Since this was so successful when Tom did it, and since I am still recovering from my trip, I am doing a trivia roundtable this week. Answer the following question and you get to post the next question. It can go as long as people are having fun.
In The Graduate, there’s a scene near the end where Dustin Hoffman confronts Katharine Ross in her apartment. An uncredited bit player would rise to stardom and Oscar victory. Name him.
Richard Dreyfuss
Yep. So you get to post a question, Mel.
Only one actor has ever been nominated for Oscars for playing the same character in two otherwise unrelated films i.e. the second wasn’t a sequel to the first (so it wasn’t Al Pacino for Godfathers 1 and 2). Name the actor, character, and movies.
WAG: Richard Massey (playing Abraham Lincoln)?
Nope. Raymond Massey made a career out of playing Lincoln, but was only nominated once for playing him in Abe Lincoln in Illinois.
NORMAN FELL. No? DAMMIT!
Oh, wait, the second question. I just saw the first of the second movies: Peter O’Toole, playing King Henry, in Becket and The Lion in Winter. I didn’t even use Google! So I hope it’s actually right.
Give me a minute for my question: OK, two movies came out in 1966 that had basically the same plot… facial transplants and the issues thereon. Movie(s) and director, please.
Oh, wait, the second question. I just saw the first of the second movies: Peter O’Toole, playing King Henry, in Becket and The Lion in Winter. I didn’t even use Google! So I hope it’s actually right.
Correct! Wow! That’s one of my tougher questions, I was afraid no one would get it and I’d be stuck checking back here all day.
Without Googling, here’s a guess: Seconds (John Frankenheimer) and The Face of Another (some Japanese guy whose name I don’t recall)?
I should have limited it to people who don’t read my website, which is a crapload of people. Hiroshi Teshigahara (Sp?)
Oddly enough, I didn’t read that post–but I did see the Face of Another still in your Flickr photostream. Seconds I remembered on my own.
Okay, here we go: 1989, two movies with the same title, set in the same country, from nearly opposite perspectives.
mumble mumble I knew the King Henry question…
Too obscure? Here’s a hint: the country is Japan.
“Godzilla v. Mecha-mothra”?
Yup. One movie took Godzilla’s side, and the other was from the perspective of Mecha-Mothra.
Or not.
Ok, so it’s norbizness’s turn.
That was a tongue-in-cheek guess, and my response was also tongue-in-cheek. Nobody has guessed correctly…but it doesn’t look like anybody will (it seemed so obvious to me, but who knows?), so I’ll cede Norbizness the next question.
Okay, I guess it was stupid of me to think it was serious. Did I mention how little sleep I’ve been getting?
Seems to me you can take it yourself, Tom.
Tom, is it (are it?) Black Rain–the one by Imamura and the one by Ridley Scott?
Woo-hoo! George gets it. Yup, one Japanese film about the lingering effects of the A-bomb, and one Gringolandian thriller about the evil Japanese. Your question.
Years before Shrek used “Im a Believer,” a famous alternative band of the 80s and early 90s played the song (and “Fame,” too) during a high school reunion scene in a dark comedy from a director who later won an Oscar.
Name the band, film, and director.
Hmmm….I think I know the movie and the director, but I don’t have the band. Have to think about this.
If you want a clue, let me know. And if you know what you think you know, IMDB will provide the answer.
OK, here’s a clue: the orginal drummer for the band went on to form the Golden Palominos.
I was right about the movie and director, and looked up the band: The Feelies, Something Wild, and Jonathan Demme.
Okay, let’s try this: these two starred in four films together over 16 years (not necessarily in this order): a western; a romantic comedy; a classic noir; and a ’50s soaper. Who are they?
That was a hard one, Tom–too many people almost meet the requirements (like Dietrich and Cooper, say). But I think the answer is Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray: 1940’s Remember the Night is the romantic comedy (if a dark one), 1944’s Double Indemnity the noirest of noirs, 1953’s The Moonlighter the Western (thank you IMDB), and 1956’s There’s Always Tomorrow is the soaper.
George, that’s brilliant. I don’t know if it’s what Tom had in mind, but it’s brilliant anyway.
George is right. Well done!
How long is this supposed to go on? Do you really want me to come up with aonther question?
I’ll do whatever is best for the blog and its readers.
I vote for a new question, please.
But that makes it Wednesday trivia, no?
OK, one sequence in this film inspired a line in a Clash song, a cover of a Pogues album, and a homage in a Spike Lee film. Name the original film, the Clash song, the Pogues album, and the Lee film.
For extra credit, the film also has a haunting and beautiful underwater discovery that gets mimicked in what 2001 black and white film.
As long as people are having fun, I am happy to keep it going.
The movie is Night of the Hunter, where Robert MItchum has L-O-V-E tattooed across the fingers of one hand and H-A-T-E across the fingers of the other. The Clash song is Death or Glory, the Pogues album is Peace and Love, and the Lee film is Do The Right Thing. I had to wikipedia the Pogues album. I don’t know the extra credit.
Next question: One actress played the romantic interest of two different time-traveling heroes. Name the actress and the movies.
The great thing about the Pogues album cover is the guy has P-E-A-C-E tattoed on one had, so therefore has an extra finger.
The extra credit: there’s the shot in Hunter when Uncle Bertie sees the dead Shelly Winters in the car at the river bottom, her hair fluttering in the current. The Coen Bros did a homage to it in The Man Who Wasn’t There.
Uh, that’s one hand.
A couple other things I remembered that reference it are Bruce Springsteen’s song “Cautious Man,” though Springsteen changes “love and hate” to “love and fear,” and the T.V. series Lost, where Charlie had the letters written on his fingers.