The 1st Annual Tom Moran Movie Trivia Quiz
The posts here have been getting a trifle grim lately, so I thought I would liven things up a bit.
So I'm offering up the very first Tom Moran Movie Trivia Quiz. Only this quiz is a little different.
How is it different?
It's different in that no one who reads this blog has any way of knowing the answers to any of the questions. In fact, the only person who could possibly get all the answers right is me.
So, unlike any other quiz, this quiz does not test your knowledge -- it can't. It tests your intuition. You have to guess at the answers and see whether or not your hunches are correct. It is multiple choice, though, so your odds of answering any given question correctly just by making a random guess are no worse than one in five.
I think it makes it a lot more interesting.
So I'm going to put this post up for a little more than a week. The contest ends on Sunday, April 29th. You can enter more than once. The first person who answers all the questions correctly will win some sort of a movie-related prize to be determined by me whenever I think of whatever the hell it's going to be. Post your answers in the comment box. I will tell you how many of your answers are right and how many wrong.
Okay? Are we ready?
1) What was the first silent film that Tom saw on a big screen in a movie theater?
a) City Lights
b) Modern Times
c) The General
d) Metropolis
e) Napoleon
2) What is the only film that Tom has ever owned on Beta, VHS and DVD?
a) The Birth of a Nation
b) Citizen Kane
c) Ivan the Terrible
d) Monsieur Verdoux
e) Deep Throat
3) What movie legend did Tom “meet” accidentally while working as a messenger in Manhattan in the late 1970s?
a) Lillian Gish
b) Blanche Sweet
c) Louise Brooks
d) Greta Garbo
e) Fay Wray
4) Which of the following films has Tom not seen at Radio City Music Hall?
a) Metropolis
b) The General
c) Napoleon
d) Casablanca
e) Gone With the Wind
5) What movie star was born in the same neighborhood in Queens that Tom grew up in?
a) Nancy Carroll
b) Jennifer Jason Leigh
c) Paulette Goddard
d) Yvonne DeCarlo
e) Swoosie Kurtz
6) Which film does Tom watch almost every year on Christmas Day?
a) The Birth of a Nation
b) The Gold Rush
c) Triumph of the Will
d) It’s a Wonderful Life
e) Deep Throat
7) In which Woody Allen film did Tom appear as an extra?
a) Bullets over Broadway
b) Husbands and Wives
c) Deconstructing Harry
d) Sweet and Lowdown
e) Match Point
8) Which of these classic 70s films did Tom not see on its Opening Day?
a) The Conversation
b) Chinatown
c) Nashville
d) One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
e) Apocalypse Now
9) Which Manhattan revival house almost became Tom’s mailing address during the first half of the 1980s?
a) The Carnegie Hall Cinema
b) The Bleecker Street Cinema
c) The Metro
d) The Regency
e) The Thalia
10) What was the first film Tom showed at his first lecture at CUNY?
a) Those Awful Hats!
b) Double Indemnity
c) Triumph of the Will
d) The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
e) Modern Times
And, for extra bonus points:
11) Which Michael Curtiz film is Tom’s current favorite film?
a) The Mystery of the Wax Museum
b) The Kennel Murder Case
c) Four Daughters
d) The Adventures of Robin Hood
e) Yankee Doodle Dandy
f) Casablanca
g) Mission to Moscow
Labels: Movie Quiz, Tom Moran
posted by Tom Moran @ 12:15 PM
15 comments
15 Comments:
Some of my answers are less intuition for me than it is "wishful thinking":
1.b 2.e 3.c 4.e 5.a 6.d
7.a 8.d 9.b 10.b 11.d
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O.k. Lets try that comment again... I feel bad after reading those questions because I feel like I don't even know my own Uncle. :( The Only answer that I think I know is number 7. Which I'm pretty sure is A. Bullets over Broadway where you appeared as an audience member. Sorry Uncle Tommy. :(
Christina, you got three right (1, 7 and 8). Geoff, you're one for one! :)
1. b
2. b
3. a
4. d
5. d
6. c
7. a
8. d
9. e
10. e
11. b
I first came up with a number of the same responses as christina, but changed my mind based on your feedback to her. :) Is that cheating????
V
xo
No, it's not cheating. I wouldn't have told Christina what her correct answers were if I didn't want others (or even Christina herself) to build on them. Besides, this is an extra hard quiz (it's not like you can look this stuff up on the imbd or Wikipedia), so I figure different rules apply.
V, you've gotten 6 right: 1, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11. Tres bien!
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Try this again:
1.b 2. a 3.e 4.b
5.c 6.c 7.a 8.d
9.e 10.a 12.b
Christina, you're so close!
The only two you haven't answered correctly are 2 and 3.
Okay Tom, I'll flash the Double Ds for 2 and 3.
That might not be my final answer. :-)
Three is correct. Two is wrong.
One more and you win something or other. :)
1.b 2.c 3.d 4.b 5.c 6.c
7.a 8.d 9.e 10.a 11.b
We have a winner! :)
Okay. Now the answers and explanations:
Question 1) What was the first silent film that Tom saw on a big screen in a movie theater?
Answer b) Modern Times, which I saw when it was the first film shown in the Chaplin revival of ther early 70s. I saw it for thr first time at the (now defunct) Lincoln Art Theater on 57th Street, and it changed my life.
Question 2) What is the only film that Tom has ever owned on Beta, VHS and DVD?
Answer c) Ivan the Terrible. i saw it for the first time on a big screen at the (now defunct) Carnegie Hall Cinema in 1974, and I've seen it countless times since (the last time I saw it on a big screen was a week ago at Anthology Film Archives -- both parts back to back in Russian with no subtitles). I've owned it on Beta, VHS and DVD. Of the other films, I own "The Birth of a Nation" only in VHS. I've only owned "Citizen Kane" on VHS. I recently acquired the Image version of "Monsieur Verdoux" on DVD, never before having owned it in any other format. And I've never owned a copy of "Deep Throat": in any format. I know you're shocked to hear that. but I do know its theme song by heart.
Question 3) What movie legend did Tom “meet” accidentally while working as a messenger in Manhattan in the late 1970s?
Answer d) Greta Garbo. When I was working as a messenger for United Cerebral Palsy in the late 70s, I was sent up to an antiques store to pick up something that was going to be sold at a charity auction. While the clerk went down to retrieve the item I got into a conversation with an elderly woman who was browsing ni the store, and when the clerk came back he informed me that the woman I'd been chatting up for five minutes was Greta Garbo. Of the other ladies, I did get a letter from Lillian Gish when I saw 12, and I was in the same room with Fay Wray when she introduced a screening of "The Wedding March" at the New York Film Festival.
Question 4) Which of the following films has Tom not seen at Radio City Music Hall?
Answer b) The General. I saw Metropolis (the first silent film ever shown at Radio City) in 1975. I saw Napoleon twice in 1981, and later in the decade I saw both Casablanca and Gone With the Wind.
Question 5) What movie star was born in the same neighborhood in Queens that Tom grew up in?
Answer Paulette Goddard, who was born in Whitestone, Queens.
Question 6) Which film does Tom watch almost every year on Christmas Day?
Answer c) Triumph of the Will. Just as I'm notorious among my immediate family for eating sushi on Thanksgiving, I like to watch "Triumph of the Will" on Christmas -- to remind myself of what Christians are capable.
Question 7) In which Woody Allen film did Tom appear as an extra?
Answer a) Bullets Over Broadway. Although I was one of the "Woody People" for several years, this was the only Woody movie I ever appeared in -- a reward for a favor I had done the wardropbe department. I worked a 16-hour day, appeared in two scenes and was paid $108.
Question 8) Which of these classic 70s films did Tom not see on its Opening Day?
Answer d) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Although I saw most of the classic American films of the 1970s on their openening day, I didn't get around to seeing Milos Forman's Oscar winner at all until 2005.
Question 9) Which Manhattan revival house almost became Tom’s mailing address during the first half of the 1980s?
Answer e) The Thalia. Although I saw many films at each of the revival houses listed (most of which don't exist anymore), I saw so many films at the Thalia between 1980 and 1985 that the concession girls used to say "Your money's no good here" when I tried to pay for my Dr. Pepper.
10) What was the first film Tom showed at his first lecture at CUNY?
Answer a) Those Awful Hats! I showed a numbr of silent comedies, starting with Griffith's 1909 short, because I wanted to demonstrate that everything in American film really does flow from him and that he's not just the director of "The Birth of a Nation." I followed "Those Awful Hats!" with the Pathe version of "Shoulder Arms," Buster Keaton's "Cops," "Safety Last" and then for the sorbet I showed the MGM Hanna-Barbera cartoon "Mouse in Manhattan," which quotes "Safety Last," to show that the legacy of silent comedy lived on in animation.
Question 11) Which Michael Curtiz film is Tom’s current favorite film?
Answer b) The Kennel Murder Case. I think the true test of a classic is how many times you can watchit without getting bored. For example, while I guess I admire Quentin Tarantino's films, there isn't one of them that I'd want to see twice. But I could watch "The Kennel Murder Case" every week and not get tired of it. That's a classic.
Congratulations, Christina! E-mail me at Feuillade@aol.com to get your prize (once I figure out what it is -- although I think you csn guess).
Awwww. Any prize for the runner-up? I've already flashed my... well not double D's... but close enough. :)
Sorry V, we already have a winner. :(
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