1.
This film was shot in three weeks, and the director gradually used longer and longer focal lengths to create a feeling of claustrophobia by the climax.
Correct Answer
A. 12 Angry Men
Explanation
12 Angry Men was directed by Sidney Lumet, released in 1957 and inducted into the Registry in 2007.
2.
This non-silent film includes 88 minutes that are completely dialogue-free.
Correct Answer
D. 2001: A Space Odyssey
Explanation
I'm sorry, Dave ...
3.
The oldest film inducted into the Registry, this was shot on an experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph camera and viewer, using 3/4-inch wide film at Edison Laboratories in East Orange, New Jersey.
Correct Answer
C. Newark Athelete
Explanation
Made in 1891 and inducted in 2010.
4.
This gritty inductee released in 1967 includes a scene at a drive-in, where you can see another inductee playing on the screen. What are the two films?
Correct Answer
B. Bonnie & Clyde and Gold Diggers of 1933
Explanation
Violence, sex, and obscure cinema facts!
5.
This is the only case in which two films adapted from the same book were inducted into the National Film Registry.
Correct Answer
D. Ben Hur
Explanation
The 1925 silent version starred Ramon Novarro.
The 1959 version starred Charleston Heston.
6.
The score for this Registry inductee from the 1940s won the Pulitzer Prize for Composition, the only time film music has ever won a Pulitzer.
Correct Answer
A. Louisiana Story
Explanation
Here's an excerpt, restored by the UCLA FIlm & Television Archive.
7.
The iconic footage of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse (also an inductee) appeared in this 1958 experimental film which was inducted in 1994.
Correct Answer
C. A Movie
Explanation
Bruce Conner made the film A Movie with found and appropriated footage, and pioneered associative editing with his experimental films. Below, the bridge collapse footage as seen in a newsreel.
8.
This is the earliest surviving film shot by a Native American, although it was produced by the French company Pathé.
Correct Answer
B. White Fawn's Devotion
Explanation
Made in 1910.
9.
Ronald Reagan beat out William Holden and John Wayne for a role in this Registry inductee.
Correct Answer
B. Knute Rockne, All-American
10.
The Prison Commission of the State of Georgia brought suit against the producers of this Registry inductee in order to stop filming, alleging that the content of the film was libelous of the state.
Correct Answer
A. I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
Explanation
The court ruled in the producers' favor.
11.
This inductee is the shortest film ever to be nominated for a Academy Award for Best Picture.
Correct Answer
A. She Done Him Wrong
Explanation
One of the classic pre-Code films in American cinema history.
12.
This Registry film portrays violence amid the narcotics trade along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Correct Answer
B. Touch of Evil
Explanation
Featuring a 3-minute, continuous tracking crane shot for the ages:
13.
Which of the following is not in the National Film Registry?
Correct Answer
C. Yankee Doodle Daffy
Explanation
George M. Cohan's 1942 picture Yankee Doodle Dandy, however, was inducted.
The surreal Porky in Wackyland, made in 1938, was inducted in 2000.
14.
In creating the climactic scene in Raging Bull, Martin Scorsese borrowed an editing technique from which other Registry inductee?
Correct Answer
A. Psycho
Explanation
Scorsese says he used the shot-list from Psycho to cut the scene together when LaMotta is up against the ropes in the final fight, because he wanted it to be just as horrific.
15.
Only one of the following films is an inductee. Which is it?
Correct Answer
C. Castro Street
Explanation
Castro Street is actually a 1966 non-narrative experimental film shot on a street that runs along alongside an oil refinery in Richmond, California.
16.
Devil's Tower National Monument figures prominently in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and which other Registry film?
Correct Answer
B. My Darling Clementine
Explanation
(Yes that's Francois Truffaut as the French scientist.)
17.
Which of the following adaptations of a Dr. Seuss story was inducted into the Registry?
Correct Answer
A. Gerald McBoing Boing
Explanation
The film was adapted by Phil Eastman and Bill Scott from a story by Dr. Seuss, directed by Robert Cannon, and produced by John Hubley. In 1994, it was voted #9 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, and in 1995 it was inducted into the Registry.
18.
How many Godfather movies have been inducted?
Correct Answer
D. 3
Explanation
All three movies of "The Godfather" series have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. These films are recognized for their cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance.
19.
Insult comedian Don Rickles has one film on the National Film Registry. Which of the following is his film?
Correct Answer
D. Toy Story
Explanation
He voiced Mr. Potato Head in all of the Toy Story films.
20.
This Registry inductee held the title of the film with the greatest number of Academy Award nominations until Titanic tied it in 1998.
Correct Answer
D. All About Eve
21.
This inductee is thought to be the first American instance of a mockumentary.
Correct Answer
A. David Holzman's Diary
Explanation
Jim McBride's 1967 film purports to be the video diary of a young filmmaker.
22.
Don Johnson auditioned for the lead role, which ultimately went to Martin Sheen, in this film.
Correct Answer
C. Badlands
Explanation
A Terrence Malick masterpiece.
23.
This film was the first to be described as a "documentary."
Correct Answer
A. In the Land of the Head Hunters
24.
Which of these films in the Registry was not officially "condemned" by the Catholic Legion of Decency?
Correct Answer
D. Flesh and the Devil
Explanation
The Catholic Legion of Decency (later called the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures) was founded in 1933, six years after Flesh and the Devil, starring Greta Garbo, was released.
25.
David Letterman and Barry Manilow were originally considered for the protagonist role in this inductee.
Correct Answer
C. Airplane!
Explanation
Robert Hays ultimately landed the role as Ted Striker, the shell-shocked former pilot.
26.
In nearly all of the shots in this film, the action moves left to right, an intentional framework the director used to evoke a sense of a journey.
Correct Answer
B. Lawrence of Arabia
Explanation
According to the BBC, director David Lean explained this as his reasoning for the technique.
27.
This inductee was rejected by the Academy for nomination in the Best Documentary category because portions of the film were scripted reenactments.
Correct Answer
A. The Thin Blue Line
Explanation
Errol Morris's groundbreaking film couldn't have been told without reenactments of a crime, and its investigation, that had happened 12 years earlier.
28.
This film won the Oscar for Best Picture, but was overshadowed by a streaker crossing the stage just as David Niven was introducing Elizabeth Taylor to present the award.
Correct Answer
D. The Sting
Explanation
The streaker's name was Robert Opel, a photographer and gallery owner. Niven famously remarked, "Isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?"
When things calmed down, the Oscar went to The Sting.
29.
Which of these experimental films was made by a medical doctor?
Correct Answer
B. The Fall of the House of Usher
Explanation
Released the same year as Jean Epstein's horror film of the same name, this American version by James Sibley Watson is a short experiment in the avant-garde.
30.
Which of these seminal African American films was directed by a woman?
Correct Answer
C. Daughters of the Dust
Explanation
Julie Dash wrote, directed, and produced this independent film about three generations of Gullah women, and is told from the perspective of an unborn child.
31.
Which film features a death by telephone?
Correct Answer
A. Detour
Explanation
In 1972, Director Edgar G. Ulmer said in an interview that the film was shot in six days. It is now in the public domain.
32.
This was the first film shown in the White House.
Correct Answer
C. Birth of a Nation
Explanation
President Woodrow Wilson screened the film in the White House in 1915.
33.
Which classic film is an allegory about the Hollywood blacklist and McCarthy's House Un-American Activities hearings?
Correct Answer
D. High Noon
Explanation
John Wayne was known to consider the film anti-American, but collected Gary Cooper's Best Actor Oscar on Cooper's behalf at the Academy Awards that year.
34.
This was the first film in major release to use the dolly zoom camera technique.
Correct Answer
B. Vertigo
Explanation
Also known as the "Hitchcock zoom" or the "Vertigo zoom," Hitchcock employed it using miniatures.
35.
Cecille B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper, and Buster Keaton all have cameos in this classic film.
Correct Answer
B. Sunset Boulevard
Explanation
DeMille and Hopper play themselves; Keaton plays a waxwork playing bridge.
36.
This is the highest-grossing western of all time.
Correct Answer
D. Dances with Wolves
Explanation
With Kevin Costner, Graham Greene, and Mary McDonnell.
37.
Barry Fitzgerald won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in this wartime film.
Correct Answer
B. Going My Way
Explanation
Because of wartime metal shortages, Fitzgerald's was one of the plaster Oscars presented that year.
38.
This is both the most expensive and the highest-grossing black-and-white film ever made.
Correct Answer
D. Schindler's List
Explanation
(Cost and gross adjusted for inflation.)
39.
Milos Forman was inspired to make this film as realistic as possible after watching Frederick Wiseman's Titticut Follies.
Correct Answer
A. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
40.
This film was updated as You've Got Mail in 1998.
Correct Answer
C. The Shop Around the Corner
41.
It is in this film that Greta Garbo utters the famous line, "I want to be alone."
Correct Answer
B. Grand Hotel
Explanation
She repeats it, too.
42.
What film is this quote from? "Oh, the humanity."
Correct Answer
A. Hindenburg Disaster Newsreel
Explanation
Herbert Morrison was the Chicago radio reporter who uttered the famous line in his emotional report from the scene.
43.
Which of these is not a propaganda film?
Correct Answer
C. A Time Out of War
Explanation
A classic George Pal Puppetoon, Tulips Will Grow was a very thinly veiled allegory and statement against the Nazi advance in Europe.
44.
Which of the follwing was not shot in San Francisco?
Correct Answer
B. The Hustler
Explanation
Bullitt's San Francisco car chase scene is a classic.
45.
Which actor has the most films on the National Film Registry?
Correct Answer
C. Ward Bond
Explanation
Kind of a trick question! Ward Bond is tied with Donald Crisp for the most. Each has 8 in Registry.
46.
Which actress is tied for the most films on the National Film Registry?
Correct Answer
C. Lillian Gish
Explanation
Gish is tied with Katherine Hepburn, Terri Garr, and Joan Blondell with five films on the Registry.
47.
Of the following, which year has zero releases represented on the Registry?
Correct Answer
D. 1987
Explanation
We also don't know why this, 1987's biggest grosser, hasn't been immortalized yet.
48.
He is tied for the most credits as a screenwriter in the Registry.
Correct Answer
D. Charlie Chaplin
Explanation
Chaplin is tied with Ernest Lehman with 5 film writing credits in the Registry.
49.
Comedian and social critic Richard Pryor has a National Film Registry credit as a screenwriter. Which of the following films did he share a writing credit?
Correct Answer
C. Blazing Saddles
Explanation
He shared the credit with Andrew Bergman, Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger.
50.
Which of the following dogs does not have a film on the National Film Registry?
Correct Answer
B. Benji
Explanation
Rin Tin Tin has a riveting biography.