Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 61 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice"

One of the aliens is killed when their flying saucer lands at Skyhook. Part of their metallic armour is a helmet which has built into it a kind of universal language translator. This helmet is seized and Carol is invited to test the translation feature.

She says "The quality of mercy is not strained / It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven" into the microphone. One of her colleagues recognizes that this is from Shakespeare but no one says from which play. It is from "The Merchant of Venice" Act IV, scene 1.

Answer: The Man from Mars

Ishirō Honda (of "Godzilla" fame) directed "The H-Man" in 1958. Grant Williams starred in "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (1957) based on a 1956 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson. Lon Chaney, Jr. played Charles "Butcher" Benton in "Indestructible Man" in 1956. "The Man from Mars" is a 1946 Polish novel by Stanislaw Lem. "The Man from M.A.R.S." is a 1922 silent motion picture shot in primitive 3-D. "The Man from Mars" is a 2014 biography of pulp-magazine publisher Ray Palmer written by Fred Nadis.

There does not appear to be a 1950s motion picture with this title.

Answer: a thermonuclear device

Early in the picture, one giant ant's antennae are shot off and it is killed by fire from a Thompson sub-machine gun. In another scene, the ants nest is found and it is attacked with cyanide gas bombs which kill many of the ants... but some escape. The egg chamber under Los Angeles is discovered by US Army units who destroy the queen and her unborn offspring with surplus WW-II flamethrowers.

But the senior myrmecologist from the US Department of Agriculture, Dr. Harold Medford, says, "We haven't seen the last of them."

Answer: John Agar

Experienced horror and science-fiction actor John Agar brings his skills to the role of Janet Smith's fiancé George Hastings. They arrive at the estate which she will inherit on her upcoming twenty-first birthday. Doctor Lomas, her guardian, is opposed to the marriage. It is George who ultimately helps kill the werewolf, who turns out to be Dr. Lomas.

Answer: They stayed to tend to an injured family member.

When the search party arrives, they meet a native woman, played by Acquanetta and her younger brother. The woman says she learned to speak English from missionaries. She explains that their father was injured and they remained on the island to take care of him. Everyone else on the island departed when a huge bird of fire landed on the mountain top, taking it to be a fearsome omen. She leads the mission to the sacred mountain but will not ascend it because this is prohibited by taboo. She says that those who have attempted to reach the top have never returned.

Answer: two

For good economic reasons, both the original film, "The Aztec Mummy", and its two sequels, "The Curse of the Aztec Mummy" and "The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy", were shot at the same time, by the same cast and crew, in the same locations. The three films were completed one after the other without there being any break in production.

The trilogy was later released as a three-movie set on DVD.

Answer: drowning in cold water

The military used machine guns and artillery against the locusts to no effect. General John Hanson, played by Morris Ankrum, wants to drop a nuclear weapon on Chicago to kill them before they spread. Scientist Ed Wainwright thinks that, because locusts thrive in warm weather, the cold of Lake Michigan could destroy them.

He invents a mating-call generator which lures the grasshoppers into the lake where they drown.

Answer: acting

Richard Anderson (1926-2017) is perhaps best remembered as Oscar Goldman, the boss in both "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman" (1974-1978). He appeared in "Forbidden Planet" (1956) as Chief Engineering Officer Quinn. Other science fiction and horror films to his credit are "Curse of the Faceless Man" (1958), "Seconds" (1966), "The Astronaut" (1972), "The Night Strangler" (1973), and "The Stepford Children" (1987).

Answer: Italy

"20 Million Miles to Earth" (1957) begins with the crash landing of a US spaceship offshore from a small fishing village in Sicily. Once the monster grows a bit, it goes to Rome and creates havoc. Filming was done in and around the Colosseum. The selection of Italy as the setting for this film was due, in large part, to Ray Harryhausen's desire to vacation there, which respite he could not otherwise afford. Harryhausen adapted an old treatment to anchor it in Italy.

Answer: shining ultraviolet light on him

The Phantom became invisible when he removed his helmet and space suit. When exposed to ultraviolet light, he became visible. At one point, he is trapped inside the Griffith Observatory. Laboratory assistant Barbara Randall shines an ultraviolet light on his hand and it becomes visible.

The Phantom's pursuers carry ultraviolet lights. The dog Venus leads them to the telescope room and they illuminate the creature with their lamps. He glows white, is struggling to breathe, passes out and falls to his death on the floor.

His body briefly becomes visible without UV light but then evaporates into steam or gas.