Contest winner! Quiz Answers

The winner of the pre-code quiz was faithful blog commenter, kda! (Sorry this is several days late. I forgot.)

Please send me your snail mail (jenny at physics.umn.edu) and I'll send you your prize, a copy of the pre-code version of Holiday co-starring Edward Everett Horton.

Here are the answers to the quiz (with rationalizations):

1) What do we mean by Pre-code? Which of the following is considered a pre-code film:

1. Flesh and the Devil (1927)
2. Shopworn (1932)
3. The Shopworn Angel (1938)
4. Pack up your Troubles (1932)

Answer is Shopworn: Though a0 is racy and before code enforcement, it is a silent, which is not part of the pre-code era (1929-1934). C came after code enforcement and though d fits within the code era, it has no typical “pre-code” content as it’s a Laurel and Hardy film.

2) Which of the following Cary Grant co-stars had a bigger career before the code than after.

1. Myrna Loy
2. Jean Crain
3. Rosalind Russell
4. Kay Francis

Answer is Kay Francis. Francis played a lot of smart sophisticated women in movies like Doctor Monica and Mandalay. After the code, she had fewer parts and went back to playing supporting roles, as she does in In Name Only with Cary Grant. Myrna Loy had a career before the code but she was a much bigger star after the Thin Man which came out just weeks before code enforcement. Rosalind Russell made only one pre-code film and Jean Crain made none.

3) Which of the following following pre-code films deals with the risqué subject of manage a trois

a) Three on a Match (1932)

b) Too many Husbands (1940)

c) Design for living (1933)

d) Love is racket (1932)

Three on a match has nothing to do with ménage a trios, it’s about three women reminiscing about their lives. Too many husbands would qualify, but its post-code and Love is a Racket is about a love triangle, but it’s certainly not a mutually satisfying agreement for all parties.

4) Powell and Loy starred in three pre-code films together. Which of the following is NOT one of them.

1. The Thin Man
2. I Love You Again
3. Evelyn Prentice
4. Manhattan Melodrama

Answer is : I love you again was 1940.

5) Norma Shearer starred in which of the following pre-code films:

1. The Gay Divorcee
2. Let Us Be Gay
3. The Gay Deception
4. Children of Divorce

Answer is Let Us Be Gay. She wasn’t in any of the other movies, two of which are not even pre-code.

6) Greta Garbo and John Gilbert were off screen lovers whose passion was captured onscreen as well. Which pre-code film of theirs prompted a morality in the movies campaign by the Catholic Church?

1. A Woman of Affairs (1928)
2. Mata Hari (1931)
3. Inspiration (1931)
4. Queen Christina (1933)

Answer is d. B and C do not have John Gilbert, and A is just a hair too early to be pre-code. Queen Christina was the only film they made together in the pre-code era and it was a dozy.

7) Which Cary Grant pre-code, co –starring Sylvia Sydney is about a woman who gets even with her cheating husband?

a) Merrily We Go To Hell

b) Thirty Day Princess

c) The Divorcee

d) Hot Saturday

Answer is a. Though Thirty Day Princess is a Grant /Sydney film it is not about divorce and is very tame by this era’s standards. Hot Saturday is a fairly racy Grant film from this era, but Sylvia Sydney isn’t in it and though the Divorcee is about a woman getting even with her cheating ex, it doesn’t have Cary Grant or Sylvia Sydney. Also I should say this question was somewhat tricky because mostly Merrily We Go to Hell is a Frederick march film.

8) The prostitute film was a staple of the pre-code era. Which of the following was not a prostitute film.

a) Rain

b) The Yellow Ticket

c) Anna Kerinina

d) Anna Christie

Answer is Anna Kerinina.

9) The Following well-known “golden age” of Hollywood films had pre-code predecessors. Which of these films had at least one actor who appeared in both films.

1. Holiday
2. Love Affair
3. Anna Kerinina/Love
4. Beau Geste

Answer is Holiday! Coincidently the 1930 version of this film which co-stars Edward Everett Horton (who is also in the ’38 version as well) is the prize for the quiz winner!

10) Appearing on screen in scanty or in see-through costumes was a pre-requisite for many female stars. (And if you count Tarzan, then men, too, were expected to show a bit of flesh!) Which of the following women complained about the clothes she was asked to wear in the pre-code era:

1. Tallulah Bankhead
2. Norma Shearer
3. Greta Garbo
4. Ginger Rogers

Answer is d, Ginger Rogers. She often wore very skimpy dancing costumes and in her autobiography she said she never felt comfortable in them. She was relived when the code came in and she had to wear more clothes on screen. Tallulah Bankhead and Norma Shearer were infamous for going without underwear in public, so they hardly count and though Greta Garbo famously protested the types of roles she played, she never had a problem with the costumes, which were almost always Adrian gowns. Adrian and Garbo had a close relationship and he so worshiped the star that he would never have put her in anything she didn’t like.