Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 203 Trivia Quiz

Answer: a dead man's brain kept alive in a tank

One of the movie posters created for "Donovan's Brain" shouted, "A dead man's brain told him to kill! kill! kill! kill!" Nasty, criminal, ruthless millionaire Tom Donovan is killed in an automobile accident but brilliant brain researcher Dr Patrick Cory removes his brain and keeps it alive, suspended in an aquarium filled with a special saline liquid.

The floating brain develops telepathic abilities and comes to control the mind of Dr. Cory. The big (growing) mass of grey matter, attached to electronic leads, glows from within when it is thinking. Creepy!

Answer: The 29th Day

The feature-length movies "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954), "20 Million Miles to Earth" (1957), and "The 27th Day" (1957) are all actual, not-made-up, existent, and authentic motion pictures. "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" is set mostly under the surface of the Pacific Ocean. "20 Million Miles to Earth" takes place on Earth, mostly in and around Rome. "The 27th Day" is set on Earth in disparate locales.

The movie "The 28th Day" (2006) is a scary movie set in the forests of Southern California. It is a film about an evil presence which possesses humans and compels them to kill women. The film "28 Days" (2000) is an American comedy-drama starring Sandra Bullock as a journalist forced into alcohol rehabilitation. "The Twenty-Ninth Day" is a 2019 real-life story of (and by) Alex Messenger who survived a grizzly bear attack in the Canadian wilderness. The picture "30 Days of Night" (2007) depicts an invasion of vampires into the Alaskan town of Barlow, which is sunless for thirty days every year. Diligent research has not revealed a 1950s feature-length science fiction or horror movie named "The 29th Day".

Answer: He is blown up by dynamite.

There are three mummies dashing about the labyrinth inside the tomb: Klaris, Charlie in disguise, and Abbott similarly disguised. The crooks have brought dynamite with which to excavate the buried treasure. Klaris attacks and kills Rontru, a gorgeous but larcenous treasure hunter. Josef lights some of the dynamite and tosses it to Abbott. Abbott tosses it to Klaris.

The dynamite explodes, killing Klaris and exposing the treasure.

Answer: Yvette Vickers

Yvette Vickers (1928-2010) had several careers, all of them connected to her great beauty. She was a pin-up girl, a model in White Rain shampoo commercials, Playmate of the Month in 1958, a jazz singer, and a motion-picture actress. She was often cast in roles as a floozie, a loose woman, a trollop, a slattern, and a tart.

Her role as Honey Parker in "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" certainly fit that description. In "I, Mobster" (1958), she played a blonde narcotics addict who wanted to pay for her dope by providing sexual services to her drug supplier.

In "Attack of the Giant Leeches" (1959), Vickers played a promiscuous wife cheating on her husband (until she was exsanguinated by a huge leech in the bayou).

Answer: United States

"The Maze" was filmed in the USA by Allied Artist Productions. Its setting was the fictitious Craven Castle in Scotland. This edifice is described as being located in the Scottish highlands. The principal filming locations were in Provo, Utah, USA. The setting is underscored by the fact that Gerald MacTeam (played by Richard Carlson) is a Scot and his uncle, Sir Samuel MacTeam, Baronet, is described in the newspaper report of his death thusly, "Scottish Baronet Passes".

Answer: Edward D. Wood Jr.

Not only did Ed Wood produce, write and direct "Plan 9 from Outer Space" but he edited the final version, as well. The story of the making of this film is depicted in the biopic "Ed Wood" (1994). Tim Burton produced and directed; Johnny Depp played Ed Wood. It won two Academy Awards.

Answer: spherical, globular

John and Ellen look up and see a large, glowing, fiery, rounded object plummeting toward Earth. Its prang leaves a deep crater which they investigate. John finds a round spaceship but, before he can approach, a landslide, avalanche, or cave-in covers the craft completely. To create this landing effect, the crew built a large iron ball with a dorsal fin and suspended it on a strong wire. They perforated holes all over it, placed magnesium inside, lit it like a firework, and slid it down the wire.

Answer: acting

Irish McCalla was born on Christmas Day, 1928, in Nebraska. She was beautiful and well-proportioned (in the standards of her day) at 39-24-38. Her photos appeared in many men's magazines and she was a model for Alberto Vargas as a "Varga Girl". A photographer recommended her for the part of "Sheena: Queen of the Jungle" (1955) on television after Anita Ekberg turned down the role. Of her selection, she said, "I couldn't act, but I could swing through the trees." She appeared in a number of motion pictures, the best-known of which was "She Demons" (1958).

After acting, she turned to painting Western and Native American artwork and became a member of Women Artists of the American West.

Answer: a fictional part of Africa

What little most Americans knew/believed about Africa was formed in the 1950s in major part by mass media: novels, comic books, radio, movies and television. Major motion pictures contributed much to this: "King Solomon's Mines" (1950), "The African Queen" (1951), "Mogambo" (1953), and "The Roots of Heaven" (1958). Likewise the 52 episodes of the American TV series "Ramar of the Jungle" (1952-1954), twelve of which were edited into feature-length theatrical films. Sixteen feature-length movies in the "Jungle Jim" series were made and distributed between 1948 and 1955. "Wild Women" was set in a fictional part of Africa of the generic Jungle Jim sort.

Answer: Matthews proposes marriage and she accepts.

Professor Lesley Joyce's preliminary determination that the tissue found jammed in the stern diving planes of Commander Pete Mathews' submarine is from a gigantic cephalopod is not well received by naval authorities. Mathews refuses to allow Joyce to come on board the sub for the final battle with the creature.

In the end, once the octopus has been destroyed, Mathews, Joyce, and Carter meet for a celebratory supper at a restaurant. Mathews inelegantly proposes marriage and Joyce accepts.