2016 Film Trivia

Based on the 2016 VFF movie selection

Questions

1. Twelve years after Roman Holiday, Eddie Albert starred in a sitcom in which he played a Manhattan lawyer who takes up farming. Name the TV show.
2. Which came first: Jezebel or Gone with the Wind?
3. Who sang Bette Davis Eyes? In what year was it a hit?
4. What was Alfred Hitchcock's next big smash after Psycho?
5. Are John and Lionel Barrymore (Grand Hotel) related to Drew?
6. Which actresses toppled Bette Davis' record for the most Oscar nominations?
7. In Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock gives us a visual clue that his protagonist, Marion (Janet Leigh), has crossed the line from good to evil. How?
8. If you didn't know Ernest Borgnine (The Catered Affair) for his award-winning performance in 1955's Marty, you might recognize him from which 1960s sitcom?
9. What cheeky comment did William Wyler allegedly make when cast and crew complained about meddling interference from newcomer Barbra Streisand when he directed her in Funny Girl, her first movie, in 1968?
10. Bette Davis met her fourth husband while shooting All About Eve. Who was he?
11. Which came first: Harry Belafonte's signature Banana Boat Song (Day-O) or his starring role in Carmen Jones?

Answers

1. Green Acres, which ran from 1965 to 1971.
2. Jezebel was on the back-burner for years, but only got the green light when GWTW (the novel) hit the best-sellers list. The movie version appeared in 1939, a year after Jezebel.
3. Bette Davis Eyes was recorded by Jackie DeShannon in 1974, but it was Kim Carnes' 1981 cover that topped the charts. Davis reportedly loved the song and thanked Carnes for making her "a part of modern times."
4. The Birds
5. Yes. Brothers John and Lionel were part of the Barrymore theatrical dynasty. Drew Barrymore is John's granddaughter via his third wife, Dolores Costello.
6. Davis earned 10 nominations, but Katharine Hepburn eventually had 12. Meryl Streep holds the current record with 19, so far.
7. Early in the movie, Leigh is shown getting dressed, wearing a white slip and undergarments. Once she has decided to go through with stealing her boss' payroll, Hitchcock dressed her in black underwear. It's a kind of play on the old convention in westerns that suggests white hats are worn by the good guys, black by the bad.
8. McHale's Navy, which aired for four seasons starting in 1962.
9. "You'll have to forgive Barbra. This is the first film she's ever directed."
10. Gary Merrill. They named their daughter Margot, after the character Davis played in the movie.
11. Belafonte earned his role in Carmen Jones on the strength of his recording career. Ironically, his voice was dubbed for the movie. Day-O came two years later in 1956.