for U.S. audiences. Bliss Lim, "American Pictures Made by Filipinos: Eddie Romero's Jungle-Horror Exploitation Films," The University of Southern California Journal of Film and Television 22:1 (Spring 2002).

The onscreen credits say it was shot entirely in Manila. Interiors were shot at Premier Production Studios, Quezon City, Manila, Philippines. Exteriors were shot on Corregidor Island, Cavite City, Cavite, Philippines.

Answer: Treatment by Arthur A. Ross

American screenwriter of motion pictures and television scripts Arthur A. Ross (1920-2008) wrote the treatment for "The Creature Walks Among Us" and titled it "The Creature of Man." He based the title on a quotation from Benjamin Disraeli, "Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creature of man. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter." When the treatment was sold, Ross was hired to write the screenplay, and the title changed to "The Creature Walks Among Us" (1956). He also wrote the script for "Satan's School for Girls" (1973).

Answer: Acting

Noah Beery, Jr. (1913-1944) appeared in his first motion picture "The Mark of Zorro" (1920) at the age of seven. His father Noah Beery Sr. was an actor as was his uncle Wallace Beery. Noah Beery Jr. tended to play supporting roles, often as a friendly humorous character. Most of his films were westerns; only a few were horror or science-fiction films, e.g. "The Cat Creeps" (1946), "Rocketship X-M" (1950), and "7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964).

Answer: Montreal, Canada

There are many tells by which to determine the setting of "Return of the Fly" (1959). The funeral of Helene DeLambre, François DeLambre's sister-in-law, is held in Montreal. Philippe builds a laboratory at his grandfather's mansion outside of Montreal. Alan Hinds goes to the Montreal mortuary of Max Berthold, the dealer in stolen property. This motion picture was shot at 20th Century Fox Studios in Los Angeles, California, but the entirety is set in Montreal, Canada.

Answer: Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen has been described as a wizard, a master, a legend, and as awesome for his work in stop-motion animation. Film critic Leonard Maltin described his work in "It Came From Beneath the Sea" as "breath-taking special effects." The script written by George Worthing Yates purposefully featured these stop motion animation special effects. Harryhausen built the miniature of the Golden Gate Bridge, used toy-store models for the ships sunk by the octopus, and built the six-legged cephalopod in his studio. See, generally, Ray Harryhausen and Tony Dalton's "Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life" (2004).