Quizwoz Answers - Christmas 2012

Christmas Quizwoz: 
The Answers

Hi there.

Thanks to all of you who played. Had some very impressive answers back but nobody got a full house of correct answers on their first entry. However, very special shout out and congratulations to... drumroll please...

Leilani Holmes aka @momentsoffilm

I was very happy she had a go at this because she’s a good writer/director and I’ve reviewed her work before, here and here. So loads of respect to her for being the winner of this year's Christmas Quizwoz by getting the most right with a whopping 17 out of 20! Power to her.

Right then... here are those questions with the answers in full...

Q1. 
Which two directing K’s made contemporary movie versions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and what were the two films called?
Well the K’s who I was looking for were the directors Kurosawa and Kaurismäki, who both made their own versions of Hamlet in a contemporary setting. Akira Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well (1960) and Aki Kaurismäki's Hamlet Goes Business (1987).

Q2. 
What is a common factor, which is fairly unique in films, of the 1952 version of The Prisoner Of Zenda, the 1991 version of Cape Fear and the 1998 version of Psycho?
Only one person got this question right in their original entry. People quite rightly pointed out that all of these films were remakes... but that in itself is not really unique to these three films. We’re at a stage right now in movie history where we have remakes coming out our ears. 

These three movies are quite special in that, for each of these, the original musical score from the previous version was reused for the remake. 

So for the 1952 version of The Prisoner Of Zenda, Alfred Newman reused his own musical score from the 1937 version. For the 1991 version of Cape Fear, Elmer Bernstein was called in to re-record/adapt Bernard Herrmanns famous score for the 1962 version (along with a cue or two from his rejected score to Torn Curtain I believe) and for the1998 version of Psycho, Danny Elfman was called in to adapt Bernard Harrmann’s (once again) iconic score to Hitchcock’s 1960 original.

Q3. 
What do Bob Holness, Barry Nelson and Daniel Craig all have in common?
Well, they’ve all played James Bond. Barry Nelson played him first in the original TV version of Casino Royale in 1955 then, two years later, Bob (Blockbusters) Holness played him on the radio in an adaptation of Moonraker. Then, of course, Daniel Craig started playing Bond from the third version of Casino Royale onwards.

Q4. 
Mechanismo and Dangerous Days were both early working titles for which movie?
They were both early working titles, at various script stages, of the film that was finally called Blade Runner.

Q5.
What do Robert Siodmak, Don Siegel and Andrey Tarkovsky have in common?
They all made film adaptations of Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers (Tarkovsky’s was a short). All three are still available, I believe, on a 2 disc DVD set from Criterion.

Q6.
In which movie did Keira Knightley and Natalie Portman first appear together?
They both appeared together in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Portman played Queen Amidala/Padme and Knightley played her loyal decoy/impersonator.

Q7. 
The two Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie were named after characters from which seasonal film favourite?
Named after the cop and the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life.


Q8. 
Keye Luke took over the role of which oriental detective in the last of a running series of films about the character, and which actor did he replace?
Another one which really seemed to fox people. While it’s true that Keye Luke played Lee Chan (Number One Son) in many of the Chan films (and even played the voice of the great detective himself  in the Hannah Barbara cartoon, years later), he also played the Lee Chan character once in a Mr. Moto film too. However, the actual answer is that he took over the role of Mr. Wong, previously played by Boris Karloff in a short series of films, but then replaced by Keye Luke for the last one in a very different interpretation of the role.

Q9. 
Philip K. Dick’s short story Second Variety was adapted into which film?
This was Screamers, one of the more faithful adaptations of Dick’s work to appear on screen. This is not to be confused with the film Island Of The Fishmen, which was also known as Screamers in some territories.

Q10. 
To date, in Doctor Who, which of The Doctor’s companions has appeared, at one time or another, with the most incarnations of The Doctor?
Sarah Jane Smith as played by Elisabeth Sladen. She has appeared with seven of the Doctors, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 10th and 11th Doctors.

She was a regular companion to both the 3rd and 4th Doctors, then met the 1st (played by Richard Hurndale covering for a dead William Hartnell), 2nd and 5th also, in the anniversary show The Five Doctors. She also appeared with the 10th Doctor a number of times and, most recently before her death, with the 11th Doctor (alongside Katy Manning reprising her role as Jo Grant). 

Q11. 
In television, perceived competition from Davy Jones in The Monkees at a similar time slot lead to the creation of which character for the second series and onwards of the original Star Trek?
Ensign Chekov, as played by Walter Koenig, was brought in from the second series onwards to compete with the popularity of the Davy Jones character in The Monkees. He was a much younger cast member and he even had the same kind of face and was given the same haircut.

Q12. 
The two main protagonists from Linklater’s Before Sunrise and Before Sunset make an ambiguous cameo appearance in which animated movie?
The two characters pop up in Linklaters animated movie, Waking Life.

Q13. 
Which two Peter Cushing movies also feature the talented Caroline Munro?
The two stars both appeared in Hammer’s Dracula AD 1972 (um... 1972) and Amicus’ At The Earth’s Core (1976).

Q14.
Ron Moody appeared as a character in the pilot episode of a TV show, but was replaced by Roddy McDowell in the actual series of what?
Tales Of The Gold Monkey. Ron Moody played Bon Chance Louie in the original pilot episode but Roddy McDowell took over the role from the next episode.

Q15. 
In the Toho classic that had an alternate US title in one of its early releases as Godzilla VS The Thing... who/what was revealed to be The Thing?
Mothra. Indeed, in many countries the film is known as Mothra VS Godzilla.

Q16. 
“Man Is The Warmest Place To Hide.” Which 80s movie had this tagline on the poster?
And talking about “things”... “Man Is The Warmest Place To Hide” was the poster tagline to John Carpenter’s The Thing.

Q17. 
Which of Roger Corman’s famous Edgar Allan Poe “adaptations” for AIP was actually an uncredited adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward?
Edgar Allan Poe’s The Haunted Palace... which so wasn’t Edgar Allan Poe’s, save for a few lines quoted from a poem at the end.

Q18. 
The title of which Michael Crichton novel (and subsequent film adaptation) is an homage to a famous story by Arther Conan Doyle?
The Lost World (later known as The Lost World: Jurassic Park 2) after the first of the Sherlock Holmes creator’s Professor Challenger stories, which features dinosaurs.

Q19. 
Which Spaghetti Western is a remake of one of the Zatoichi (The Blind Swordsmen) films?
Blindman (1971)... which also featured Ringo Starr as a Mexican villain.

Q20. 
Noel Neill replaced another actress from the second season onwards (1953 - 1958) on a TV show playing the same role which she’d formerly played in two Columbia serials in 1947 and 1950. What was the role?
Lois Lane! Noel Neill took over the role from Phyllis Coates in the famous George Reeves show The Adventures Of Superman. Coates had played her for the first series but ducked out for the other five. Noel Neill was already familiar with playing Lois Lane as she had played her twice before in the two Kirk Alyn Superman chapter serials... Superman (1947) and Atom Man Vs Superman (1950 - the Atom Man was Lex Luthor).