Yes, I’ll Have the Garlic – A SLIFR Mid-Summer Back-to-School Movie Quiz
Writer Dennis Cozzalio, he of the wonderfully titled Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule site, is well-regarded for his in-depth knowledge and thoughtful essays he gladly shares with his readers. The extraordinary SoCal blogger and drive-in aficionado remains one of my long-time reads for the moving picture. His semi-regular movie quizzes are online events that many look forward to. Me included, even if I’m about a month late this time.
Anyway, well worth the furled brows many of us toil under to come up with just the right answers…for the start of another school year, if you’re like me with a child in high school, that is. Certainly, it must have just the right mix of movie-related questions to get our summer-colored minds ready for the academic drudgery to come, that’s for sure:
As I’ve stated more than once, I treat these as interview questions. Anyone interested in film is invited to take part. You can paste the questions and craft your answers into Google’s sometime temperamental Blogger comment system in Dennis’ post. Been there, done that (thank you very much). Or, do as I’ve learned to do: post your answers on your own blog (if you have one) and leave a comment on his quiz article with a link back to your answers. As Dennis encourages:
“So while there’s still time, put away your belongings, sit up straight and prepare yourselves. The sun is starting to sink to the horizon. We haven’t much time. Behold, Professor Abronsius’s Robustly Random, Eccentrically Inquisitive, Garlic-Infused Mid-Summer Back-to-School Movie Quiz!”
1) Name the last 10 movies you’ve seen, either theatrically or at home
Might as well make it my favorite number — especially to include this week’s Academy Event screening of Michael Mann’s masterwork, for which this blog honors fairly regularly:
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – Blu-ray Disc
Déjà Vu – Blu-ray Disc
Midnight Special – Blu-ray Disc
Blood Father – Regency Theatres Van Nuys Plant 16
Hell or High Water – ArcLight Culver City
Midnight Run – Blu-ray Disc
The Three Musketeers – DVD
The Four Musketeers – DVD
Don’t Breathe – Cinemark 18
Spartacus – TCM
Green Room – Blu-ray Disc
Commando (Director’s Cut) – Blu-ray Disc
Heat – Samuel Goldwyn Theater
2) Favorite movie feast
Since we’re celebrating the series 50th anniversary, has to be the awkwardly tension-filled Federation-Klingon dinner held aboard the Enterprise in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
3) Dial M for Murder (1954) or Rear Window (1954)?
Because it was one of the very first Alfred Hitchcock movies I saw as child, it’s Dial M for Murder. While both came out the year of my birth, Rear Window may be the technically more critical cinematic darling, but I just love the premise and execution (pun) of the detective tale, based on a successful stage play — plus, it’s sooooooo wonderfully British in its telling, and again has a dazzling Grace Kelly in it.
4) Favorite song or individual performance from a concert film
Hendrix’s segue from “The Star-Spangled Banner” into “Purple Haze” has to be it.
Excluding another film from the same director, if you were programming a double feature what would you pair with:
5) Alex Cox’s Straight to Hell (1986)?
Have never seen it.
6) Benjamin Christensen’s Haxan: Witchcraft Throughout the Ages (1922)?
Ditto.
7) Federico Fellini’s I vitteloni (1953)?
I’ll Take Paul Lynde to Block.
8) Vincente Minnelli’s The Long, Long Trailer (1953)?
Oh, Hell YES!!!
9) Sam Peckinpah’s The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)?
You betcha, for Stella Stevens alone!
10) George Englund’s Zachariah (1971)?
Yep, and maybe for its movie poster.
11) Favorite movie fairy tale
It’s going to take something pretty damn special to usurp this:
12) What is the sport that you think has most eluded filmmakers in terms of capturing either its essence or excitement?
Was going to say archery, but Deliverance surely did that back in ’72. So I’ll say Volleyball. 😉
13) The Seventh Seal (1957) or Wild Strawberries (1957)?
The former, and for the chess game…
14) Your favorite Criterion Collection release
Going strictly by how many times I’ve rewatched and enjoyed the film, along with featuring a singular pairing of two of my all-time favorite actors, it’s really no contest:
15) In the tradition of the Batley Townswomen’s Guild’s staging of the Battle of Pearl Harbor and Camp on Blood Island, who would be the featured players (individual or tag-team) in your Classic Film Star Free-for-all Fight?
John Carpenter (holding The Shape’s kitchen knife) versus Universal Studio execs.
My money would be on JC.
16) Throne of Blood (1957) or The Lower Depths (1957)?
Easily it’s…
17) Your favorite movie snack
18) Robert Altman’s Quintet– yes or no?
Sorry, never saw it.
19) Name the documentarian whose work you find most valuable
Currently, got to be Werner Herzog.
20) The Conversation (1974) or The Godfather Part II (1974)?
Damn that’s hard to pick between, but if I have to…
21) Favorite movie location you’ve visited in person
That would be these from Heat (1995):
Johnie’s Broiler in Downey, CA:
Santa Monica’s now closed Broadway Deli:
The closed Centinela Drive-In in Westchester, before they demolished it and put up apartments:
The Century (105) Freeway heading toward the LAX airport (couldn’t tell how many times I’ve done this route, before or after seeing the movie):
Of course, can’t forget Beverly Hills’ Kate Mantilini:
The cliff overlook in the narrow strip that is Palisades Park in Santa Monica:
And finally the Hilton Los Angeles Airport, just down the street from LAX:
22) If you could have directed a scene from any movie in the hope of improving it, what scene would it be, and what direction would you give the actor(s) in it? (question submitted by Patrick Robbins)
That last inane scene in The Mist (2007)…I’d tell Thomas Jane to relax and take that stupid look off of his face because this will soon be on the cutting room floor! Sheesh!
23) The Doors (1991) or JFK (1991)?
24) What is your greatest film blasphemy or strongest evidence of your status as a contrarian? (H/T Larry Aydlette)
Did you not see my answer to question 22?!?
25) Favorite pre-1970 one-sheet
26) Favorite post-1970 one-sheet
27) WarGames (1983) or Blue Thunder (1983)?
Not even close, which also has a great one-sheet…
28) Your candidate for best remake ever made
Easy, Michael Mann remaking his TV-movie, L.A. Takedown (1989) as this all-time classic…which I took in once again just the other night.
29) Give us a good story, or your favorite memory, about attending a drive-in movie
Detailed that answer a few years ago here.
30) Favorite non-horror Hammer film
I remember as if it were yesterday…
31) Favorite movie with the word/number “seven” in the title (question submitted by Patrick Robbins)
Oh, I think this will be a popular pick among those of us of a certain age…
32) Is there a movie disagreement you can think of which would cause you to reconsider the status of a personal relationship?
Don’t think so, and as long as they allow me to rail against Frank Darabont’s tacked on ending to The Mist, that is. 😉
33) Erin Brockovich (2000) or Traffic (2000)?
34) Your thoughts on the recent online petition demanding that Turner Classic Movies cease showing all movies made after 1960
Gee, didn’t know they stopped making “classic” movies after 1960. Maybe the petitioners should review the following definition before submitting such things:
It Rains... You Get Wet 
6 Responses to “Yes, I’ll Have the Garlic – A SLIFR Mid-Summer Back-to-School Movie Quiz”
You know, no one is later than me! I haven’t done my own quiz yet! But like you, I’m leaning toward DIAL M FOR MURDER, maybe just because I haven’t seen it as much, and I saw a 4K digital 3D presentation a couple years ago that was brilliant. Also being of a certain age, I’m so glad someone finally mentioned THE SEVEN FACES OF DR. LAO, one of my great childhood favorites– I’ve had the WA DVD for a while, but I haven’t yet watched it! I have to admit though, that I saw HEAT the weekend it opened, and though I enjoyed it, the movie never stuck with me as anything special. (I’m not an across-the-board Mann-ite either.) Guess I’d better see it again, huh?! Thanks for your answers, my friend!
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Oh, I bet the 4K 3-D experience must have been somethin’. I think I saw ‘Dial M for Murder’ once in 3-D at a revival screening long ago somewhere — with those red & blue paper glasses, too. Yours for sure were in better resolution. And I have the Warner Archive MOD DVD of ‘7 Faces of Dr. Lao’ in my video library for being the same — a cherished childhood memory from the ’60s. Such a fun flick.
Always look forward to these, Dennis. You keep ’em coming, and I’ll keep participating. Many thanks, my friend. 😀
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You saved the best till last. Answer #34 made my night!
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We aim to please. 😉
Thanks, Paul. 🙂
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Excellent quiz, Dennis and Michael.
So (too) many answers align with my thinking.
#23: Have to go with ‘The Doors’ for its lead actor and solid supporting cast…. Not a big fan of Stone’s political films. And no one need to see Tommy Lee Jones in Victorian drag!
Great catch with # 28: ‘LA Take down’ and its later evolution, ‘Heat’.
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[…] it’s back to school season, so check out Michael‘s answers on his Back-t0-School Movie […]
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