149 Fun Facts About Classic Movies

Who directed, co-wrote and starred in Citizen Kane (1941) at the age of 25?

Orson Welles had never made a feature film, yet RKO gave him the right of final cut, a freedom almost unheard of for a newcomer, on the strength of his fame from the War of the Worlds radio broadcast.

In Casablanca (1942), what is the name of the nightclub owned by Humphrey Bogart's character?

Rick's Café Américain existed only as a studio set until 2004, when a former American diplomat opened a real Rick's Café in the Moroccan city, designed to recreate the one in the film.

Who directed Psycho (1960)?

Alfred Hitchcock kept costs down by shooting Psycho with the crew of his television series, then insisted on an unusual rule for cinemas: no one was to be admitted once the film had started.

What is the dying word of newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane (1941)?

Rosebud sends a reporter hunting for its meaning, and he never finds it: only the audience sees the name on Kane's childhood sled as it is thrown into a furnace.

Which actor played Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972)?

Marlon Brando won Best Actor for the role and refused it: he stayed away from the ceremony and sent Sacheen Littlefeather to decline the Oscar in protest at Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans.

What color are Dorothy Gale's magical slippers in the 1939 MGM musical?

Ruby red was the film's own idea: in L. Frank Baum's novel Dorothy's magic shoes are silver, and the change is said to have been made so that they would stand out in colour photography.

Which 1975 film is credited with inventing the summer blockbuster?

Jaws became the highest-grossing film up to that time, although its mechanical shark broke down so often that the director chose to suggest the creature rather than show it for most of the running time.

Who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars (1977)?

Alec Guinness told friends in letters that the script was 'fairy-tale rubbish', yet the part he doubted brought him an Oscar nomination.

Who played Scarlett O'Hara in the 1939 film of Margaret Mitchell's novel?

Vivien Leigh was a British outsider in a much-publicised search for the role: the producer first met her on the night the burning of Atlanta was filmed, and she was tested and signed within weeks.

Which classic film features the line 'Here's looking at you, kid'?

Casablanca's best-known line was not in the draft scripts: Humphrey Bogart is thought to have first said it to Ingrid Bergman off camera, during a poker game between takes.

In The Shawshank Redemption (1994), what does Andy Dufresne use to tunnel through his cell wall?

A rock hammer so small that Red jokes it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel out with it; Andy does it in nineteen, hiding the hole behind the pin-up posters on his cell wall.

Who directed Schindler's List (1993)?

Steven Spielberg doubted he was ready for the subject and for years tried to hand the film to other directors before deciding that he had to make it himself.

Which 1940 adaptation of a Daphne du Maurier novel was the 'Master of Suspense's' first American film?

Rebecca won Best Picture, the only one of its director's films ever to do so, yet he lost Best Director that night and never won that award in five nominations.

In The Godfather (1972), what does Hollywood producer Jack Woltz wake up to find in his bed?

The head of his prize racehorse was real: the director disliked the studio's fake, so the crew obtained one from a company that was slaughtering horses for dog food.

The line 'You talkin' to me?' is spoken to a mirror by Travis Bickle in which 1976 film?

Taxi Driver's screenwriter has said the speech was improvised on set by the film's star, in a scene where the lonely Travis imagines a confrontation that lets him draw his gun.

Which actor won an Oscar for the title role in Ben-Hur (1959)?

Charlton Heston got the part after Paul Newman flatly refused it: Newman had hated making an earlier costume epic, The Silver Chalice, and said he didn't have the legs for a tunic.

Who played the title character in Lawrence of Arabia (1962)?

Peter O'Toole was little known when he won the part, after Albert Finney screen-tested for it and turned it down; it earned the first of his eight Best Actor nominations, none of which he won.

Which real-life newspaper tycoon banned any mention of Citizen Kane (1941) from his papers?

William Randolph Hearst was enraged by a film whose Charles Foster Kane was partly modelled on him, and Hollywood feared his revenge: studio boss Louis B. Mayer is reported to have tried to buy the negative and destroy it.

Which classic film features the chariot race as its most famous scene?

Ben-Hur's race lasts under ten minutes on screen, but its arena covered eighteen acres, the largest film set built up to that time, and some eighty horses were shipped to Italy from Yugoslavia and Sicily to run it.

Who directed 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)?

Stanley Kubrick won the only Oscar of his career for this film, and it was not for directing: the award was for the special visual effects, which he had designed and supervised himself.

Which 1950 film ends with Norma Desmond announcing that she is ready for her close-up?

Sunset Boulevard ends with the faded silent star believing that the newsreel cameras sent to cover her arrest are filming her comeback; Cecil B. DeMille, the director she addresses, plays himself in the film.

Which 1994 film won the Academy Award for Best Picture over The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction?

Forrest Gump took six Oscars that night, while The Shawshank Redemption won none of its seven nominations; it found its audience later, as the most rented video of 1995.

Which film was the top-grossing release of the 1990s and the first to pass $1 billion?

Titanic was the most expensive film made up to that time, a $200 million production that two studios had to share; it earned over $1.8 billion and stayed the top earner until the same director's Avatar.

Who played Norman Bates in the original Psycho (1960)?

Anthony Perkins never left Norman Bates behind: he returned to the role in three sequels between 1983 and 1990, and directed the third film in the series himself.

In which 1954 film does Marlon Brando tell his brother 'I coulda been a contender'?

On the Waterfront has ex-boxer Terry Malloy say it to his brother Charley in the back of a cab, blaming him for making Terry throw the fight that could have made his name.

What was the first feature-length animated film made by Walt Disney?

Snow White was known around Hollywood as 'Disney's Folly' while it was being made, because of its huge cost, and Walt Disney had to borrow heavily to finish it; it went on to break attendance records.

In Rear Window (1954), what is Jimmy Stewart's character's profession?

Photographer L.B. Jefferies is stuck at home with a broken leg, so he watches his neighbours through a long lens; the whole film was shot on one vast courtyard set of 31 apartments built inside the studio.

Which classic film popularized the phrase 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn'?

Gone with the Wind nearly lost the line: the Hays Office at first refused to certify the film with the word 'damn' in it, and gave way only weeks before the premiere after the producer argued it was no curse.

Who composed the menacing two-note theme of Jaws?

John Williams first played the two notes on a piano for the director, who is said to have laughed, taking the idea for a joke; the finished score won an Academy Award.

Which computer answers 'I'm afraid I can't do that' when asked to open the pod bay doors in 2001: A Space Odyssey?

HAL 9000 refuses because it has read the astronauts' lips while they talked in a sealed pod, and knows they plan to disconnect it.

Which actress starred in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)?

Audrey Hepburn was not the author's choice: Truman Capote, who wrote the original novella, wanted Marilyn Monroe to play Holly Golightly.

In The Silence of the Lambs (1991), what is Hannibal Lecter's profession?

Psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter helps FBI trainee Clarice Starling only on his own terms: instead of the deal she offers, he demands a quid pro quo, an insight for each painful memory of her childhood.

Which film first won Academy Awards for Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay?

It Happened One Night swept the five top Oscars although Claudette Colbert was so sure of losing that she skipped the ceremony; she was fetched from a train about to leave and collected her award in a travelling suit.

In Titanic (1997), what is the blue diamond necklace sought by treasure hunter Brock Lovett called?

The Heart of the Ocean is invented, but the wreck in the opening scenes is real: James Cameron dived to the Titanic to shoot it, and has said the dives were his real reason for making the picture.

Who played Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)?

Harrison Ford was cast only weeks before filming began: Tom Selleck was the first choice, but the producers of his new television series, Magnum, P.I., would not release him.

Which 1959 Cary Grant thriller ends with a chase across the faces of Mount Rushmore?

In North by Northwest Grant plays ad man Roger Thornhill, mistaken for a government agent; Hitchcock had long wanted a Mount Rushmore chase, and the Park Service barred filming it on the real faces, so a studio mock-up was used.

In The Godfather Part II (1974), who plays the young Vito Corleone?

Robert De Niro had been hired for a small part in the first film and asked to be released; Coppola remembered him and gave him the young Vito, a role played almost entirely in Sicilian dialect.

Which 1927 film starring Al Jolson is credited with launching the 'talkies'?

The Jazz Singer is mostly a silent film with songs and only a few moments of synchronized talk, yet its huge success pushed Hollywood's rapid switch from silent pictures to sound.

What is the name of Scarlett O'Hara's family cotton plantation in the 1939 Civil War epic?

Tara is what drives Scarlett after the war: to pay the taxes on it she schemes, lies and marries her own sister's wealthy fiancé; Twelve Oaks is the neighbouring Wilkes plantation.

Who plays the dual role of Madeleine Elster and Judy Barton opposite James Stewart in Vertigo (1958)?

Kim Novak replaced Vera Miles, who dropped out when she became pregnant; the film topped Sight & Sound's 2012 critics' poll of the greatest ever made.

In which film does Judy Garland sing 'Over the Rainbow'?

The Wizard of Oz almost lost its best-known song: after a preview, MGM executives pressed to cut 'Over the Rainbow', and it stayed only because the producers argued hard to keep it.

What is Humphrey Bogart's character name in The Maltese Falcon (1941)?

Sam Spade fell to Bogart because George Raft turned the part down, reportedly nervous about working with a first-time director; that director was John Huston.

Which Billy Wilder film with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine won Best Picture for 1960?

The Apartment began with another film: watching Brief Encounter, Billy Wilder wondered about the man who lends the lovers his flat, and noted an idea about the guy who climbs into the warm bed they leave.

Who played Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)?

Gregory Peck had been nominated for Best Actor four times without winning; Atticus, his fifth and last nomination, finally brought him the Oscar.

In Singin' in the Rain (1952), who performs the iconic title song in the rain?

Gene Kelly danced the number with a fever of about 103°F, soaked for hours a day by artificial rain on the studio back lot.

Which 1971 film stars Malcolm McDowell as Alex DeLarge, leader of a gang of 'droogs'?

A Clockwork Orange was pulled from British cinemas by its own director after the press linked it to violent crimes, and it was not shown there again until 2000, after his death.

In which 1959 comedy does Marilyn Monroe play Sugar Kane, a band's ukulele-playing singer?

Some Like It Hot has two musicians hiding from the mob in drag in an all-female band; the closing line, 'Well, nobody's perfect', is one of cinema's most quoted.

Which film features the quote 'I see dead people'?

The Sixth Sense was bought for Disney by an executive who paid $3 million for the script without approval and lost his job; the studio then sold on the production rights, keeping only a slice of a huge hit.

Who directed Goodfellas (1990)?

Martin Scorsese's famous unbroken shot into the Copacabana began as a practical problem: the crew could not get permission to enter the short way, so the camera follows Henry round the back of the club.

In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), what candy does Elliott use to lure E.T.?

Reese's Pieces got the part only because Mars declined to let M&M's appear; Hershey said yes, and sales of the candy reportedly tripled within two weeks of the film opening.

The Sound of Music (1965) is set in which Austrian city?

Salzburg is where the real von Trapps lived, but they never climbed over the mountains to Switzerland: they left by train for Italy, telling people they were going to America to sing.

Which folk-rock duo's songs fill the soundtrack of The Graduate (1967)?

Simon & Garfunkel supplied mostly songs they had already released; the one new number, 'Mrs. Robinson', began as an unfinished tune about Mrs. Roosevelt until the director asked to use it.

Raging Bull (1980) chronicles the turbulent life of which middleweight boxing champion?

Raging Bull follows Jake LaMotta, middleweight champion from 1949 to 1951; filming stopped for about four months so that its star could put on weight to play the bloated older LaMotta.

Bicycle Thieves (1948) follows a father hunting his stolen bike in which city?

Rome's streets were the set and its people the cast: the father was played by Lamberto Maggiorani, a factory worker who had never acted, cast after he brought his son to an audition.

In The Seventh Seal (1957), a knight challenges Death to which game?

Chess buys the knight time, since he will live for as long as the game lasts; Ingmar Bergman took the image from a medieval church painting by Albertus Pictor that shows Death at a chessboard.

In West Side Story (1961), the Jets brawl with which rival gang?

The Sharks were a late invention: the story began as a romance between a Jewish girl and a Catholic boy on Manhattan's Lower East Side, and the Puerto Rican gang arrived only when it moved west years later.

In Blade Runner (1982), what are the bio-engineered synthetic humans called?

Replicants got their name because the director wanted to avoid 'android': screenwriter David Peoples asked his daughter, who worked in biochemistry, and she suggested a word based on cells replicating.

In Back to the Future (1985), what speed must the DeLorean reach to travel through time?

88 mph is hit by accident while Marty flees Libyan terrorists, landing him in 1955 without the plutonium he needs to get home.

The ending of Planet of the Apes (1968) reveals the ruins of which landmark?

The Statue of Liberty appears nowhere in Pierre Boulle's novel, whose apes live on a distant planet; the twist that this world is Earth survived from the first screenplay, by The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling.

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) is set in a rundown apartment in which city?

New Orleans really had a streetcar line called Desire, named after the street it served; it ran half a block from Tennessee Williams's French Quarter flat as he wrote the play, and gave way to buses in 1948.

In Ghostbusters (1984), what giant form does the god Gozer finally take?

Gozer becomes the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man after Ray, told to choose the form of the destructor, pictures the harmless sailor-hatted mascot from his childhood.

The Matrix (1999) popularized which slow-motion camera-sweep effect?

Bullet time froze Neo mid-dodge using a ring of still cameras fired in sequence; Will Smith turned down Neo partly because the effect's pitch baffled him, choosing Wild Wild West instead.

What is the name of George Bailey's hometown in It's a Wonderful Life (1946)?

Bedford Falls becomes Pottersville in the world where George was never born; the film lost money on release and became a Christmas staple only after its copyright lapsed in 1974 and TV stations could show it freely.

In Jurassic Park (1993), the dinosaur park sits on which fictional island?

Isla Nublar was really the Hawaiian island of Kauai, where a hurricane struck on the last scheduled day of location filming and the cast and crew had to shelter in their hotel.

Which fighter jet do Maverick and Goose fly in Top Gun (1986)?

F-14 Tomcats left US Navy service in 2006, so in the sequel, released 36 years later, the pilots fly F/A-18 Super Hornets and Maverick climbs back into an F-14 only for the climactic escape.

Who plays Bonnie Parker opposite Warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)?

Faye Dunaway got the part after Warren Beatty, the film's star and producer, had begged Natalie Wood to play Bonnie and been turned down; it brought Dunaway her first Oscar nomination.

In the unauthorized 1922 Dracula adaptation Nosferatu, what is the vampire called?

Max Schreck's Count Orlok was Dracula renamed, but Bram Stoker's widow sued anyway and a court ordered every copy destroyed; the film exists today only because a few prints escaped.

Which actress screams her way through the original King Kong (1933) as Ann Darrow?

Fay Wray recorded all of Ann Darrow's screams in a single session in a sound room, to be spliced in wherever they were needed, and played her scenes opposite a Kong that was an eighteen-inch model.

In Double Indemnity (1944), what is Walter Neff's job?

Walter Neff is an insurance salesman who sells Phyllis Dietrichson's husband an accident policy; its double indemnity clause pays double for a rare death such as falling from a train, which is the murder plan.

High Noon (1952) is famous for telling its story in what unusual way?

In real time: the film runs 85 minutes and its story covers about the same span, as clocks tick towards the noon train; John Wayne called it 'the most un-American thing I've ever seen in my whole life'.

Which 1973 film was the first horror movie nominated for the Best Picture Oscar?

The Exorcist grew from a real case: as a student at Georgetown University, author William Peter Blatty heard about the 1949 exorcism of a Maryland boy and later built his novel on it.

Chinatown (1974) is loosely inspired by real Los Angeles fights over which resource?

The real-life California water wars let Los Angeles drain the Owens Valley; Robert Towne's script won the film's only Oscar from 11 nominations.

What is the name of the commercial space tug in Alien (1979)?

The Nostromo takes its name from Joseph Conrad's 1904 novel, and the borrowing continued: its escape shuttle, the Narcissus, is named after another Conrad story, and the sequel's troop ship is the Sulaco.

In The Shining (1980), which door number at the Overlook Hotel is Danny told to avoid?

Room 237 replaced the novel's 217 at the request of the lodge used for the Overlook's exterior, which feared guests would refuse to sleep in its own room 217.

Who won the Best Actor Oscar for playing the jealous Salieri in Amadeus (1984)?

F. Murray Abraham won Best Actor as Salieri, beating co-star Tom Hulce, nominated in the same category for Mozart; Amadeus took eight Oscars in all.

Which prize did Pulp Fiction (1994) win at the Cannes Film Festival?

Pulp Fiction won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1994 under jury president Clint Eastwood, then earned seven Oscar nominations and revived John Travolta's career almost overnight.

Who plays the rebel gladiator in the title role of Spartacus (1960)?

Kirk Douglas starred and produced, firing director Anthony Mann and bringing in Stanley Kubrick, the only Kubrick feature on which he lacked full control.

In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), the outlaws flee to which country?

Bolivia is where the pair make their last stand, frozen in the film's final frame as they run out into a hail of bullets; the real outlaws are believed to have been killed at San Vicente, Bolivia, in 1908.

In Duck Soup (1933), Groucho Marx becomes leader of which fictional country?

Freedonia sounded too much like home for people in Fredonia, New York, who protested that it would hurt their town's name; the Marx Brothers replied that the town should change its name instead.

Who plays 'the Ugly' in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)?

Eli Wallach nearly died more than once on the shoot: he drank from a bottle of acid a technician had left beside his soda, and a frightened horse bolted with him while his hands were tied behind his back.

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) was actually filmed on which island?

Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, is where the crew spent months building a full-size wooden bridge over the Kelani River and then blew it up for real, along with an old train bought for the purpose.

Which blacklisted writer secretly scripted Roman Holiday (1953) without credit?

Dalton Trumbo's friend Ian McLellan Hunter fronted for him and collected the story Oscar; the Academy gave Trumbo's widow his statuette in 1993, and the writers' guild restored his screen credit in 2011.

Whose voice dubbed Eliza Doolittle's songs in My Fair Lady (1964)?

Marni Nixon was brought in after the star had recorded the songs herself and studio executives judged her singing unsuitable; Nixon had already ghost-sung for Deborah Kerr in The King and I.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) was shot inside a real hospital in which state?

Oregon State Hospital in Salem gave the crew a whole wing: patients worked as extras and technicians, and the hospital's own director, Dean Brooks, plays Dr Spivey.

Which Mary Poppins (1964) song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song?

Chim Chim Cher-ee began with a drawing: screenwriter Don DaGradi sketched a chimney sweep and told the Sherman brothers the old British belief that shaking hands with one brings good luck.

Airplane! (1980) is a near scene-for-scene parody of which 1957 disaster film?

Zero Hour! supplied the food-poisoned crew, the traumatised ex-pilot and even the hero's name, Ted Stryker; the writers taped it by accident while recording late-night TV commercials, then bought the remake rights.

In Rain Man (1988), which classic car does Charlie Babbitt inherit from his father?

Charlie gets only the 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible and the rosebushes, while the rest of the $3 million estate goes into a trust for the brother he never knew he had.

Marge Gunderson in Fargo (1996) is police chief of which Minnesota town?

Brainerd's pregnant police chief works a case the opening caption swears is a true story, told exactly as it occurred; it is not, as the Coen brothers later admitted.

Who conducts the classical pieces in Disney's Fantasia (1940)?

Leopold Stokowski joined by chance: dining at a Hollywood restaurant, Walt Disney invited him over and described his planned short, and Stokowski offered to conduct The Sorcerer's Apprentice for nothing.

Doctor Zhivago (1965) could not shoot in the USSR, so it was filmed mostly where?

David Lean shot mostly in Spain, building a Moscow street set outside Madrid and filming the 'Russian' plains near Soria, because Pasternak's novel was banned in the Soviet Union for decades.

Kurosawa won the Silver Lion for directing Seven Samurai (1954) at which festival?

Venice gave Seven Samurai a Silver Lion in 1954, and Hollywood paid its own tribute six years later by remaking the story as the western The Magnificent Seven.

Cary Grant donated his entire Philadelphia Story (1940) salary to which cause?

The British War Relief Society received his whole salary: Cary Grant, who was born in Bristol, had agreed to take the part only if he got top billing, and then gave the money away.

The bird noises in The Birds (1963) were created on which German electronic instrument?

Oskar Sala generated the shrieks and wingbeats on his Mixtur-Trautonium with Remi Gassmann; the film has no conventional score, and Bernard Herrmann served only as sound consultant.

Which novelist co-wrote Metropolis (1927), adapting her own 1925 book?

Thea von Harbou wrote Metropolis with her husband, the director Fritz Lang; they divorced in 1933, and while he left Germany for good that year she stayed and joined the Nazi Party.

The Great Escape (1963) dramatizes a mass breakout from which German POW camp?

Stalag Luft III, near Sagan in Silesia, saw 76 airmen escape through the tunnel Harry in March 1944, and 50 were executed; Steve McQueen's motorcycle jump was invented for the film.

Whose 1975 title fight with Muhammad Ali inspired Stallone to write Rocky?

Chuck Wepner, the 'Bayonne Bleeder', knocked Ali down and lasted until 19 seconds from the final bell at Richfield, Ohio; Sylvester Stallone watched the fight and wrote his script within days.

Which actor plays Sonny, the bank robber at the centre of Dog Day Afternoon (1975)?

Al Pacino's Sonny is based on John Wojtowicz, who held bank staff hostage in Brooklyn for fourteen hours in August 1972; he said he wanted the money to pay for his partner's gender-affirming surgery.

Who composed 'The Entertainer', the theme of The Sting (1973)?

Scott Joplin wrote 'The Entertainer' in 1902, so the rag was already decades old in the film's 1936 setting; Marvin Hamlisch's arrangement took it to No. 3 on the American pop chart in 1974.

Miracle on 34th Street (1947) was first released in the UK under what title?

British audiences first saw it as The Big Heart; Edmund Gwenn won Best Supporting Actor as Kris Kringle, the Macy's Santa who insists he is the real thing.

In Bringing Up Baby (1938), what kind of animal is Baby, sent from Brazil to a scatterbrained heiress?

A leopard named Baby is calmed by the song 'I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby'. A tame leopard called Nissa played the part, with a trainer standing just off-screen.

Which 1944 thriller, about a husband who makes his wife doubt her sanity, gave English a word for such manipulation?

Gaslight won Ingrid Bergman the Best Actress Oscar as a wife who watches the lamps dim for no apparent reason. Its title became a verb that grew popular in the 2010s.

Which child star of Bright Eyes (1934) later served as United States ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia?

Shirley Temple sang 'On the Good Ship Lollipop' in that film and was Hollywood's top box-office draw as a child. She took up diplomacy decades later under her married name, Black.

In the Oscar-winning short The Music Box (1932), what do Laurel and Hardy haul up a long flight of steps?

A piano, bought as a birthday surprise, keeps escaping back down the stairway. The film won the first Academy Award given to a live-action comedy short.

Which star of Samson and Delilah (1949) co-invented a frequency-hopping radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes?

Hedy Lamarr devised the system with composer George Antheil so that enemies could not jam a torpedo's radio signal. The idea became a foundation of later spread-spectrum communications.

Which actor declined the Best Actor Oscar awarded for playing the title general in Patton (1970)?

George C. Scott warned the Academy months ahead that he would say no, believing performances cannot be compared. He was the first actor ever to decline the award.

In The Gold Rush (1925), what does Charlie Chaplin's starving prospector boil and eat in a snowbound cabin?

His shoe is cooked and served like a fine dinner. Chaplin took the idea from the Donner Party, snowbound pioneers who were driven to eating leather from their footwear.

Which drama about two lonely hustlers in New York is the only X-rated film to win Best Picture?

Midnight Cowboy also won Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. No other X-rated film has won an Academy Award of any kind.

In The Pink Panther (1963), what is the Pink Panther that a thief known as the Phantom plans to steal?

A gemstone: the Pink Panther is a huge diamond with a flaw that looks like a leaping panther. The cartoon cat was created for the film's animated title sequence.

Which director, famous for Westerns such as The Searchers, won four Best Director Oscars, none of them for a Western?

John Ford won for The Informer, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley and The Quiet Man. Three are dramas and the last is a romance set in Ireland.

Which silent comedian plays a Civil War train engineer chasing his stolen locomotive in The General (1926)?

Buster Keaton also co-directed the film, which retells the Great Locomotive Chase, a real raid of 1862. He had read a memoir of the chase and was a huge fan of trains.

Which actress won her first Best Actress Oscar for Morning Glory (1933) and her fourth for On Golden Pond (1981)?

Katharine Hepburn chose not to attend the ceremony for any of her wins. The other two came in back-to-back years, for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and The Lion in Winter.

Which Western star won his only competitive Oscar as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn in True Grit (1969)?

John Wayne returned as the marshal in a 1975 sequel named after the character. The Coen brothers filmed the story again in 2010.

In which 1950 film does Bette Davis warn, 'Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night'?

All About Eve cast Davis as Margo Channing, an ageing Broadway star whose life is invaded by an ambitious young fan. The role won her the Best Actress award at Cannes.

In which 1955 comedy does Marilyn Monroe's white dress billow up over a New York subway grate?

The Seven Year Itch filmed the moment twice: on location outside a Lexington Avenue theatre in Manhattan, then again on a sound stage.

Which New York skyscraper does the giant ape climb with Ann Darrow in the finale of King Kong (1933)?

The Empire State Building is where four biplanes attack Kong as he swats at them from the summit. The tower had opened in 1931, two years before the film.

In Miracle on 34th Street (1947), which New York department store hires Kris Kringle to play Santa Claus?

Macy's gains a loyal customer when Kris sends a mother to another store for a toy fire engine. The film opens on the morning of the store's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

In the 1950 comedy Harvey, what kind of creature is the invisible companion of James Stewart's Elwood P. Dowd?

A rabbit more than six feet tall, Harvey is described as a púca, a benign but mischievous creature from Celtic mythology.

Which star of High Noon and To Catch a Thief retired from acting at 26 to marry Monaco's Prince Rainier?

Grace Kelly had already won the Best Actress Oscar for The Country Girl (1954). She remained Princess of Monaco until her death in 1982.

Which actor played the Monster in Universal's Frankenstein (1931) after another horror star left the production?

Boris Karloff got the part once Bela Lugosi was off the project, cast by the newly arrived director James Whale. Karloff played the creature again in Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Which dancer partnered Ginger Rogers in ten Hollywood musicals, including Top Hat and Swing Time?

Fred Astaire first shared the screen with Rogers in Flying Down to Rio (1933), where he was billed fifth and she fourth. The film was built around another star, Dolores del Río.

Which 1942 Bing Crosby musical introduced the Irving Berlin song 'White Christmas' to moviegoers?

Holiday Inn won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the tune, one of twelve Berlin wrote for the film. The hotel chain of the same name was inspired by the picture.

Which 1940 Disney film features Jiminy Cricket singing 'When You Wish Upon a Star'?

Pinocchio became the first animated feature to win a competitive Academy Award, taking the prizes for both score and song. The tune later became the Disney company's signature song.

Which actor made just three major films, including East of Eden and Giant, before a fatal car accident in 1955?

James Dean became the first actor to receive a posthumous Best Actor nomination, for East of Eden. Rebel Without a Cause completed the trio, and he was 24 when he died.

Which actor became the first Black winner of the Best Actor Oscar, for Lilies of the Field (1963)?

Sidney Poitier had already been the first African American nominated for the award, for The Defiant Ones (1958). That role also won him the Silver Bear at the Berlin festival.

Which 1962 film, set largely in Jamaica, was the first to bring James Bond to cinema screens?

Dr. No starred Sean Connery as the MI6 agent, although it was adapted from the sixth of Ian Fleming's Bond novels rather than the first, Casino Royale.

Which actor played the so-called Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's three spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s?

Clint Eastwood's drifter actually has a name in each film: Joe, Manco and Blondie. The nameless label was invented by the American distributor to sell the three as a trilogy.

Which 1968 Steve McQueen thriller is famed for a car chase through the hilly streets of San Francisco?

Bullitt puts McQueen's police detective in a Ford Mustang, tailed by two hitmen in a Dodge Charger. The sequence is regarded as one of the most influential car chases in film history.

Which former child star of National Velvet (1944) played the title role in the lavish 1963 epic Cleopatra?

Elizabeth Taylor married her Cleopatra co-star Richard Burton in 1964. The pair starred in 11 films together.

Which actor plays Juror 8, the lone vote against a guilty verdict as 12 Angry Men (1957) begins?

Henry Fonda also produced the film with its writer, Reginald Rose. The American Film Institute later ranked Juror 8 among the 50 greatest movie heroes.

Which director made Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It's a Wonderful Life?

Frank Capra won three Best Director Oscars, all in the 1930s, from six nominations. He was born in a village near Palermo, Sicily, and grew up in Los Angeles.

Which 1951 adventure, named after a small steamboat, won Humphrey Bogart his only Oscar?

The African Queen was played by a real steamboat, built in Britain in 1912 for service in Africa. Bogart won Best Actor as its rough-and-ready Canadian mechanic, Charlie Allnut.

Carol Reed's thriller The Third Man (1949), starring Orson Welles as Harry Lime, is set in which occupied city?

Vienna was under Allied occupation after the Second World War, and the film uses its ruined streets as a backdrop. Lime finally flees into the city's sewers with the police behind him.

Which 1949 gangster film ends with James Cagney shouting 'Made it, Ma! Top of the world!' atop a gas tank?

White Heat has Cagney's gang leader, Cody, first make 'Top of the world!' a toast shared with his mother. The tank explodes moments after his final shout.

Which screen hero did Olympic swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller play in twelve feature films from 1932 to 1948?

Tarzan made Weissmuller a film star after he retired from swimming with five Olympic gold medals. Six of the films were produced by one studio and six by another.

Which swashbuckling star played the outlaw hero of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) opposite Olivia de Havilland?

Errol Flynn's Robin leads a rebel band against Prince John and the Norman lords while King Richard is away at the Crusades.

Which real silent-era star came back to the screen as faded actress Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1950)?

Gloria Swanson won a Golden Globe for the part and the last of her three Best Actress nominations. She had found fame in dozens of silent films during the 1920s.

Which silent star, nicknamed 'America's Sweetheart', co-founded United Artists in 1919 with Charlie Chaplin?

Mary Pickford used the company to produce her own films and distribute them as she chose. Her fellow founders included Douglas Fairbanks and the director D. W. Griffith.

Which singer won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Private Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953)?

Frank Sinatra played one of three soldiers stationed in Hawaii in the months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The film won eight Academy Awards, Best Picture among them.

Which actor played Sherlock Holmes in fourteen Hollywood films made between 1939 and 1946?

Basil Rathbone also played the detective in a radio series. Nigel Bruce was his Dr. Watson on screen.

Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925) is famed for a massacre on a vast outdoor staircase in which port city?

Odessa's steps sequence became one of the most influential and most often recreated scenes in cinema. The film dramatizes a real naval mutiny of 1905.

Which 1927 silent film starring Clara Bow won the very first Academy Award for Best Picture?

Wings follows two rival combat pilots of the First World War, and some 300 real pilots took part in the filming. It is the only fully silent film to win the top prize.

Which director of the 1927 science-fiction epic Metropolis also made M (1931), starring Peter Lorre as a child murderer?

Fritz Lang made M as his first talking picture, with a killer hunted down by Berlin's own criminal underworld. It gave Lorre his first starring role.

Which choreographer of 1930s musicals such as 42nd Street arranged chorus girls into kaleidoscopic geometric patterns?

Busby Berkeley cared less about his chorus girls' dancing than their ability to form attractive patterns, which he liked to film from directly overhead.

What is the name of Nick and Nora Charles's wire-haired fox terrier in The Thin Man (1934)?

Asta was played by a canine actor called Skippy. The dog helps crack the case by sniffing out skeletal remains buried in a basement.

Forbidden Planet (1956), featuring Robby the Robot, is often called a loose adaptation of which Shakespeare play?

The Tempest's isolated island becomes a distant planet, home to the scientist Morbius. Robby was one of the first film robots with a distinct personality.

Which child star of Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1921) later played Uncle Fester in TV's The Addams Family?

Jackie Coogan sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings. The case led California to protect child performers' pay with a law known as the Coogan Act.

Which actor played the tyrannical Captain Bligh opposite Clark Gable in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)?

Charles Laughton had already won the Best Actor Oscar as the king in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). The Bounty film won Best Picture from eight nominations.

In Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), which drink do Cary Grant's two sweet aunts spike with poison for their lodgers?

Elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine and cyanide is the sisters' idea of charity. A 'Room for Rent' sign brings them their victims.

In The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), which robot must be told the words 'Klaatu barada nikto'?

Gort stands silent and unmoving outside the alien visitor's saucer. Klaatu teaches the three-word phrase to a woman named Helen in case anything should happen to him.