The Directors: The Match Game Two Quiz

Answer: Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese was grouped with Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg in what was called the 'Brat Pack" of film directors. After working on several short films he had an opportunity to work on the documentary "Woodstock" (1970). Eventually this led to his first commercially successful film "Mean Streets" (1973).

Two 'Brat Pack' associates, Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel, star as brothers in this crime drama that relies on many of themes found in later Scorsese films ("Goodfellas" (1990), "The Departed" (2006)) - guilt, redemption, faith, machismo, crime, and gang conflict.

Rotten Tomatoes:98%

Answer: D. W. Griffith.

Perhaps stunned by the reaction to his previous film "Birth of a Nation" (1915) Griffith sought a measure of redemption that might erase the accusations of racism and stereotyping by directing "Intolerance"; however, Griffith denied this.

The three and a half hour drama is cut into four sections, each representing another era and examples of intolerance through the ages including modern times, Babylonia, Judea, and French renaissance.

Rotten Tomatoes: 97%

Answer: Orson Welles

You don't leave a baby alone in the bath tub; you snuff out a cigarette before tossing it away; and you don't leave a movie unedited and leave the country. These are bitter lessons learned by Orson Welles over "The Magnificent Ambersons".

While Welles was filming a documentary in South America, the studio ordered that the film be edited. In the process about an hour of film was deleted and believed destroyed. This included about 15 scenes which were either shortened or deleted. Also, the studio demanded a 'happy' ending, not the ironic one that Welles had planned.

"The Magnificent Ambersons" is a chronicle of the decline of a prominent family that leads up to George Amberson Minafer (Tim Holt) getting his well deserved 'comeuppance'. In spite of all the conflicts, the film was accorded four Academy Award nominations - Welles for Best Picture, Agnes Moorehead for Supporting Actress and for Art Direction and Cinematography.

Rotten Tomatoes: 91%

Answer: Charles Chaplin

Technical innovations came in 1929 when sound came to the movies. All major studios leapt on the sound bandwagon. But Charles Chaplin still had faith in the silent screen as an artistic form.

In "Modern Times" we see again the lonely tramp that Chaplin portrayed for years. Do we really want the tramp to speak? Probably not. Hence the silent format is more apt. We see the tramp screwing on endless bolts and being caught in a machine.

All the reviews from the time were positive.

Rotten Tomatoes: !00%

Answer: Victor Fleming, King Vidor, George Cukor, Norman Taurog

This is a multigenerational film, equally loved by generations of children and still loved by the adults they become. There are few that can not recall scenes and dialogue as Dorothy is swept up by the tornado and deposited in the world of Oz with the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, Good and Bad Witches, and the Wizard himself.

It is difficult to sort out the four directors. Victor Fleming was the main director; Norman Taurog directed a few scenes; George Cukor's role is vague; and King Vidor directed the black and white scenes.

Rotten Tomatoes: 99%

Answer: Preston Sturges

First you must understand that the Hays Office in 1944 had an iron grip on censorship in movies. "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" was on the studio shelf for a year until it was finally released in 1944. One must wonder how they missed this one.

Betty Hutton plays Trudy Kockenlocker who gets very drunk on a date with a soldier and gets married to him on a whim. She doesn't remember his name except it has a 'z' in it. Nor does she remember the fake name she gave. It all gets complicated when she finds she is pregnant. It is a comedy.

Preston Sturges was nominated for Best Screenplay.

Rotten Tomatoes: 88%

Answer: Billy Wilder

The most quoted line in "Sunset Boulevard" - "All right Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." - has led many people to believe that DeMille directed the film. Although he does appear in the film as himself, Billy Wilder is the actual director.

Nora Desmond (Gloria Swanson) is an aged and reclusive former silent film star attended by her former director Max von Mayerling (Erich von Stroheim). Desmond's world is dominated by a return to the screen and Joe Gillis (William Holden) is hired to help her do this. Nancy Olson and Jack Webb are seen in supporting roles. "Sunset Boulevard" was nominated for 11 Academy Awards including the four main actors. As time passed it has been converted into a musical.

Billy Wilder was a prolific director. He directed many German and French films. His later films were all English included "Lost Weekend" (1945), "The Apartment" (1960), "Stalag 17" (1953), and "Some Like It Hot" (1959).

Rotten Tomatoes: 98%

Answer: Fritz Lang

Students of film often reference the German expressionism movement. Fritz Lang's dystopian masterpiece of "Metropolis" is a classic example. A futuristic city divided between the working class and the elite. The son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class girl but she is a prophet and visualizes a savior to achieve equality. The sets are creative and the special effects are advanced for the era.

Lang left Germany in the early 1930s after directing Peter Lorre in the classic "M" and directed many English language films such as "The Woman in the Window" (1944).

Rotten Tomatoes: 99%

Answer: Alfred Hitchcock

Jeff" Jefferies (James Stewart) is a photographer recovering from an accident and confined to his apartment and a wheelchair. On a daily basis the only people he sees are his girlfriend Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) and his health aid Stella (Thelma Ritter). Boredom leads him and his binoculars to survey his neighbors on the courtyard in what he perceives as an innocent act of voyeurism but proves to have its dark side, particularly with Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr).

Basically "Rear Window" is a one set mystery but the furnishings are detailed including a drainage system for rain storms. It has been the subject of parody on many occasions. It has been remade twice with Christopher Reeves and Shia LaBeouf in the Stewart role, neither quite come close to the original. The best film to emerge with the theme of voyeurism is Brian De Palma's 1984 film "Body Double".

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound, and Best Cinematography.

Rotten Tomatoes: 100%

Answer: George Cukor

This screwball romantic comedy concerns Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) who has the dilemma of choosing among her fiancé, her ex-husband, or someone new. Hepburn had several unsuccessful roles in a row so she bought rights to this Broadway play. The studio still had doubts hence it added Cary Grant, James Stewart, and John Howard to the cast for box office appeal.

The film received six Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Actor, James Stewart, and for Best Screenplay, Donald Ogden Stewart (not related).

Rotten Tomatoes: 100%

Answer: John Huston

A rarity at the time, the film was made mostly on location in Mexico. Two Americans down on their luck (Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt) team up with an old prospector (Walter Huston and the director's father) to search for gold. Once the gold is found, the partnership is dissolved by greed.

A popular catch phase from the film is "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!" It is often misquoted or abbreviated. In "UHS" (1989) the host of a TV animal show states, "I don't want no stinking badgers!"

At the Academy Awards John Huston took home Best Director and Screenplay honors while his father won Best Supporting Actor.

The scene where Bogart is decapitated was removed by the censors causing Bogart to remark ""What's wrong with showing a guy getting his head cut off?"

Rotten Tomatoes: 100%

Answer: Roman Polanski

Mia Farrow plays Rosemary Woodhouse and John Cassavetes as her husband. Unknown to her, she has fallen into a coven of demons who arrange to have her pregnated by the Devil. Polanski envisioned a more girl-next-door star such as Tuesday Weld or then-fiancée Sharon Tate. In spite of her waif-like appearance, she proved to be perfect for the role.

Ruth Gordon for her role as Minnie Castevet won an Oscar for her supporting role. It was remade in 2014 with Zoe Saldana as Rosemary.

Rotten Tomatoes: 99%

Answer: Sergei Eisenstein

Originally planned as a propaganda film to glorify the Russian Revolution, it turned out to be both a masterpiece of cinema art and an object of controversy. Stalin, for instance, had it banned in Russia for many years.

Sailors stationed aboard the Potemkin refuse to eat rotten and worm infested meat. Those who refused to eat were to be disciplined but the sailors rebel against the officers. They are welcomed in Odessa by the people but the Czar's soldiers descend upon them on the Odessa steps and a slaughter ensues.

Allusions to "Battleship Potemkin" pop up in other films. The runaway baby carriage in the Odessa steps scene can be seen in "The French Connection" (1971) and "The Untouchables" (1987). The scattered glasses are replicated in "The Godfather" (1972). The film was named the greatest film of all time at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958 and appears on many best film lists.

Rotten Tomatoes: 100%

Answer: Elia Kazan

The lives of Stanley and Stella Kowalski (Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter) can never be the same after her sister, a school teacher, Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh), comes to live with them. On various levels Blanche draws people in on her mental health issues, her delusions, and her alleged promiscuity. As she says, "I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers." Blanche and Stanley remain wary of each other and Blanche finds a friend in Mitch (Karl Malden). While Stella is having a baby, Blanche and Stanley have an argument that leads to Blanche's rape. Stella leaves Stanley and Blanche is taken to a mental hospital.

Leigh, Hunter, and Malden all received Oscars for their acting performances. Brando was nominated but did not win, but it was the first of four consecutive years that he was on the ballot.

Rotten Tomatoes: 98%

Answer: Robert Wiene

Paired with "Battleship Potemkin", this film has been studied clip-by-clip by thousands of film school students. The same might also be said about the appraisal of its symbolism. It is an early example of the German expressionist school.

The plot involves Doctor Caligari's cabinet in which he keeps a somnambulist (sleep walker) that he unleashes at night to kill. It is generally regarded as the first true horror film. It has been praised for its creativity.

Something about this film eludes me as the scenes seem disconnected. There is really not a sense of cohesiveness to me.

Rotten Tomatoes: 100%