My Favourite Movies 9 for 10. Trivia Quiz

Answer: North by Northwest

"North by Northwest" (1959) started quite innocently, with Roger Thornhill (played by Cary Grant) dining at some restaurant. But an unfortunate coincidence gave some spies the impression that Thornhill was the elusive George Kaplan. The spies tried to set up a deadly accident in which Thornhill would be the victim, but this plot failed. Thornhill then travelled throughout the USA, on the run for the police (as he was accused of murder) and for the spies.

After an iconic fight with a crop dusting plane, Thornhill ended up on top of Mount Rushmore trying to save Eve Kendall (role by Eva Maria Saint). "Vertigo" (1958), "Psycho" (1960) and "Spellbound" (1945) are some other masterpieces of Alfred Hitchcock.

Answer: Italy

"Quo Vadis" was set in the year 64 AD. It told the story of the Roman general Marcus Vinicius (role by Robert Taylor) who fell in love with Lygia (Deborah Kerr) - not realising that Lygia was a devoted Christian. Peter Ustinov played a very personal interpretation of Emperor Nero, who (according to the movie) sang and played the lyre when seeing Rome burn to the ground.

The Emperor then blamed the Christians of having started the fire, and many Christians were sentenced to die in the arena - among them also Lygia and the meanwhile converted Marcus Vinicius. The other countries have also been the setting of some of my other favourite epic movies: "Ben Hur" (1959) played for a significant part in present-day Israel, "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) played largely in what is now known as Saudi Arabia, and "Cleopatra" (1963) was of course related to Egypt.

Answer: Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) was this multiple talent. In one of his best known movies, Chaplin portrayed a Jewish barber in the fictive nation of Tomainia, ruled by the tyrant Adenoid Hynkel. Hynkel started persecution of non-Aryans. Hynkel dreamt of world dominance (the famous scene where the dictator was dancing with a world globe), but the end was not what he hoped for.
Chaplin is also known for "Modern Times" (1936) and "Limelight" (1952).
Welles was also a polyvalent movie person. He wrote and directed "Citizen Kane" (1941) and played the title role.
Peter Ustinov wrote and directed "Romanoff and Juliet" 1961), in which he also played the leading role. But he's better known for his roles as Nero in "Quo Vadis" (1951) and Batiatus, the gladiator trainer in "Spartacus" (1960).
David Niven is best known for his role as The Phantom in the "Pink Panther" series. He also produced one episode and directed two other episodes in the TV series "Zane Grey's Theater" (1957-1960).

Answer: Hayakawa

Kintaro Hayakawa (1886-1973) chose as first name Sessue instead of his birth name. He started his career in 1914 with roles in 14 short movies and two full-feature movies, of which I'll mention "The Wrath of the Gods". In 1916, he played the main roles in "The Soul of Kura San" and "The Honourable Friend".
But in the west Hayakawa is far better known for his role as Colonel Saito. His character was appointed to lead a prisoner of war camp in Thailand during the Second World War. Colonel Saito decided that he needed every available man to build a railway bridge, and so he ordered the prisoners of war (including the officers) to help on the construction site. But the English colonel Nicholson (played by Alec Guinness) saw it differently...
Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) was one of the leading Japanese directors, known for "Ran" (1950) and "Seven Samurai". Toshiro Mifune (1920-1997) played in both these movies, and is perhaps best known for his role as Toranaga in the Tv mini-series "Shogun" (1980). And Hayao Miyazaki (born 1941) gained world fame with animated movies such as "Princess Mononoke" (1997) and "Spirited Away" (2001).

Answer: Orlando Bloom

The elf is Legolas Greenleaf, the blacksmith is named Will Turner, and the ancient prince is Paris.
Orlando Bloom played Legolas in the trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" (2001-2003) and in two of the three movies in "The Hobbit" series (2012-2014). Legolas was a fierce archer who fought bravely alongside the wizard Gandalf, the hobbits and the later king, Aragorn - not to mention the dwarf Gimli. Indeed, the friendship between Legolas and Gimli and their competition who would kill the most enemies have stirred great quotes. Viggo Mortensen played the role of Aragorn in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Bloom also played Will Turner, the fiancé of Elisabeth Swann (role by Keira Knightley) in four movies in the "Pirates" series (2003-2017). The main pirate was Jack Sparrow (role by Johnny Depp), and his archenemy Barbossa was played by Geoffrey Rush.
In "Troy" (2004) Bloom played the role of Paris, the Trojan prince who fell in love with Helen (role by Diane Kruger). During the siege of Troy, Paris was not quite the fierce defender - that was Hector (played by Eric Bana).

Answer: Liam Neeson

Liam Neeson (born 1952) started his movie career with "Pilgrim's Progress" (1978). After his main role in "Schindler's List", he also starred as "Rob Roy" (1995) and "Michael Collins" (1996). Furthermore he appeared in "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" (1999) and "Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker" (2019).
"Schindler's List" was named after the Jewish people Oskar Schindler employed in his factory Deutsche Emailwaren Fabrik in Krakow. So technically, Schindler is not the title character: the more than thousand Jews on the famous list are.
The movie is based upon the true story of Oskar Schindler, a Nazi entrepreneur who bought an enamelware factory in Poland at the start of World War II and employed only Jews - according to a remark Neeson made in the movie, because one had to pay Jews less than Poles. Gradually making money became to Schindler less important than saving his employees from the extermination camps.
In "Schindler's List", Ralph Fiennes had the role of Amon Goetz, commander of the Krakow concentration camp. Ben Kingsley (as the chief accountant Itzhak Stern) and Jonathan Sagall (as the philosophy professor Poldek Pfefferberg) were two of the many actors who interpreted one of the character's on the famous list.

Answer: Smith

Maggie Smith (born 1934) started her career in 1955. She acted in theatres, in TV movies, and on the silver screen. Some of her better known roles were the title role in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brody" (1969), the chaperone Charlotte Bartlett in "A Room with a View" (1985) and Constance Trentham in "Gosford Park" (2001). In the "Harry Potter" series (2001-2011) she played the role of Professor Minerva McGonagall, teacher of Transfiguration, head mistress of Gryffindor (and later the headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry).
Maggie Smith appeared in all of the eight "Harry Potter" movies but "The Deathly Hallows Part I" (2010).
Julie Walters (as Molly Weasley), Geraldine Sommerville (as Lily Potter) and Fiona Shaw (as Petunia Dursley) were three other actresses who appeared in many of the eight "Harry Potter" movies.

Answer: Oz

Frank Oz (born 1944) is known as a puppeteer and voice actor. He is best known for the television series "The Muppet Show" (1976-2016) and "Sesame Street" (1969-2014), and played several roles in both of these series. In the "Star Wars" movies, Oz played the wise alien Yoda (of an unspecified race), one of the most esteemed Jedi Masters. Although his name was mentioned, Yoda did not appear in "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" (1977) nor in "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens".
The "Star Wars" series consists of three trilogies: the original series (1977-1983), the prequels (1999-2005) and the sequels (2015-2019). Several actors did work on movies in more than one of the trilogies. The only actor who was credited for his role in each of the nine movies, was Anthony Daniels as the droid C-3PO.
Kenny Baker (1934-2016) created the role of the droid R2-D2 and thus appeared in seven of the movies. In "Episode VIII" R2-D2 was played by Jimmy Vee, and in "Episode IX" the character was interpreted by Hassan Taj and Lee Towersey.
James Earl Jones (born 1931) voiced the character of Darth Vader in the original trilogy. His voice can also be heard in "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" (2002) and "Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker" (2019).

Answer: Nicaise Jean-Louis

Nicaise Jean Louis appeared as Yo Macumba in the aforesaid movie, and made also a brief appearance in "Moonraker" (1979).
The "Gendarme" series is about six local policemen in Saint-Tropez. The main roles are for Louis de Funès as Ludovic Cruchot, Michel Galabru as his chef Jerome Gerber, and Guy Grosso (gendarme Tricard) and Michel Modo (gendarme Berlicot). The series consists of six movies that hit the theatres in 1964 until 1982.
In the last movie "Le gendarme et les gendarmettes", the Saint-Tropez police corps was responsible for four female police trainees: Christine Rocourt (played by Catherine Serre), Isabelle Leroy (played by Sophie Michaud), Marianne Bonnet (role by Elisabeth Etienne) and Yo Macumba (Nicaise Jean Louis), who happens also to be the daughter of the president of an African oil producing company. But one after the other the girls are kidnapped by a sinister gang...

Answer: Nicholson

Jack Nicholson (born 1937) is the one we're looking for. He started his career in 1958 with a small part in "The Cry Baby Killer". Soon he rose to prominence, and he started collecting Oscar nominations at the end of the sixties.
In "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" Jack played Randle McMurphy, a petty criminal who pleaded insanity to escape prison. But the mental asylum where he was admitted to, was far worse...
Between 1969 and 2002, Jack Nicholson played in twelve movies that gained him an Oscar nomination as Best Actor (eight nominations, two wins) or Best Supporting Actor (four nominations, one win). His best known roles for which he was nominated were detective Gittes in "Chinatown" (1974), Randall McMurphy, and Melvin Udall ("As Good As It Gets", 1997).