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100 free Classic Movies trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
50 free classic movies trivia questions with answers. From the golden age of Hollywood to the rise of the summer blockbuster, classic movies have shaped our culture, language, and imagination. This quiz spans decades of cinematic history — testing your knowledge on legendary directors like Hitchcock, Kubrick, and Spielberg, iconic performances from Bogart to Brando, unforgettable scenes, groundbreaking techniques, and the stories behind the stories. Whether you're a casual moviegoer or a devoted cinephile, these 100 questions will put your film knowledge to the test.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1941 film, directed by Orson Welles, is often cited as the greatest movie ever made?
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane (1941) was directed, produced, co-written by and starred Orson Welles; its deep-focus photography and fractured flashback structure topped the Sight & Sound critics' poll from 1962 to 2002.
Q 02In the 1942 film set in French Morocco, what nightclub is owned by Humphrey Bogart's character?
Rick's Café Américain
Rick's Café Américain mixes Vichy and German officials with refugees desperate to reach America; Sam's piano from the set sold at auction in 2014 for $3.4 million.
Q 03Who directed Psycho (1960)?
Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock directed Psycho (1960), which became one of the most influential horror-thriller films in cinema history. The shower scene remains one of the most iconic moments in film.
Q 04What is the dying word of newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welles's 1941 classic?
Rosebud
"Rosebud" is the dying word of Charles Foster Kane. The entire film follows a reporter's quest to discover its meaning, which is revealed to be the name of Kane's childhood sled.
Q 05Which actor played Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972)?
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando played Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor. He famously refused the Oscar in protest of Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans.
Q 06What color are Dorothy Gale's magical slippers in the 1939 MGM musical?
Ruby red
Dorothy's slippers are ruby red in the 1939 film. Interestingly, in L. Frank Baum's original novel, the slippers were silver. They were changed to ruby for the film to take advantage of the new Technicolor process.
Q 07Which 1975 shark thriller is credited with inventing the summer blockbuster?
Jaws
Jaws (1975) opened wide on over 400 screens with heavy TV advertising, a then-unusual strategy that defined the summer blockbuster; the malfunctioning mechanical shark forced Spielberg to show it far less than planned.
Q 08What year was the original Star Wars film released?
1977
1977's May 25 release in a small number of theaters became a surprise blockbuster and was quickly expanded.
Q 09Who played Scarlett O'Hara in the 1939 film of Margaret Mitchell's novel?
Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh, a British actress, won the role over a famously long list of hopefuls and took the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Q 10Which classic film features the line 'Here's looking at you, kid'?
Casablanca
In Casablanca (1942) Bogart's Rick says 'Here's looking at you, kid' four times; the line was not in the draft screenplays and is thought to come from a poker lesson he gave Ingrid Bergman between takes.
Q 11In The Shawshank Redemption (1994), what does Andy Dufresne use to tunnel through his cell wall?
A rock hammer
A rock hammer, hidden inside a hollowed-out Bible, takes Andy 19 years; the tunnel sits behind a poster of Raquel Welch.
Q 12Who directed Schindler's List (1993)?
Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg's film tells the story of Oskar Schindler saving over 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust.
Q 13Which 1940 adaptation of a Daphne du Maurier novel was the 'Master of Suspense's' first American film?
Rebecca
Rebecca (1940), Hitchcock's first American film, won Best Picture, the only film he directed to do so, plus Best Cinematography, but nothing for acting, directing or writing.
Q 21What are Norma Desmond's last words as she descends the stairs in Sunset Boulevard (1950)?
"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."
'All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up' ends Sunset Boulevard: Gloria Swanson's faded silent star Norma Desmond believes the newsreel cameras at the foot of the stairs are filming her comeback.
Q 22Which 1994 film won the Academy Award for Best Picture over The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction?
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump took six Oscars at the 67th Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Actor for Tom Hanks, beating two films now often ranked among the greatest ever.
Q 23Which film was the top-grossing release of the 1990s and the first to pass $1 billion?
Q 14In The Godfather (1972), what does Hollywood producer Jack Woltz wake up to find in his bed?
The head of his prize racehorse
The horse, Khartoum, was worth $600,000. The production used a real severed horse's head for the shot, obtained from a dog-food company.
Q 15In which 1976 film does Travis Bickle ask his own reflection, 'You talkin' to me?'
Taxi Driver
The dialogue was improvised; the screenplay only said Travis talks to himself in the mirror. The line ranks tenth on the AFI's list of movie quotes.
Q 16How many Academy Awards did William Wyler's 1959 Charlton Heston epic win, a record at the time?
11
Ben-Hur won 11 Academy Awards at the 1960 ceremony, a total later tied by Titanic (1998) and The Return of the King (2004); Miklós Rózsa's score was the longest yet written for a film.
Q 17Who played the title character in Lawrence of Arabia (1962)?
Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole earned his first Best Actor nomination for Lawrence of Arabia; he reached eight nominations without a competitive win and accepted an honorary Oscar at the March 2003 ceremony.
Q 18Which real-life newspaper tycoon banned any mention of Orson Welles's 1941 film from his papers?
William Randolph Hearst
Charles Foster Kane was a composite drawn partly from Hearst, and the tycoon did not take it well. Hearst's papers refused to run so much as an advertisement for the film.
Q 19Which classic film features the chariot race as its most famous scene?
Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur's nine-minute chariot race took five weeks spread over three months to shoot, cost about $1 million and needed more than 200 miles of racing to complete.
Q 20Who directed 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)?
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick directed 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he co-wrote with Arthur C. Clarke. The film is renowned for its realistic depiction of space travel, pioneering special effects, and enigmatic storyline.
Titanic
Titanic (1997) was the highest-grossing film of the 1990s, earning over $1.8 billion worldwide. It held the record for highest-grossing film of all time until Avatar surpassed it in 2010.
Q 24Who played Norman Bates in the original Psycho (1960)?
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins was typecast for life; the character was inspired by the real-life killer Ed Gein.
Q 25Which film features the famous 'I coulda been a contender' speech?
On the Waterfront
In On the Waterfront (1954) ex-boxer Terry Malloy says 'I coulda been a contender' to his brother Charley in the back of a taxi; the AFI ranked it the third-greatest movie quote.
Q 26What was the first feature-length animated film by Walt Disney?
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was Walt Disney's first feature-length animated film. Critics called it "Disney's Folly" during production, but it became a massive critical and commercial success.
Q 27In Rear Window (1954), what is Jimmy Stewart's character's profession?
Photographer
L.B. Jefferies is a photojournalist laid up with a broken leg, so he watches his neighbours through a telephoto lens and comes to suspect one of them of murder.
Q 28Which classic film popularized the phrase 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn'?
Gone with the Wind
In Gone with the Wind (1939) Clark Gable's Rhett Butler says it to Scarlett as he walks out; 'damn' was contentious under the Production Code, and the AFI voted it the greatest movie quote.
Q 29Who composed the two-note theme that signals the shark in the 1975 film set on Amity Island?
John Williams
John Williams wrote the Jaws theme; the score won the Academy Award and the AFI later ranked it the sixth-greatest film score. One music scholar argued the two notes mimic the shark's heartbeat.
Q 30What does HAL 9000 reply when Bowman asks it to open the pod bay doors?
"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
HAL answers 'I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that' because it has learned Dave and Frank plan to disconnect it; the request 'Open the pod bay doors, HAL' made the AFI's quotes list.