Tricky Movie Trivia and Movie Reviews

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I’d love to say that All About Eve is a great movie. Certainly, anyone who watches the DVD extras would get the impression that it is. And if you believe what you hear in the archival interview footage filmed at the time of All About Eve’s release and even many years after, you would probably expect that it’s one of the best movies of the mid-20th century. I think the word perfect was even mentioned several times in the interviews.

I have to say, though; I don’t get it. My take is that it’s a movie with greatness at its heart with lots of fluffy show-biz-type stuff covering it up. The fluffiness comes mostly from a stellar cast that for some reason thought campy would play better than sincere. Many of the characters vamp instead of speak in a direct manner and whine instead of interact, which grows old after just a few minutes. This came as a surprise to me because Miss Bette Davis (along with everyone else in All About Eve) obviously can act. Just one example of that is Now, Voyager, which features BD at her most subtle best.

The rest of the fluff comes from a script that takes itself just a little too seriously. This was another surprise. According to the archival interviews, Eve was the only script in which Davis — famous for angering writers and producers by rewriting scripts — never changed a word because she felt it couldn’t be improved.

Having said all that, I hope I haven’t completely poisoned you against All About Eve. There is some witty dialog, and the themes in the movie are just as timely and worthwhile today as they were in 1950. In fact, you could even say the character of Eve is a timeless icon. Throughout the movie, she worms her way into everyone’s hearts, smiling while she stealthily scratches and claws her way to the top. Sycophantic and obsessed, Eve brought herself from waiting every night by the stage door of the theater where her idol Margo Channing stars in a hit play to finally eclipsing the object of her affection. It reminded me a lot of the time I spent in corporate America.

Without giving away the ending, I’ll tell you that it all works out as the old “what comes around goes around” kicks in for Dear Eve. The ending is actually where the script comes to life for me. There’s an ominous quality to it because we know justice is at hand. I couldn’t help having a Cheshire cat grin as the film reached its conclusion because I knew Eve was going to get a taste of her own medicine — even if it was only going to be off-camera. Whatever the movie’s flaws, that fact actually made it worth the popcorn to me.

Movie trivia from All About Eve

• Tallulah Bankhead, Susan Hayward, Marlene Dietrich, Claudette Colbert, Ingrid Bergman and Gertrude Lawrence were all considered for the part of Margo Channing before Darryl F. Zanuck hired Bette Davis.
• According to the casting director’s list, Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis (eventually, Mrs. Reagan) were considered for the roles of Bill Sampson and Eve Harrington.
• Bette Davis was in the process of breaking up with husband William Sherry while she was making All About Eve. Her raspy voice in the film is due a burst blood vessel in her throat from screaming at her soon-to-be-ex-husband. Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz liked the quality it gave her voice so he encouraged Davis not to try to change it.
• Zsa Zsa Gabor kept coming to the set because she was jealous of her husband George Sanders’ scenes with Marilyn Monroe.
• Bette Davis fell in love with co-star Gary Merrill while shooting All About Eve. They married in July 1950, which was just a few weeks after filming wrapped. They eventually divorced years later.

Other Tricky Movie Trivia classic movie reviews:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• My Man Godfrey
• Now, Voyager
• The Enchanted Cottage
• Born Yesterday

You might also be interested in our trivia quiz about famous movie quotes from Bette Davis movies.

Posted February 18, 2008 Comments(2)

Which type of movie trivia quiz do you find more entertaining, one about celebrity gossip or classic movies?

I don’t think it’s fair to say that people who are looking for movie information and movie trivia are divided into two camps: those who like celebrity gossip and those who like classic black and white movies. I’m sure there are fans of Gregory Peck movies who also like Lindsay Lohan pics. Yet, you have to admit, there is a bit of a generation gap when it comes to movie fans.

If you’re 20, you’re probably much more likely to watch one of the many Lindsay Lohan movies than one of the old romantic stories starring Dorothy McGuire. On the other hand, if you’re 50, watching My Man Godfrey, To Kill a Mockingbird, Now Voyager and The Enchanted Cottage might be much more up your alley. If that’s the case, you probably wouldn’t even care about all the Tinseltown gossip about celebrities in rehab. Conversely, it probably would be hard for a Lindsay Lohan fan to have enough movie facts under his belt to take our movie trivia quiz about Gregory Peck.

If you’re firmly in either camp, it’s easy to think the other is wrong. But both categories have something to offer. For example, new movies, while not always up to the moral standards that many older people would prefer, have a lot of special effects that make for fun movie viewing and great movie trivia questions. On the other hand, while black and white movies sometimes lack production value, they often provide a heartwarming look at another era. Trivia questions about these classic movies are also sometimes easier to answer, because information about them has been around longer.

So, take your pick, the changing world of celebrity gossip or the ever-constant universe that exists in classic movies. Either way, I’m sure you’ll be entertained.

When I came up with the idea of a movie trivia quiz site, I wondered what people were really interested in so I could write about it. I know Lindsay Lohan pics (along with those of other celebrities) is a popular subject, but not necessarily because people think she’s a good actress. (Even though I believe she is.) But I didn’t know if anyone would ever find Lindsay trivia with all the other celebrity gossip sites and blogs competing to talk about her ongoing misspent youth. It made me wonder whether quizzes about Tinseltown classic movies might be better.

But I know people like modern celebrities, so I thought maybe it would be best to start with current movie trivia questions. I began with a 2007 movie trivia quiz — and I made it good and hard. Everyone who took it said they had to struggle to getting even one question correct. So, that made me realize I needed to give people a fighting chance, even though I saw in my Web statistics that someone had been looking for a “hard superbad quiz.” Hard is a relative term I guess, because I had a question in the 2007 trivia quiz about Superbad and I don’t think that’s the question that people got right. That person who was searching might have been looking for a hard trivia question, but was probably unprepared for the gauntlet he would have to run on the Tricky Movie Trivia blog! Or, maybe he was really just searching for a super-bad, hard quiz and I just misinterpreted.

When I checked my Web statistics, I also found that people also were interested in fake names movies are shipped under. Now, I consider this category of questions especially hard to get right. How would you know the names, unless you were a movie insider (or a reader of Tricky Movie Trivia who cheated by looking at the quiz answers)? But, as I said before, people like to challenge themselves. When they’re not looking for celebrity gossip or movie facts, they sometimes want to prove to themselves that they really do have a lot of insider movie information at their fingertips.

In my search to write about topics people want, I posted one movie trivia quiz each about a variety of movies. I touched quite a bit on the teenage genre by writing about these Lindsay Lohan pics: Freaky Friday, Mean Girls, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Herbie Fully Loaded and Just My Luck. But let’s not forget the teenage boys, who can generate their own share of Hollywood gossip. The 2007 Movies Trivia Quiz contained a question about Superbad, as of course did the Superbad and Seth Rogen Trivia Quiz post. That post also contained some questions about two other funny movies, Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

Stars of classic movies vs. trendy celebrities

All of this was well and good, but I wondered if people are interested in more than just movie trivia and Hollywood gossip about celebrities. For example, I wonder if people still care about black and white movies. I’ve written several reviews of To Kill a Mockingbird, which I consider brilliant. (The movie, not the reviews.) Writing about Gregory Peck is a pleasure, because he was every bit as as good a man as the sterling Atticus Finch, the character he played in To Kill a Mockingbird. But do people care about Gregory Peck any more? I hope so. I know the book from which the classic movie was made is still very popular because it was labeled as the Book of the Century by a national association of librarians. But have we become more obsessed with celebrity gossip about who people are sleeping with instead of the content of people’s hearts and minds? Are great ideas dead? Let’s hope not, for all our sakes.

Besides To Kill a Mockingbird, other black and white movies also exemplify the past focus on substance over flash. One of my favorites is The Enchanted Cottage. This romantic movie stars Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young, and teaches the true meaning of love without being preachy. The production value is a little spotty in some places, but the timeless story shines through both the limitations of the medium of black and white film and the haze of each characters’ perceptions. Another example in the romantic movies genre is The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which takes the concept of a love story beyond the grave. It’s truly one of the most romantic movies I’ve ever seen. The storytelling was strong, which made it transcend its being told in black and white.

Classic movies without color are particularly effective for dark, moody romantic stories with ultimate happy endings, but they also work well for comedies. A great example of this is My Man Godfrey. Screwball comedy was never more zany than in this farce that had Carol Lombard and William Powell first at odds, and then, in good old-time Hollywood fashion, in accord. I can’t imagine this movie in color. A certain elegance and Tinseltown glamor was imparted through the colorless medium. When you can shine through black and white, you know you’re a star. It was easy to imagine Carol Lombard and William Powell together at the Copa Cabana or the Brown Derby (before their divorce, of course), because they seemed born to radiate old fashioned Hollywood glamor.

Does it really matter what Lindsay Lohan is doing?

So, why am I going on and on about this? There are several reasons. The first is that I want to know whether people would be more interested in a movie trivia quiz about modern celebrities or if they would prefer movie trivia questions about classic movies. Maybe I should do both. Time will tell.

Over time, I hope to find out whether people really care more about Lindsay Lohan pics and celebrity gossip than how characters in classic movies have modeled good behavior. In the meantime, I plan on having fun writing about what I love: movie trivia. I hope to see you around as I explore the medium I love and meet people who feel the same way.