Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 190 Trivia Quiz

Answer: "The Gamma People" (1956)

The eco-horror subgenre emphasises the negative impacts which humans have on the environment (atomic testing, waste disposal, pesticide use, global warming), the impact of economic greed and super-nationalism on the Earth, and the innate ability of creatures to mutate to accommodate new challenges to their existence. Perfect examples include "The Host" (Korean, 2006) where an American doctor orders that formaldehyde be dumped into the Han River, which produces an amphibious monster to emerge from the water, and "The Bay" (2012) in which chicken excrement filled with growth hormones pollutes Chesapeake Bay with parasitic isopods which eat people from the inside out.

"Them!" (1954) is about atomically mutated enormous ants. "It Came from Beneath the Sea" (1955) is about a giant octopus mutated by radioactivity from nuclear weapons testing in the South Pacific. "Beginning of the End" (1957) is about locusts/grasshoppers of immense size due to eating giant vegetables created by irradiation. In the subgenre of eco-horror, the human act which produces the harm is volitional (blowing up atomic bombs, dumping dangerous chemicals) but the harm itself was neither anticipated nor intended. "The Gamma People" (1956) is about a mad Eastern-bloc scientist who exposes children to gamma rays to produce some super-intelligent youngsters and many addled subservient others.

Answer: People of the Corn

The feature-length movies "The Alligator People" (1959) "The Gamma People" (1956), and "The Mole People" (1956) are all actual, not-made-up, existent, and authentic motion pictures. "The Alligator People" (1959) is about a newlywed husband given reptilian hormones to regenerate his limbs which were crushed in a plane crash. "The Gamma People" (1956) is about a mad scientist who exposes young people to gamma rays which make them either brilliantly intelligent or moronic human slaves. "The Mole People" (1956) is about a race of ancient Sumerian people from Mesopotamia who have lived underground with another race of mutant humanoid monsters who the Sumerians have enslaved.

"The Children of the Corn" (1984) was an adaptation of a Stephen King short story, as were the eleven prequels, sequels, and remakes which followed. "People of the Corn" is Chapter 2 of the psychological horror video game "Lucius II: The Prophecy" (2015). "People of Corn: A Mayan Story" (1995) is a children's picture-book retelling of the story of creation from a Mayan perspective. The Bags, a Boston punk rock trio, released an album titled "Night of the Corn People" in 1991. Diligent research has not revealed a 1950s feature-length science fiction movie named "People of the Corn."

Answer: Gary Conway

Gary Conway (b. 1936) is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, and winemaker. He married Marian McKnight, Miss America 1957, with whom he has worked on both writing and producing projects. Early in his career, Conway had roles in several science-fiction horror films besides "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein" (1957), including "How to Make a Monster" (1958), and "The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent" (1958).

Answer: Darah Marshall

Darah Marshall (1933-2019) was an American actress. As a 17-year-old from Monterey, California, she won the title of Miss Teen-Age America in 1951. Her role in "Teenage Cave Man" centred on her physical beauty. In one scene, she goes to a remote location to bathe in a natural pool. She is observed by the lusty Symbol Maker's Son who "courts" her by playing a tune on his pan pipes. When he reaches the age of adulthood, he takes her as his wife. Her other films included "King of Diamonds" (1961) and "Checkmate" (1960).

Answer: a story by Frank Wells, H.G. Wells' son

There is a certain irony to the writing on which "Supersonic Saucer" is based. The story was written by Frank Wells, the son of H.G. Wells. Frank Wells wrote a story about a friendly alien landing in Surrey and proceeding to London. His father wrote "The War of the Worlds" (1898) in which bellicose aliens land in Surrey and move on to London. The younger Wells (1902-1982) was a writer, director, art director and producer of motion pictures. [He was born on Hallowe'en.]

The screenplay for "Supersonic Saucer" was written by Dallas Bower (1907-1999) based on Frank Wells' story. Bower's career in media was remarkably varied. He began as a radio engineer and scientist. His work in radio led to his several positions as a motion picture sound recordist. That experience led to his employment as a motion picture sound editor and then as a motion picture film editor. He was drafted as an assistant director and began directing motion pictures from there. During World War II, he worked as a propagandist for Great Britain. After V-E Day in 1945, Bower worked as a screenwriter and then as a producer of television commercials.

Answer: Yes

Eddie Romero and Kane W. Lynn, operating as Lynn-Romero Productions, produced movies in the Philippines for distribution in the U.S. "Terror Is a Man" was the first in a series of four films, all set on the fictional Isla de Sangre (Blood Island). The subsequent three movies in the Blood Island series were "Brides of Blood" (1968), "The Mad Doctor of Blood Island" (1968), and "Beast of Blood" (1970). The island was supposedly named for its vivid sunsets, described as the colour of blood.

Answer: a burial ground underneath the house

Other clichés common to the subgenre include hidden rooms, someone progressively killing off victims, eccentric characters, and (best of all) hanging oil portraits with removable eyes through which someone can observe the guests without being noticed. The original "The Old Dark House" involved five travellers who shelter overnight from a ferocious storm in a creepy country house. The remake involves a fellow from London who travels to his roommate's decrepit family mansion in Dartmoor, where the family members are being murdered sequentially.

Examples include "The Cat and the Canary" (silent) (1927), "Hold That Ghost" (1941), ""Murder By Invitation" (1941), And Then There Were None" (1945), "The Bat" (1959), "The Old Dark House" (1963), "Clue" (1985), and "Dark and Stormy Night" (2009). "The Spiral Staircase" (1975), "Murder By Death" (1976), "The Cat and the Canary" (1978), "Private Eyes" (1980), "Clue" (1985), "Knives Out" (2019), and "A Haunting in Venice" (2023). In the original "House on Haunted Hill (1959), brave test pilot Lance Schroeder arrives at the home in which he and the other guests will be locked for the night and observes, "If I were gonna haunt somebody, this would certainly be the house I'd do it in."

Answer: acting

Born in Manchester, England and named George Alexander Coulouris (1903-1989), his stage name as a stage, radio, and motion picture actor was George Coulouris. He acted on stage with Orson Welles in 1936 in a production of "Ten Million Ghosts." Welles drafted him as a founding member of the Mercury Theatre and later the Mercury Theatre of the Air. Over a long career, he appeared in over 80 movies, a few of them of the horror or science-fiction genre: "The Man Without a Body" (1957), "The Woman Eater" (1958), "The Skull" (1965), "Blood from the Mummy's Tomb" (1971), "A Clockwork Orange" (1971), "Tower of Evil" (1972), "The Final Programme" (1973), and "The Antichrist" (1974).

Answer: a southern Mexican jungle

An experimental rocket carrying a monkey is launched but, nine days after take-off, is destroyed, presumably by the Flame Barrier. There is reason to believe that the remnants may have crashed in the jungles of southern Mexico. Businessman Howard Dahlman goes to Mexico to search for it.

When he disappears, his wife Carol mounts her own expedition to find him. She arrives in Campeche, Mexico, to organise a party. Campeche is a port city on the Gulf of Mexico; the Malecón de Campeche, a 7 km long beach front walk, is well known to tourists.

The synopsis posted by Turner Classic Movies says her journey begins in "Tampeche" which does not exist. The search leads Carol, her porters, and guides, south from Campeche into the jungle.

Answer: Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was an anglophile of the first order. He made motion pictures in both the United States and Great Britain. At the time "Mister Drake's Duck" was filmed, his principal residence was in a house he owned in Mayfair, London. Val Guest adapted a radio sketch by Ian Messiter called "The Atomic Egg" as a vehicle for Yolande Donlan and called it "Mrs. Drake's Duck." Douglas Fairbanks Jr agreed to take the role of Mr. Drake only if the film's name was changed to "Mr. Drake's Duck." Yolande, who Guest called "Yo" and later married, did not object and there you are.