Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 189 Trivia Quiz

Answer: none

Producer-director Jerry Warren commissioned the design and construction of a monster suit for use in "The Incredible Petrified World." The result was so poor that its use was abandoned. This decision was made after the copy for the film's adverts was written, thus it shouted, "A Nightmare of Terror in the Center of the Earth with Forgotten Men, Monsters, Earthquakes and Boiling Volcanos!" Three out of four ain't bad.

The adventurers do see a large dark-skinned lizard. It is an Australian Perentie (Varanus giganteus), a species of the dragon lizards, the largest in Oceania.

This lizard is doing absolutely nothing. There is no explanation of what it eats to sustain its prodigious girth. There is no identification of the source of the stock footage used, either. Thomas Reddy wrote in the Los Angeles "Examiner" that "In a film of this type, you'd expect a monster or two.

But no, not one teensy-weensy monster."

Answer: Outer Space Invaders

The feature-length movies "Battle in Outer Space" (1959), "Fire Maidens from Outer Space" (1956), and "Queen of Outer Space" (1958) are all actual, not-made-up, existent, and authentic motion pictures. Godzilla director Ishirō Honda combined with special-effects master Eiji Tsuburaya to make the Japanese film "Battle in Outer Space." "Fire Maidens from Outer Space" was a British film produced and directed by the American Cy Roth. Whenever a list of worst science-fiction and horror films is made, "Fire Maidens from Outer Space" is an invariant nominee. Zsa Zsa Gabor plays the title character in "Queen of Outer Space" which some critics have found to be so bad that they declared it to be a parody of other motion pictures of its ilk.

"Timothy and the Great Robotic Invaders from Outer Space" (2008) is a 14-minute American short in which 8-year-old Timmy saves the Earth. "Mystery Political Science Theater 2012: Tea Party Invaders from Outer Space Target South Carolina!" (2012) is a 14-minute American short which lampoons Republicans in South Carolina state government by suggesting that they are from outer space. "Javier y los invasores del espacio" (1967) is a feature-length Spanish film in which a small boy, a small girl, and a monkey save the world. "Invaders from Outer Space" (1977) is an episode of the Japanese animated television series "Voltes Five." "Invaders from Outer Space" (1998) is also an episode of the Spanish/French animated television series "Enigma." Diligent research has not revealed a 1950s feature-length science fiction movie named "Outer Space Invaders."

Answer: False

As Scott Carey's medical condition becomes well known, the doctors at the California Medical Research Institute sprint to find a cure. An antitoxin pauses the shrinking process at about three feet in height. The respite is only temporary and he begins to shrink again. Richard Matheson's script concluded when Scott Carey shrunk to oblivion but Universal Pictures strongly favoured a happy ending, which would have meant a twist returning him to normal size. Director Jack Arnold refused and prevailed.

He assuaged some of the studio's concern by writing a sort of epilogical soliloquy. "Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something, too. To God there is no zero. I still exist!"

Answer: Paul Frees

Paul Frees (1920-1986) enjoyed a long and highly successful career as a voice artist in motion pictures, radio, and television. He worked for Walt Disney Productions, Warner Brothers Cartoons, Walter Lantz Productions, UPA, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Filmation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Jay Ward Productions, Rankin/Bass, and Ruby-Spears.

He rarely appeared in person on screen. The role of Dr. Pommer was an exception. There is a sense in which the entire first third is about Frees' character; this attention ends abruptly when the Blood Rust attaches itself to and consumes his body.

Answer: Japanese for "gorilla-whale"

The English name Godzilla is a romanization of the original Japanese name Gojira. Toho International changed the name to sell the film to American distributors. Gojira is a portmanteau. A portmanteau is a word which blends the phonemes of two words to create a new word which fuses the two meanings. Examples are turducken, Chunnel, metrosexual, Cronut, blog, webinar, affluenza, Brexit, and jeggings.

The Japanese word "gojira" was constructed from parts of two other Japanese words: "gorira" meaning gorilla and "kuijira" meaning whale. While the gigantic fire-breathing dinosaur-like radioactive prehistoric amphibious marine reptile doesn't look much like a gorilla nor like a whale, it is big (50 metres tall, 20,000 tonnes) and very powerful. The backstory (which changes a bit from film to film) holds that an ancient sea creature was mutated by the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or by American, French, and Russian nuclear-bomb tests, or by an accident on a Russian nuclear submarine, or by the dumping of radioactive waste into the ocean.

Answer: He was changed scientifically, not supernaturally.

The typical cinematic vampire comes equipped with all manner of supernatural trappings. It casts no shadow nor is it reflected in mirrors. It cannot tolerate sunlight. It can hypnotise its victims. It can turn into a dog or a bat. It cannot cross running water. It is repelled by the sign of the cross. It sleeps in a coffin filled with soil from its homeland. It can be killed by driving a wooden stake through its heart. The unfortunate creature in "The Vampire" was not supernatural at all but rather the result of science gone awry.

Answer: newspaper headlines

The B movies (not only horror and science fiction but film noir and military pictures, as well) used a technique called "the spinning newspaper" to inform the audience of events occurring off-screen. At the end of a scene or the beginning of another, the spinning newspaper stops spinning so that the audience can read the headline.

In "Kronos" the following newspaper headlines are used this way: "ASTEROID HEADING FOR EARTH!"; "ASTEROID TO BE EXPLODED IN UPPER ATMOSPHERE."; "FANTASTIC MONSTER DISCOVERED."; "LAB CENTRAL CHIEF ADVISES H-BOMB FOR KRONOS!"; "PENTAGON GIVES DR. ELIOT OK."; "GIANT ON RAMPAGE! HEADED FOR H-BOMB STOCKPILE."; and "'NO POSSIBLE DEFENSE' SAYS GENERAL. MASS EVACUATION PLANNED."

Answer: acting

Two-time Olympic swimmer Clarence Linden Crabbe II gained recognition for his gold medal in the 1932 Olympics for 400-metre freestyle swimming. This led to a career as an actor in motion pictures, theatrical serials, and television. In addition to lots of Westerns, he portrayed Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers.

He played Buck Rogers with naturally dark hair and Flash Gordon with blonde golden hair. He is credited in his early films as Larry Crabbe and later as Buster Crabbe. "The Buster Crabbe Show," later "Buster's Buddies," was a children's television programme.

He appeared in the low-budget horror film "Alien Dead"(1980). He was better known for his starring roles in theatrical serials such as "Tarzan the Fearless" (1933), "Flash Gordon" (1936), "Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars" (1938), "Buck Rogers" (1939), and "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940).

Answer: a mountainous desert in the United States

"The Brain From Planet Arous" begins with an establishing shot of a desert and a mountain in the background. This is the same shot with which the movie concludes. The dialogue identifies the peak as Mystery Mountain. There is reference to "the Atomic Energy Facility at Indian Springs." One of the characters is said to have gone to Las Vegas nearby.

There is a Mystery Mountain in Custer County, Idaho, another in British Columbia, Canada, a small one in Manitoba, Canada, and another in Nye County, Nevada. There are places in the United States named Indian Springs in Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, and Texas. The best match with the one in "The Brain From Planet Arous" is apparently that in Clark County, Nevada, the home of Creech Air Force Base. The motion picture was filmed at Bronson Caves, Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California.

Answer: He bites 42 women the first night.

Alerted to his uncle's depravity by the contents of the baron's diary, Osvaldo searches for Roderico's sleeping place. He is interrupted by the hotel manager who is upset that he is not at his duty station. When he returns to the bar where the baron was sleeping, he finds the vampire awake. His uncle bites him, which turns him into a vampire. On his first vampiric night, he bites 42 beautiful women, all of whom fall madly in love with him.