Minute A Day About Movies

Final Friday Five, the monthly mini-quiz
Quiz No. 9 | September 24, 2010

The Quiz
The Answers (highlighted below)

1.  Walter Matthau starred in two movies that were directed by actors who directed one film only.  Who are the one-time actor-directors?  (For extra credit, what are the films?)

Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.  Matthau directed himself as “master criminal” Jack Martin in the 1959 film Gangster Story.  Lemmon directed Matthau as the title character, a retired grandfather, in Kotch, in 1971.  Neither Matthau nor Lemmon directed again.

2.  Here are five movie titles that (appear to) use married women’s surnames.

Mrs. Brown
Mrs. Doubtfire
Mrs. Miniver
Mrs. Parkington
Mrs. Soffel

Here are your questions:

a.  Who’s the actress who played the title role in two of the films?
          Greer Garson, star of Mrs. Miniver (1941) and Mrs. Parkington (1944).
b.  In which film did a man play the title role?
          Mrs. Doubtfire, starring Robin Williams in a dual role as divorced dad Daniel Hillard, and in
          drag, as Scottish nanny Euphegenia Doubtfire.
c.  Which title does not refer to the name of a character but to the queen of England?
          Mrs. Brown, a moniker for Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) based on her rumored
          relationship with servant John Brown (Billy Connelly).
d.  Which film was directed by a woman?
          Mrs. Soffel, a 1984 film directed by Gillian Anderson and starring Diane Keaton and Mel Gibson.

3.  Our list of notable films of 1957 included three directed by Billy Wilder.  For each set of stars, name the film.

a.  Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester
          Witness for the Prosecution
b.  Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier
          Love in the Afternoon
c.  Jimmy Stewart, Murray Hamilton, Patricia Smith
          The Spirt of St. Louis

4.  TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival, wrapped this week.  The festival doesn’t have a jury that selects award winners, but it does have a People’s Choice Award.  This year’s honoree is a British production directed by Tom Hooper, starring Colin Firth as a stammering George VI who is preparing for war.  What’s the name of the film?

The King’s Speech.  The film opens in the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend.

5.  Name that Zucker!  Match the correct Zucker(___) with the descriptions below.

Barry Zuckerkorn
Buck Zuckerman
David Zucker
George Zuckerman
Jeff Zucker
Mark Zuckerberg
Mort Zuckerman
Nathan Zuckerman

a.  Billionaire publisher of the New York Daily News and editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report
          Mort Zuckerman
b.  1940s-50s Hollywood screenwriter best known for his collaborations with director Douglas 
      Sirk (Written on the Wind, The Tarnished Angels)
          George Zuckerman
c.  Elder brother in a trio of collaborators best known for Airplane! and The Naked Gun
          David Zucker, brother of Jerry Zucker and friend of Jim Abrahams, all members
          of the ZAZ comedy team (Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker)
d.  Birth name of the actor-writer known as Buck Henry
          Buck Zuckerman
e.  Philip Roth character played by Gary Sinise in the 2003 film The Human Stain
          Nathan Zuckerman
f.  President and CEO of NBC Universal
          Jeff Zucker
g. Henry Winkler’s character on Arrested Development
          Barry Zuckerkorn
h.  Co-founder of Facebook and subject of The Social Network, the new David Fincher movie opening October 1
          Mark Zuckerberg