Anne Thompson over at indieWire has posted a stumper of a movie-buff quiz/contest to celebrate the release of the fifth edition of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (something I really need to pick up a copy of one of these days). I’m sure someone else has already gotten all 50 questions by now, so I have no shot at the prize, but this has been driving me nuts all night anyway. Right now, I can get 16 out of 50. I dare anyone else to even get to 5. Try your luck:
1. Who said, “I know things about people, Lily?”, and in what film?
2. Who played Louis Mazzini, Jeeves and Lord Byron?
3. Which actor made at least one film with Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Rene Clair and John Ford?
4. She was born in Assam, India and he was born in Hampstead. What did they do together, and who are they?
5. What film did Upton Sinclair pay for?
6. Name a director who has filmed material from Ed McBain, Dostoyevsky and Shakespeare.
7. Who is the link in Stavisky, Reds and Beat the Devil?
8. Who won the Sarah Siddons prize?
9. Find the thread: James Jones, Michael Ondaatje, Colette?
10. Who had an Uncle Jack and an Aunt Fanny?
11. What’s the common element in M, Caught, Body and Soul?
12. What’s the link: L’Atalante, On the Waterfront, Long Day’s Journey Into Night?
13. What’s the bond between The Third Man and Johnny Guitar?
14. Of what movie was it said, “Gable’s back and Garson’s got him!”?
15. In the Cut and Panic Room – who’s the missing link?
16. Ulverston, Lancashire and Harlem, Georgia – how are they joined?
17. Who taught Alec to ride?
18. Who said, “I’d like to kiss you, but I just washed my hair”?
19. Who stayed a little too long to watch a pretty girl dance?
20. He made only five films and all were nominated for Best Picture. Who is he?
21. What’s the link: The Small Back Room, Out of Africa, The Age of Innocence?
22. On whose map might you find Santa Rosa, Bodega Bay and San Juan de Batista?
23. He worked with Cecil B. DeMille, Orson Welles and Jean-Luc Godard?
24. St Petersburg, Pompeii, the Jungle – who could have been in all those places?
25. How might you link Shirley Temple and Truffaut’s Day for Night?
26. Who played the second Pharisee, Captain von Rauffenstein and Max von Mayerling – and in what films?
27. In what film do we meet Jimmy Gator, Earl Partridge and Frank Mackey?
28. He played a judge, a lawyer and a man in prison. Who is he and what are the films?
29. How do you link Charles Boyer and Anton Walbrook?
30. Who is famous for 26.6 seconds of film?
31. What would you find about 15 miles south of Fairvale?
32. Who had just a drunk, a cripple and a kid to do the job?
33. Who said, “Movies bore me, especially my own”?
34. What role links Melville Cooper, Alan Rickman, William Lowery and Peter Finch?
35. Who wanted his $93,000?
36. What is the link between Robert Morley and Jim Broadbent?
37. Who were Victoria Page, Vicki Lester and Victor Laszlo?
38. Who was Roger O. Thornhill, C.K. Dexter Haven and Jerry Warriner?
39. What links Sunrise and A Place in the Sun?
40. The following contended for this part: Vivien Leigh, Loretta Young, Joan Fontaine, Margaret Sullavan. What was the name of the part?
41. What links Max Ophuls, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Stanley Donen and Jacques Demy?
42. Who played President Andrew Johnson, Joe Starrett and Webb Garwood?
43. Who played Sid Vicious and Joe Orton?
44. Who said, “Nobody’s perfect!”?
45. Three producers had these middle initials – F, B, O – who are they?
46. What’s the link for Chuck Barris, Chris Kelvin and Ryan Bingham?
47. When did two people tie for an Oscar and who were they?
48. In what film was Charles Palantine running for election?
49. Who had the key to Walter’s sharp practice?
50. Who remembered a girl on the ferry over to Jersey in 1896?
The Best Films of Our Lives 
Wow I failed. Ouch. But…
37. Victoria Page is the ballerina protagonist of “The Red Shoes,” while Victor Laszlo is the freedom fighter Ingrid Bergman ends up with in “Casablanca.”
47. In the 1930s, Fredric March won the tied Oscar by getting one more vote than his opponent. No idea who the opponent was though.
Fail.
Sorry, but I believe #47 is actually referring to 1968, when Barbra Streisand and Katherine Hepburn received the exact same number of votes for “Funny Girl” and “The Lion in Winter,” respectively. Though Frederic March and Wallace Beery (“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and “The Champ”) did indeed both get statuettes in 1932, March did technically receive one more vote. Actually, reading the question again, it could be asking for both incidents. So good job on remembering that obscure piece of Oscar lore!
Here’s what I’ve got:
6. Akira Kurosawa (“High and Low,” “The Idiot,” take your pick of “Throne of Blood” or “Ran”)
8. Unless I’m nuts, I think this is the prize that Eve Harrington wins in “All About Eve.”
20. John Cazale (acted in “The Godfather” and its sequel, “Dog Day Afternoon,” “The Conversation” and “The Deer Hunter,” all nominated for Best Picture)
22. Alfred Hitchcock (“Shadow of a Doubt” takes place in Santa Rose, “The Birds” in Bodega Bay, can’t remember the third one)
26. Erich von Stroheim (played von Rauffenstein in “Grand Illusion” and Max von Mayerling in “Sunset Blvd.”, don’t know the other one)
30. I think this is a reference to Abraham Zapruder’s footage of the JFK assassination. Not sure why it’s here, though.
34. The Sheriff of Nottingham
37. What Elaine said, plus Vicki Lester is Judy Garland’s character in “A Star is Born.”
38. Cary Grant (in “North by Northwest,” “The Philadelphia Story” and “The Awful Truth”)
43. Gary Oldman
44. Joe E. Brown at the end of “Some Like it Hot”
45. Daryl F. Zanuck, Louis B. Mayer and David O. Selznick
46. George Clooney played characters named Ryan Bingham (“Up in the Air”) and Kris Kelvin (“Solaris”) and directed a movie about Chuck Barris (“Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”).
47. See explanation above.
48. “Taxi Driver”
50. I know this is a “Citizen Kane” reference, it’s the really beautiful part when the old banking/accountant guy is talking about how a month hasn’t gone by where he hasn’t thought about that girl…but I can’t remember the character or actor’s name.