Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 195 Trivia Quiz

Answer: The flame barrier is made up, fictitious

The motion picture "The Flame Barrier" opens with the night-time launch of a rocket carrying an American satellite and an unfortunate chimpanzee. The film's narrator says that "Two hundred miles above our Earth exists what is known as the flame barrier." When the satellite rocket drops off of telemetry, scientists assume it burnt up in the flame barrier. Reports from southern Mexico indicated the possibility that some or all of the rocket and/or its payload had fallen from the heavens into the Yucatán jungles.

As the Soviet launch of Sputnik I (4 October 1957) craned American necks skyward, there was a sense that the US was falling behind its Russian rival. The impediments to US space exploration were symbolised by such fictions as the non-existent flame barrier in this movie.

Answer: She Wolf

The feature-length movies "The She-Creature" (1957), "She Demons" (1958), and "She Devil" (1957) are all actual, not-made-up, existent, and authentic motion pictures. In "The She-Creature," a carnival hypnotist's assistant, Andrea Talbott, played by Marla English, is "regressed" to her prehistoric form as a homicidal sea monster.

In "She Demons," survivors of a shipwreck discover misshapen, fanged women created by a Nazi mad scientist. In "She Devil," a woman is cured of her tuberculosis by a serum which also turns her into a remorseless murderer.

A Spanish-language film named "Mujer Lobo" (meaning "she wolf") was made in Argentina in 2023. Other variations of a she-wolf theme include "Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS" (1975), "She-Wolf of London" (1946), and "She Wolf Rising" (2016). Diligent research has not revealed a 1950s feature-length science fiction movie named "She Wolf."

Answer: Silver mirror

Osvaldo Lambertenghi sneaks into his uncle's room in "Uncle Was a Vampire." There he finds the Baron's diary. It says that vampires can be repelled in four ways: garlic, a cross, a stake for piercing the heart, and a cock's crow at dawn. It says nothing about mirrors, silver or otherwise. Other sources identify silver bullets and silver knives as being capable of killing werewolves. The diary says nothing at all about mirrors; vampires are reputedly not reflected in them.

Answer: Susan Cabot

Unlike most of the Viking women, Enger has dark hair. She is a religious leader, a priestess of Thor, and she has a romantic interest in Desir's boyfriend, Vedric. Enger accompanies Desir on the sea voyage to rescue the men of Stannjold from the Grimaults.

The women are captured, as were the men before them. Enger tells the leader of the Grimaults of a planned escape. He agrees to allow her to escape with Vedric, but Vedric turns down the offer. The Grimault leader then orders both Vedric and Desir burned at the stake. Enger repents, asks Thor for enough rain to extinguish the immmolative flames, and sacrifices herself to the two vicious pursuing mastiffs, affording the Vikings an opportunity to escape.

The dogs chew her to death, and so ends her part in the saga.

Answer: Giant prehistoric scorpions

The eruption of a volcano breaks open a gigantic cavern, releasing enormous worms, insects and arachnids. The scorpions are found to be responsible for the deaths and disappearances of people and livestock nearby. These creatures attack the village of San Lorenzo, where military resistance to them has no effect. Father Delgado reports to the scientists that the local people believe a demon bull to be responsible for the deaths and that they urge him to exorcise it.

Answer: The Children's Film Foundation

The Children's Film Foundation was formed in 1951 as a non-profit producer of programming for young people, more suitable than the material borrowed from American movies and television. CFF's films were roughly 55 minutes long, made to fit into a 60-minute slot on television. "Supersonic Saucer" runs 50 minutes, which is a bit shorter than most theatrical feature films.

A sense of the Foundation's catalogue can be gained from considering the following filmography: "The Dog and the Diamonds" (1953), "The Adventures of Hal 5" (1958), "Go Kart Go" (1963), "Calamity the Cow" (1967), "Mr. Horatio Knibbles" (1971), Robin Hood Junior" (1975), "4-D Special Agent" (1981), "Gabrielle and the Doodleman" (1984), and "Terry on the Fence" (1985). CFF changed its name to the Children's Film and Television Foundation in the mid-1980s and to the Children's Media Foundation in 2012.

Answer: He will destroy each of their national capitals

Gor demonstrates his lethal power by blowing a passenger aeroplane out of the sky, killing everyone on board. He laughs like a lunatic when he does so. He tells the representatives of the major nations that they must give to him all of their fissile materials, factories, means of transportation, and the like. His intent is to prepare for an invasion of his home planet Arous. Should they fail or refuse, he promises to blow up the capitals of any nation not in compliance with his demand.

Answer: Acting

Born Eugene Oliver Edgar Stutenroth (1903-1976), the American film actor changed his name to Gene Roth. He was cast in many small roles on television, usually Westerns. He performed in over 250 motion pictures, usually as a tough guy, a mobster or a sheriff.

He played villains in several 1950s theatrical serials. His horror and science fiction filmography includes "Gas House Kids in Hollywood" (1947), "Zombies of Mora Tau" (1957), "She Demons" (1958), "Earth vs. the Spider" (1958), "Attack of the Giant Leeches" (1959), "Tormented" (1960), "Atlantis, the Lost Continent" (1961), "Tower of London" (1962), and "Twice-Told Tales" (1963).

Answer: 1890s

There is a vagueness to the time in which "The Mad Magician" is set which is quite possibly intentional. One clue is the presence of gaslight. London was first lit by gaslight in 1807 and was fully illuminated by the 1850s. New York was first lit by gaslight in 1825 and fully illuminated by the 1850s.

The streets in "The Mad Magician" are gaslit. Frank Galton published his influential book "Finger Prints" in 1892, which laid the scientific basis for the forensic use of fingerprints. This new science figures prominently in "The Mad Magician." Character Frank Prentiss mentions "that Fall River thing", which is a reference to the murders committed by Lizzie Borden in 1892.

The song "Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay" is heard in "The Mad Magician." It was written in 1880, premiered in Boston in 1891, and became widely known in the US in 1892.

Answer: Yolande Donlan

Yolande Donlan (1920-2014) was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, but did most of her work on stage and in motion pictures in the United Kingdom. She played Penny Drake opposite Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in "Mister Drake's Duck." Her work in science fiction and horror was quite limited.

She played Maxine in "The Devil Bat" (1940) with Bela Lugosi. She appeared on stage in London in Clifford Odets' "Rocket to the Moon" (1948), which has nothing to do with rockets or the moon. Ms. Donlan married director Val Guest in 1954, after they had worked on "Mister Drake's Duck" together.

She then appeared in seven other films which Guest directed. She wrote "Sand in My Mink" (1955), a humorous autobiographical travelogue and another first-person work in 1976 about growing up called "Shake the Stars Down" in the UK and "Third Time Lucky" in the US.