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Quiz about Great Comedy Films of the 1970s
Quiz about Great Comedy Films of the 1970s

Great Comedy Films of the 1970s Quiz


In the 1970s we saw daily the horror of war in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal, and the death of Mao Zedong. But the film industry still made us laugh. Here are a few of those films. Contains spoilers.

A multiple-choice quiz by Rehaberpro. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
Rehaberpro
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
383,770
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
7 / 10
Plays
1273
Last 3 plays: Guest 90 (9/10), Guest 165 (6/10), Guest 71 (7/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. "Young Frankenstein" (1974) is a Mel Brooks directed satire on the many films based on the novel by Mary Shelley. Great comic actor Gene Wilder stars as Frederick Frankenstein and is abetted by a strong supporting cast. Which of these actors is incorrectly paired with their role in the film? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. In 1977 the stars aligned for Woody Allen and he had a great year of accomplishment and honor. The film tells the story of Alvy, a neurotic Jewish comedian and Annie, based on the real actress who portrayed her, with the same mannerisms and self-deprecating sense of humor. Who was the female lead actress in "Annie Hall"? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. When a television show runs over 250 episodes, it might be hard to remember that it was based on a 1970 film. In the film "M.A.S.H." (1970), who created the role of Hawkeye Pierce later played by Alan Alda for 11 years on television? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Robert Redford and Paul Newman were both box office magic in the 1970s and combining them was a coup de grâce. "The Sting" (1973) was by any measure the top film of the year as it had ease of performance and a special nostalgia of the depression era. Marvin Hamlisch was the music director and he based much of the score on a nearly forgotten composer of the ragtime era. What was his name? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote "The Idiot" (1868). What wild and crazy guy was co-writer of the screenplay "The Jerk" (1979)? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Mel Brooks had a genius for making satiric films in various genres. 1974's "Blazing Saddles" was his poke at the classic western. Cleavon Little is appointed as the black sheriff of a western town where everyone is white and has the last name of Johnson. Toward the end of the film, the leading characters leave the movie set and ride their horses to see a movie. What movie is it? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. "Harold and Maude" (1971) told the story of a teenager (Bud Cort) and his relationship with a 79 and three quarter year old woman (Ruth Gordon). They shared a common interest in funerals and death in general. Harold liked to play tricks on his mother. What did he do? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. In "The Last Detail", Jack Nicholson and Otis Young play Navy career non-commissioned officers awaiting orders when they are given the assignment of escorting an 18 year old naive sailor to military prison. What actor played the sailor? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Paul Newman stars as player/coach in "Slap Shot" (1977) with the hapless Charlestown Chiefs, a minor league hockey team. The team's fortunes are at a low ebb when he is sent three new players. They don't look like hockey players so Newman is reluctant to play them but when he does they become a winning team. What is the name of the brothers? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. A gross-out movie is one that is willfully "tasteless" and usually involves gratuitous nudity, unrealistic aggressiveness, toilet humor, and bodily functions. They are generally aimed at a younger male audiences. In this film a college administrator has a vendetta against a fraternity, the slovenly Delta Tau Chi, for their disgusting and disruptive behavior. Although there were minor films that preceded it, what 1978 film is arguably the first commercially successful such film? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. "Young Frankenstein" (1974) is a Mel Brooks directed satire on the many films based on the novel by Mary Shelley. Great comic actor Gene Wilder stars as Frederick Frankenstein and is abetted by a strong supporting cast. Which of these actors is incorrectly paired with their role in the film?

Answer: Teri Garr as Frankenstein's fiancé

Madeline Kahn is Elizabeth, Frederick Frankenstein's uptight fiancé; Teri Garr is his lab assistant. Cloris Leachman plays the housekeeper who when her name is mentioned, horses panic.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein is a descendant of the Frankenstein who tried to reanimate corpses from parts but this Frankenstein has tried to distance himself from that legend. When he inherits the castle and property, he decides to inspect it. There he finds his ancestor's scientific papers on his experiments and is fascinated enough to try to replicate them with the assistance of Igor (Eye-gore). Igor steals a brain labelled abnormal.

The experiments are successful but the monster escapes. We then have interludes with the monster interacting with a little girl and a blind man. He also meets Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) who is enamored with his physical sexual powers. They form a song and dance act, and marry.

Mel Brooks used sets from the original 1931 Frankenstein film and filmed it in black and white. Kahn is seen later in the same makeup as in "The Bride of Frankenstein" (1935). Much of the film was ad-libbed such as Feldman's hump being on a different shoulder in scenes. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 93% and it was nominated for Academy Awards for Screenplay and Sound.
2. In 1977 the stars aligned for Woody Allen and he had a great year of accomplishment and honor. The film tells the story of Alvy, a neurotic Jewish comedian and Annie, based on the real actress who portrayed her, with the same mannerisms and self-deprecating sense of humor. Who was the female lead actress in "Annie Hall"?

Answer: Diane Keaton

Diane Keaton once said, "I recognized myself in the role [Allen] wrote... in 'Annie Hall' particularly. I... had lots of feelings but didn't know how to express (myself)... I see that in Annie. Woody used an... essential quality that he found in me at that time, and I'm glad he did." Allen was to comment later that as the film was shot and edited, it came down to Annie. Keaton had made three films with Allen before "Annie" and would collaborate with him again on "Interiors" (1978) and "Radio Days". She got excellent reviews for her dramatic performance in "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" (1977).

Alvy "Max" Singer (Woody Allen) plays a Jewish neurotic comedian searching for himself through both women and therapy. Annie at first seems ditzy but her underlying intelligence is masked by her insecurity and mannerisms. They meet, fall in love, make up, and break up again. In the end they are seen sadly with new partners, both with mixed regrets.

Allen co-wrote the Academy Award-winning Best Screenplay, was nominated for Best Actor, and won Best Picture and Best Director. In addition, his sometimes girl friend, Diane Keaton, was named Best Actress. As Frank Sinatra once sang - it was a very good year.

There are some scenes so funny that words fail. Alvy sneezing and blowing the party cocaine away, Alvy and Annie trying to prepare a lobster dinner, Alvy settling an argument between two strangers by having Marshall McLuhan settle it, who just happened to be standing by.

A fashion statement is made in the film that was called "The Annie Hall Look" that consisted of layering oversized, mannish blazers over vests, billowy trousers or long skirts, a man's tie, and boots.

Until Allen changed the direction of the film, it was first drafted as a murder mystery. Later Allen would retrieve the idea and filmed "Manhattan Murder Mystery" (1993) with himself and Keaton starring.
3. When a television show runs over 250 episodes, it might be hard to remember that it was based on a 1970 film. In the film "M.A.S.H." (1970), who created the role of Hawkeye Pierce later played by Alan Alda for 11 years on television?

Answer: Donald Sutherland

Amidst the sometimes tedium of the Korean War, the roar of helicopters breaks the silence and then comes hours of bloody surgery, trying to save the lives of the injured and maimed. The surgeons and nurses and support staff drink, argue, play tricks, and play football until the next manic interlude when the evacuees break the horizon.

Donald Sutherland has an acting career of over half a century. In addition to "M.A.S.H.", he appeared in "Klute" (1971), "The Eagle Has Landed" (1978), "Ordinary People" (1984), and "The Hunger Games" (2012).

Robert Hooker wrote the novel, Ring Lardner Jr. liberally adapted it in his screenplay, and director Robert Altman reshaped into his vision. Few were happy with changes and actors Elliott Gould and Sutherland tried to get Altman fired. Altman later said, "I had practice working for people who don't care about quality, and I learned how to sneak it in."

The film had positive reviews by critics and received five Oscar nominations, winning none. It retains an 87% Rotten Tomatoes rating.
4. Robert Redford and Paul Newman were both box office magic in the 1970s and combining them was a coup de grâce. "The Sting" (1973) was by any measure the top film of the year as it had ease of performance and a special nostalgia of the depression era. Marvin Hamlisch was the music director and he based much of the score on a nearly forgotten composer of the ragtime era. What was his name?

Answer: Scott Joplin

Scott Joplin was an African-American composer and pianist. His ragtime compositions earned him the name of "King of Ragtime". Although he died in 1917, he wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. Hamlisch revived his art to more success than he had during his brief career.

"The Sting" had a complicated plot but the essentials are we have an older con man (Newman) and a younger con man (Redford) combining their talents to dupe a ruthless crime lord (Robert Shaw). A bogus horse racing parlor is their main tool.

At the Academy Awards "The Sting" had ten nominations and took home seven including Best Picture, Best Director (George Roy Hill), as well as Screenplay, Set Decoration, Costuming, Film Editing, and Marvin Hamlisch for Musical Score. Rotten Tomatoes' rating was 93%.

You can find the inside story of "The Sting" in Julia Phillips' book "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again" (1991). Phillips was one of the producers.
5. Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote "The Idiot" (1868). What wild and crazy guy was co-writer of the screenplay "The Jerk" (1979)?

Answer: Steve Martin

Carl Gottlieb and Michael Elias were the other writers but the script was largely from Steve Martin's stand up comedy routines that were modified to fit into the narrative. It was Martin's first leading role. I had thought that Martin was a so-so comedian who worked too hard to be funny but he kind of grows on you, even with an arrow through his head. The writers tried for at least a laugh a page.

The 'jerk' is Navin R. Johnson, an adopted white child of a poor black sharecropper family who grows up naively believing he is black. He goes to Saint Louis to seek his fortune and finds work in a gas station and meets the girl of his dreams, Marie (Bernadette Peters). He accidentally invents the 'Opti-Grab', a device to keep glasses from sliding down the nose and becomes a millionaire. But he loses his fortune when it is found that the Opti-Grab causes strabismus. Navin has sent money home to his parents that they invested and are now rich. Navin and Marie move back to his country home, a lavish mansion that looks a great deal like the original sharecropper cabin.

Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 84% but the film attracted no film society awards. A "New York Times" critic said "'The Jerk' is funny, vulgar and backhandedly clever... when it aspires to absolute stupidity... Even when it's crude - which is quite a lot of the time - it's not mean-spirited."

Most of Steve Martin's film success has been as a comic actor but he has also been effective in dramatic roles such as 1981's "Pennies from Heaven", 1987's
"Roxanne" and 2005's "Shopgirl".

At family gatherings, if you are asked if you need/want anything, if you say 'this old chair' you will get groans and giggles.
6. Mel Brooks had a genius for making satiric films in various genres. 1974's "Blazing Saddles" was his poke at the classic western. Cleavon Little is appointed as the black sheriff of a western town where everyone is white and has the last name of Johnson. Toward the end of the film, the leading characters leave the movie set and ride their horses to see a movie. What movie is it?

Answer: Blazing Saddles

Other Mel Brooks satires include "The Producers" (1968) - show business; "Young Frankenstein" (1974) - science fiction; and "History of the World" (1981) - costume drama.

Cleavon Little is appointed sheriff in order to get property owners to sell cheap as part of an elaborate land grab by state's attorney Hedley Lamarr. When the plot is uncovered, the townspeople build a duplicate village with cardboard cutouts of town citizens. When the raiders come, made up of Klu Klux Klan and Nazi soldiers, they find that the replicas are loaded with explosives.

Madeline Kahn was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a brassy German prostitute Lili von Shtupp, the "Teutonic Titwillow". Other nominations were for Original Song and Film Editing. Rotten Tomatoes' rating was 90%.

Things you might look for are Mongo (Alex Karras) who knocks out his horse, a 10 cent toll gate in the middle of a deserted prairie, and Count Basie's orchestra playing "April in Paris" in the wild west.
7. "Harold and Maude" (1971) told the story of a teenager (Bud Cort) and his relationship with a 79 and three quarter year old woman (Ruth Gordon). They shared a common interest in funerals and death in general. Harold liked to play tricks on his mother. What did he do?

Answer: Faked his death and mutilation

Bud Cort starred in this film early in his career but has been generally a character actor since. Ruth Gordon was also primarily a character actress but her appearances were in more visible films such as "Inside Daisy Clover" (1965), "Rosemary's Baby" (1968) and two Clint Eastwood films. Gordon also was a well regarded dramatist with many nominations and awards.

Harold and Maude meet at a stranger's funeral. As they become acquainted, Harold is more obsessed with death but Maude is dedicated to living life to the fullest and this is her lesson to Harold. Harold is moved to marry her but on her 80th birthday, she tells Harold that she has taken a massive doze of sleeping pills and that 80 years was long enough. In the final scene we see Harold holding the banjo she taught him to play and looking toward an uncertain future.

Harold fakes his death eight times in the movie. A few of these are hanging himself, slashing his wrists in the bathtub, using a meat cleaver to cut off his hand, and committing Japanese harakiri.

The film opened to mostly negative reviews but has grown in stature since and has an 86% freshness rating from Rotten Tomatoes.
8. In "The Last Detail", Jack Nicholson and Otis Young play Navy career non-commissioned officers awaiting orders when they are given the assignment of escorting an 18 year old naive sailor to military prison. What actor played the sailor?

Answer: Randy Quaid

Larry Meadows (Quaid) is to serve eight years for petty theft, stealing 40 dollars from a charity collection box. When Buddusky (Nickolson) and Mulhall (Young) realize how naive and how unworldly he is, they decide to expose him to worldly pleasures that he will be denied for the next few years. He drinks beer until he passes out, he fights marines in a restroom, he loses his virginity in a brothel, visits a Buddhist temple, and enjoys 'the world's finest sausage sandwich'. As a last request Larry asks for a picnic before going behind bars but then tries to escape and must be taken by force to prison.

The film generated three Academy Award nominations: Jack Nickolson - Best Actor, Randy Quaid - Best Supporting Actor, and for Screenplay.

Randy Quaid developed into a reliable character actor best known for Cousin Eddie in the 'Vacation' films and for portrayals of Lyndon Johnson, Colonel
Tom Parker, and his appearance in "Brokeback Mountain" (2005).
9. Paul Newman stars as player/coach in "Slap Shot" (1977) with the hapless Charlestown Chiefs, a minor league hockey team. The team's fortunes are at a low ebb when he is sent three new players. They don't look like hockey players so Newman is reluctant to play them but when he does they become a winning team. What is the name of the brothers?

Answer: Hansen brothers

The Hansen brothers are skinny and have coke bottle glasses but they are what are called 'goons' in hockey. They act as human wrecking balls bringing havoc to the ice. They pursue hecklers into the arena, they stand already bloody while the national anthem is being played, they drop their gloves to fight as soon as the puck is dropped. Hockey is a violent sport and the Hansens take it all to a new level. But the violence reaches a point that in protest Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean), the best player, does a striptease on the ice.

The film opened to so-so or negative reviews but it evolved into a cult classic. Gene Siskel said he regretted his initial negative review. "GQ" magazine named it the best 'guy' movie of all time over "Raging Bull". From a low point it has risen to 83% on Rotten Tomatoes. A group calling themselves 'the Hansen Brothers' used to tour Canada and US hockey rinks. My son who was a youth hockey player still considers "Slap Shot" to be one of his favorite films.
10. A gross-out movie is one that is willfully "tasteless" and usually involves gratuitous nudity, unrealistic aggressiveness, toilet humor, and bodily functions. They are generally aimed at a younger male audiences. In this film a college administrator has a vendetta against a fraternity, the slovenly Delta Tau Chi, for their disgusting and disruptive behavior. Although there were minor films that preceded it, what 1978 film is arguably the first commercially successful such film?

Answer: Animal House

The film is a cascade of 'gross out' elements that verify Dean Vernon Wormer's hostility toward the Delta Tau Chi, not the least of which is projectile vomiting. He conspires with another fraternity, Omega Theta Pi, to remove their charter. The Omega Theta Pi, for instance, supply the wrong answers to test questions.

In one incident a Delta man's date passes out and he takes her home in a stolen shopping cart. She just happens to be the mayor's daughter.

The Deltas have a toga party and invite the Dean's wife who not only has a good time but has sex with one of the Deltas.

The Deltas convert an old car into a cake-shaped armored tank and reap destructive mayhem on the homecoming parade.

"Animal House" grossed out a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score and grossed out well at the box office.
Source: Author Rehaberpro

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor jmorrow before going online.
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