Trivia Quiz: Romance in the movies

Valentine’s Day, the time of year we celebrate love and romance, is nearly here. Now in addition to flowers, chocolate, cards and candlelight dinners some people celebrate the holiday by watching a romantic flick with the one they love. In honor of this I’ve come up with a trivia quiz all about love in romance movies from the past decades.

If you want to take the quiz the rules are simple: get out paper and pen or pencil. Number your paper 1-16 then proceed to the Questions segment of this page. Read each individual question, then choose an answer from among the possible four provided for each. Mark your selected answer on the paper and proceed to next question. Answers are found below the Questions segment.

Scoring: the first 15 questions are the primary questions and each correct answer counts as 10 points. The last question is the Bonus Question, which is worth 20 points if answered correctly.

Have fun and good luck!

1. This scene, a reenactment from the stage play, “The Widow Jones” is one of the earliest known kisses caught on film. In the scene actor John Rice gives actress May Irwin a loving and very ardent kiss (considered scandalous at the time!) What is the film name of this historic kiss?

a. Wooing the Widow

b. Dearest

c. The Kiss

d. Tonsil Checkup

2. The captivating 1931 film Tabu: a Story of the South Seas was the story of two lovers, Matahi and Reri, who had to challenge and escape the traditions of their tribe in order to be together. But even after escaping to the civilized world something unexpected and maleficent tore them apart – what was it?

a. An earthquake

b. A volcano eruption

c. The civilized world

d. The Loincloth Mafia

3. In the 1939 blockbuster, Gone With The Wind, Scarlet O’Hara faced grim poverty for herself and everyone in her household after the war. To make herself presentable to suitors she was forced to make a dress out of what?

a. an antique bedspread

b. window drapes

c. a Persian rug

d. a shower curtain

4. This song enjoyed moderate popularity after it was composed for the musical Everybody’s Welcome, but some years later became a huge worldwide hit when it was performed in the 1942 espionage/romance film, Casablanca. What’s the name of this song?

a. They Call The Wind Mariah

b. As Time Goes By

c. My Blue Heaven

d. Little Brown Jug

5. In 1946, when censorship dictated that film kisses couldn’t last longer than three seconds, Alfred Hitchcock made history with this film when he had the lovers sprinkle their smooch with dialog every three seconds. What film was this?

a. Notorious

b. Spellbound

c. Foreign Correspondent

d. Lifeboat

6. What famous 1953 film gave the world the once-banned erotic scene that involved actor Burt Lancaster and actress Deborah Kerr making love on a moonlit beach (ocean waves splaying against their bodies)?

a. Come Back, Little Sheba

b. The Rose Tattoo

c. From Here To Eternity

d. Zulu Dawn

7. Who composed “What is youth?” - the popular ballad theme from Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet?

a. Wojciech Kilar

b. Nino Rota

c. Jack Nitzsche

d. Waylon Jennings

8. In the 1971 dark romance, The Panic in NeedlePark, Al Pacino portrays a young man whose troubling lifestyle eventually turns his sweet, naïve girlfriend into what?

a. a pathetic drug user

b. a hopeless alcoholic

c. a wretched suicidal

d. an amoral Hollywood agent

9. In the 1979 Sci-fi Romance, Time After Time, Malcolm McDowell plays a famous writer that time-travels to present-day San Francisco in order to stop Jack the Ripper. What famous writer did McDowell play?

a. Arthur Conan Doyle

b. Oscar Wilde

c. H.G. Wells

d. George McFly

10. In the sensual 1988 romance/historical drama, Dangerous Liaisons who played the naïve young lover to Glenn Close’s manipulative Marquise Isabella de Merteuil?

a. Hugh Grant

b. Ewan McGregor

c. Christian Bale

d. Keanu Reeves

11. In the 1992 romance thriller, Basic Instinct, crime novelist Catherine Trammell, arouses the male officers interrogating her by doing what?

a. folding and unfolding her legs

b. making sexy sounds while sniffing her armpits

c. clipping her toenails

d. combing her unibrow

12. In the 1994 drama/romance, Jason’s Lyric, this explicit but visually beautiful love scene got the film an X-rating. Where was it that Jason and Lyric made love?

a. a bed of flowers

b. a church fountain

c. an old cabin in the woods

d. a check-out lane at Walgreens

13. In the 1995 historical/romance, Rob Roy, land drover Rob Roy settles a matter of chivalry by killing an aristocratic villain in a sword duel. What had the villain done to Rob Roy’s wife?

a. killed her

b. raped her

c. scarred her face

d. insulted her cooking

14. In the 2008 comedy/romance, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, why do Zack and Miri make a porno?

a. to show the snobs at film school that porn can be artistic

b. to qualify for a federal arts grant

c. as pay back to the high school snobs that voted them pair most likely to die virgins

d. to pay their water bill

15. The 2012 seductive drama, Bel Ami, starred what actor that got an early film boost portraying a Harry Potter character on film?

a. Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory)

b. Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter)

c. Gary Oldman (Sirius Black)

d. Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid)

16. BONUS QUESTION

Who played the role of the lover of Elizabeth I in the 1998 bio/drama Elizabeth?

a. Sting

b. Joseph Fiennes

c. Jerry Seinfeld

d. Jonathan Rhys Meyers

e. All the above

f. No one; Elizabeth didn’t have a lover

Scroll below photo to find Answers

1. c. The Kiss

2 . c. The civilized world

3. b. window drapes

4. b. As Time Goes By

5. a. Notorious

6. c. From Here To Eternity

7. b. Nino Rota

8. a. a drug user

9. c. H.G. Wells

10. d. Keanu Reeves

11. a. folding and unfolding her legs

12. a. a bed of flowers

13. b. raped her

14. d. to pay their water bill

15. a. Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory)

16. BONUS QUESTION ANSWER - b. Joseph Fiennes

This Hub ©February 5, 2013 by Beth Perry