Deck 5: Adjusting to Postwar America, 1945-1955

Question 1

Name the film noir that features a successful businessman named Mr.Brown as the antagonist and who commonly speaks of murder and thievery in business terms like "liquidation of assets."

A) Double Indemnity
B) Out of the Past
C) Touch of Evil
D) The Big Combo

Answer 1

The Big Combo

Question 2

Antitrust lawsuits against the "Big Five" vertically integrated studios brought by the Department of Justice began in which year?

A) 1930
B) 1938
C) 1942
D) 1948

Answer 2

1938

Question 3

The HUAC inquiries often conflated un-American activities with ________.

A) unionism
B) Jewishness
C) communism
D) all of the above

Answer 3

all of the above

Question 4

The careers of approximately how many writers, directors, producers, and actors were affected by the decade-long blacklist?

A) 10
B) 100
C) 150
D) 300

Question 5

Which Constitutional amendment did the Hollywood Ten cite in order to protect themselves from HUAC and ultimately led to them being dubbed "unfriendly witnesses"?

A) the First Amendment (protects freedom of speech)
B) the Fourth Amendment (protects against unreasonable searches and seizures)
C) the Fifth Amendment (prohibits self-incrimination)
D) the Sixth Amendment (ensures the right to a fair and speedy public trial by jury)

Question 6

Describe the initial stance the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) took with regard to the indictment of the Hollywood Ten.

A) The MPAA offered unqualified support for the Hollywood Ten.
B) The MPAA said it would refuse to hire Communists and implemented a blacklist immediately.
C) The MPAA assured the government that a compromise could be reached via middle-management supervision of Communist subversives.
D) The MPAA said the matter at hand was a private matter between the screenwriters and the federal government.

Question 7

Film noir ideology is rooted in which of the following?

A) optimism and belonging in the midst of the Allied victory over the Germans
B) pessimism, longing, and a sense of insecurity based on postwar adjustments
C) sadness and melancholy based on memorializing the soldiers who lost their lives in World War II
D) happiness, joy, and social mobility brought by the postwar economic boom

Question 8

Block booking refers to the practice of ________.

A) the studios owning theater chains
B) the studios typecasting actors and actresses
C) making exhibitors license an entire slate of films in order to gain access to one or two hit titles
D) licensing films sight unseen

Question 9

What was the name of the government committee that convened to inquire into Communist influence in Hollywood?

A) House Un-American Activities Committee
B) the Hollywood Ten
C) the Office of War Information
D) the Motion Picture Export Association

Question 10

The Supreme Court's Paramount decision ultimately ended which two studio business practices?

A) the production code and block booking
B) block booking and vertical integration
C) block booking and horizontal integration
D) the production code and vertical integration

Question 11

This term refers to the business practice of making exhibitors license films without a preview.

A) block booking
B) vertical integration
C) horizontal integration
D) blind bidding

Question 12

Which characteristic best describes film noir?

A) hard-boiled ambience
B) world-weary pessimism
C) shadow-laden visuals
D) all of the above

Question 13

The MPAA complied with HUAC for all of the following reasons EXCEPT

A) to break the momentum of the union-guild movement in the midst of the shift to the contract system.
B) because of public relations concerns that the mass audience would boycott films based on the assumption that they were Communist propaganda.
C) to regain leverage over the careers of the talent.
D) to comply with a Supreme Court order tied to the Paramount decision.

Question 14

What term best represents the economically and sexually emancipated woman found in most film noir?

A) amour fou
B) homme fatale
C) femme fatale
D) private dick

Question 15

Name the Supreme Court case that ultimately ended block booking and vertical integration, resulting in the Big Five divesting themselves of their theater chains.

A) the Mutual decision
B) the Miracle decision
C) Roe v.Wade
D) the Paramount decision

Question 16

This studio business practice undermined management-labor relations, particularly those involving "points on the gross."

A) block booking
B) blind bidding
C) creative accounting
D) blacklisting

Question 17

In November 1947, the blacklist policy was formally implemented via which MPAA decree?

A) the Paramount decision
B) the Miracle decision
C) the Mutual decision
D) the Waldorf-Astoria Statement

Question 18

Which two American genres gave rise to film noir?

A) western and horror
B) melodrama and hard-boiled pulp
C) gangster and hard-boiled pulp
D) gangster and melodrama

Question 19

While the economic effects of the Paramount decision were immediate and dire, Hollywood quickly found itself atop which theatrical market?

A) domestic
B) international
C) ancillary
D) television

Question 20

Which of the following is a film noir visual trademark?

A) three-point lighting
B) day-for-night shooting
C) montage-heavy filmmaking
D) off-kilter camera angles

Question 21

Name the director who made quality films within a wide range of genres with different stars, different studios, and a variety of house styles, becoming a renowned "invisible" auteur.

A) Orson Welles
B) Alfred Hitchcock
C) Howard Hawks
D) Stanley Kubrick

Question 22

Orson Welles's Touch of Evil audaciously begins with what type of camera technique?

A) a day-for-night shot that highlights the expressionistic mise-en-scene of a border town
B) a split-screen that heightens the suspense of a car bombing
C) an extended traveling shot to showcase the geography and suspense of a car bombing
D) a rapid-fire montage highlighting the criminality of a Mexican border town

Question 23

Name the film noir that was communist in its message-namely, that all forms of capitalism are unethical, immoral, and criminal-and was directed Abraham Polonsky, who was eventually blacklisted.

A) The Big Combo
B) Force of Evil
C) Crossfire
D) Detour

Question 24

Which film genre often featured a leftist/socialist subtext?

A) western
B) melodrama
C) film noir
D) horror

Question 25

Like Howard Hawks, this director's approach to form was largely utilitarian.However, his films-even his film noir-were all united by his unique sense of humor.

A) Orson Welles
B) Alfred Hitchcock
C) Billy Wilder
D) Elia Kazan

Question 26

Name the filmmaker whose Technicolor widescreen melodramas included All That Heaven Allows and Imitation of Life.

A) Max Ophuls
B) Samuel Fuller
C) Nicolas Ray
D) Douglas Sirk

Question 27

This theory of film posits that the director is the single creative force behind the making of a film.

A) the Scribner theory
B) the Kael theory
C) the Sarris theory
D) the auteur theory

Question 28

Which one of the traits below was a quality found in Howard Hawks's films?

A) flashy camera movements that draw attention to their virtuosity
B) an abundance of montages that place viewers on their heels
C) a form that best served the star and/or genre
D) baroque mise-en-scene comparable to that of the German expressionists

Question 29

Name the director who "named names" during the HUAC hearings and is primarily known for bringing Method stage acting to Hollywood.

A) Billy Wilder
B) Elia Kazan
C) Howard Hawks
D) John Ford

Question 30

Which of the following factors complicate the auteur theory?

A) The film is owned and controlled by the studio distributor.
B) The production process is a collaborative process among many talented people.
C) Exactly what a director does or does not do varies from film to film.
D) all of the above

Question 31

Name the Orson Welles film that was taken away from him by RKO Studio, cut by almost an hour, and eventually released with a jarring "happy ending."

A) Touch of Evil
B) Citizen Kane
C) The Magnificent Ambersons
D) The Royal Tenenbaums

Question 32

Which Howard Hawks film features Marilyn Monroe as a gold-digging showgirl?

A) Scarface
B) Sergeant York
C) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
D) Bringing Up Baby

Question 33

While his films often exhibited a nondescript style, Howard Hawks was often preoccupied with which of the following themes?

A) a sense of melancholy towards technological and sociological progress
B) the futility of attempting to completely understand human existence
C) moral responsibility
D) the wrong man entrapped by a corrupt justice system

Question 34

Film noir often features all of the following narrative events EXCEPT

A) one single reckless moment.
B) regular men drawn into a web of murder, sex, and violence.
C) an optimistic escape for the protagonist into a quiet life thanks to a good-hearted woman.
D) the sacrifice of the protagonist.

Question 35

Billy Wilder directed which notable hybrid of noir and Hollywood satire?

A) Some Like It Hot
B) Touch of Evil
C) Double Indemnity
D) Sunset Boulevard

Question 36

Name the only woman working behind the camera making major motion pictures during the classical studio era.

A) Marilyn Monroe
B) Ida Lupino
C) Gene Kelly
D) Leigh Brackett

Question 37

Which Billy Wilder film deals with a middle-management executive who is tasked with arranging his boss's affair with a young elevator girl?

A) The Seven Year Itch
B) The Apartment
C) Sunset Boulevard
D) Some Like It Hot

Question 38

Orson Welles reframed this classic Shakespeare work as a form of autobiography, focusing on the protagonist's victimization, persecution, and paranoia.

A) Othello
B) Macbeth
C) Titus Andronicus
D) Hamlet

Question 39

This film noir directed by Orson Welles features a climactic shoot-out in a hall of mirrors, which is a metaphor for the characters' duplicity.

A) The Stranger
B) The Magnificent Ambersons
C) Touch of Evil
D) The Lady from Shanghai

Question 40

Which Elia Kazan film is a thinly veiled allegory for the HUAC hearings and the blacklist?

A) A Streetcar Named Desire
B) Only Angels Have Wings
C) The Searchers
D) On the Waterfront

Question 41

Choose either Orson Welles or Howard Hawks and describe how the director's career trajectory complicates the auteur theory.

Question 42

Describe the impact of the Paramount decision.

Question 43

You have been asked to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee.Would you "name names" or plead the Fifth? Explain your decision.

Question 44

Describe the factors that led to the blacklist.

Question 45

Define film noir as a genre.What are its thematic and stylistic hallmarks? What character types occur repeatedly?