On the night of December 10, 1938, before Scarlett O’Hara had been cast, David O. Selznick set fire to his own backlot. Old sets were dressed up as the warehouses of Atlanta and burned for the cameras, and among them was the giant wall from King Kong. The first major sequence filmed for Gone with the Wind was, in effect, a clearance sale. Classic movie trivia is full of moments like that, where the most famous images of the studio era turn out to have very practical origins.
This quiz is built around production stories rather than plot points. There are thirty questions, grouped by film, each with the answer in bold and, where it helps, a few lines on what actually happened.
Classic movie trivia from Oz and Tara
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
- Which actor was originally cast as the Tin Man? Buddy Ebsen
- Why did he leave the film? He had a severe reaction after inhaling the aluminum powder in his makeup
- Who replaced him? Jack Haley
- What was the name of the Cairn terrier who played Toto? Terry
- Which song did studio executives consider cutting because it slowed the film down? “Over the Rainbow”
- Which director, not credited on screen, shot most of the sepia Kansas scenes? King Vidor
The Ebsen story is the one that gets quiz tables talking. He had recorded songs and rehearsed as the Tin Man when the powdered aluminum in his face makeup put him in the hospital. Jack Haley took over, and the makeup was changed to a paste so it would not be breathed in. Terry the terrier, meanwhile, is often reported to have earned $125 a week, which was more than many of the human performers playing Munchkins. Victor Fleming took the director credit, but he left to rescue Gone with the Wind before the shoot was over, and Vidor finished the Kansas sequences, including “Over the Rainbow.”
Gone with the Wind (1939)
- What was the first major sequence filmed? The burning of Atlanta
- Which earlier film’s giant wall went up in flames? King Kong (1933)
- Which director was replaced by Victor Fleming during the shoot? George Cukor
- For which role did Hattie McDaniel become the first Black performer to win an Oscar? Mammy
- Which word did the screenplay add to Rhett’s famous last line from the novel? “Frankly”
In Margaret Mitchell’s novel, Rhett simply says “My dear, I don’t give a damn.” The extra word is generally credited to screenwriter Sidney Howard, and the full line, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” was voted number one on the American Film Institute’s list of the hundred greatest movie quotes in 2005.
Warner Bros. and RKO in the 1940s
Casablanca (1942)
- Casablanca was adapted from an unproduced play with what title? Everybody Comes to Rick’s
- Who wrote that play? Murray Burnett and Joan Alison
- Who directed the film? Michael Curtiz
- Which actor played Sam, the pianist at Rick’s? Dooley Wilson
The Casablanca script was still being rewritten while the cameras rolled, which is part of why the ending feels so finely balanced. The bigger trivia trap is the dialogue itself; nobody in the film ever says “Play it again, Sam.” Our movie quote trivia has the exact lines, and the full story of the production is in our piece on Casablanca.
Citizen Kane (1941) and The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- Which cinematographer created Citizen Kane’s deep-focus look? Gregg Toland
- How many Oscars did Citizen Kane win? One, for Original Screenplay (Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles)
- Which film beat it for Best Picture? How Green Was My Valley
- The Maltese Falcon (1941) was the directing debut of which filmmaker? John Huston
- Was the Bogart version the first film of Dashiell Hammett’s novel? No, it was the third, after a 1931 version and the loose 1936 remake Satan Met a Lady
Citizen Kane is the classic example of a film whose reputation grew long after its release. Orson Welles was 25 when it premiered in 1941, and the picture’s thinly veiled portrait of a newspaper baron drew the hostility of William Randolph Hearst, whose papers refused to promote it. It lost money on first release and lost Best Picture to John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley. Only decades later did critics’ polls begin placing it at or near the top of the all-time lists.
The Maltese Falcon answer is a reminder that studios remade their own properties constantly. Warner Bros. had already filmed Hammett’s novel in 1931 with Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade, then turned it into the comedy Satan Met a Lady with Bette Davis in 1936. Huston, a staff writer who wanted to direct, stuck closely to the book’s dialogue for the third try, and that fidelity is often credited for the film’s sharpness. The black bird statuette itself has become one of the most famous props in film history.
Rope (1948) and Rebecca (1940)
- Why is Rope made of a handful of very long takes? Hitchcock staged it to look like one continuous shot, limited only by how much film a camera magazine held, about ten minutes
- Which Hitchcock film won Best Picture, with the Oscar going to its producer? Rebecca, produced by David O. Selznick
Comedies, musicals and a comeback
It Happened One Night (1934) and Bringing Up Baby (1938)
- Clark Gable was under contract to MGM. Which studio made It Happened One Night? Columbia, which borrowed him
- What did It Happened One Night become the first film to win? All five major Oscars: Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay
- After Bringing Up Baby flopped, Katharine Hepburn was listed in a 1938 trade ad among stars labeled what? “Box office poison”
The ad was placed in May 1938 by Harry Brandt, president of the Independent Theatre Owners of America, and it named a group of major stars whose pictures, in the exhibitors’ view, were not earning their keep. Hepburn answered with The Philadelphia Story (1940), a hit that put her back on top. Bringing Up Baby, the film that supposedly sank her, is now considered one of the great screwball comedies; our screwball comedy guide explains why.
Singin’ in the Rain (1952), Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Some Like It Hot (1959)
- In Singin’ in the Rain, whose real speaking voice is heard when Kathy “dubs” Lina’s dialogue? Jean Hagen’s, the actress playing Lina
- Who actually sang “Would You?” for Debbie Reynolds’ character? Betty Noyes
- Which silent film directed by Erich von Stroheim provides the clip Norma Desmond watches in Sunset Boulevard? Queen Kelly (1929), starring Gloria Swanson
- Which famous director plays himself in Sunset Boulevard? Cecil B. DeMille
- Why was Some Like It Hot shot in black and white? Color tests made Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis’s drag makeup look greenish
The Singin’ in the Rain answer is a perfect piece of Hollywood irony. The plot hinges on a shrill silent star whose voice has to be secretly replaced, yet in the scene where Debbie Reynolds’ character supposedly provides Lina’s voice, the filmmakers used Jean Hagen’s own, rather elegant speaking voice. Meanwhile Reynolds’ singing in “Would You?” was itself dubbed by Betty Noyes. Hagen dubbing Reynolds dubbing Hagen is about as meta as studio-era musicals ever got.
Sunset Boulevard plays similar games with real history. Swanson had starred in Queen Kelly for von Stroheim, who plays her butler Max, and DeMille had directed her in silent features. The casting turns the film into a commentary on the careers of the people in it, which is a large part of why it still feels so unsettling. The black-and-white decision on Some Like It Hot was also practical: Billy Wilder is said to have shown Marilyn Monroe the color tests to persuade her, since she preferred to be filmed in color.
Scoring the quiz
Give one point per answer, and a bonus point on questions 17, 20 and 24 for anyone who gets the full detail rather than the short version. Anyone who scores above twenty-five has probably spent as many late nights with old studio memoirs as I have.
Where to go next
For the bigger picture behind these stories, read our guide to the Golden Age of Hollywood, then test yourself on the awards side of the era with Oscars trivia.
