Deck 6: American Cinema in the 1930s

Question 1

All of these movies featured guns,cars,and sex except:

A)Wild Boys of the Road
B)Public Enemy
C)Scarface
D)Little Caesar

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What quality of speech most characterized how actors spoke in early "talkies"?

A)poetic
B)colloquial
C)proper
D)accented

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Who worked as a successful independently produced director?

A)Howard Hawks
B)George Cukor
C)Sam Wood
D)Mervyn LeRoy
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Answer 3

A

Question 4

What characterizes the film style of William Wyler?

A)lengthy takes
B)deep-focus photography
C)few close-ups
D)all of the above

Question 5

Who was "a musical Eisenstein"?

A)Howard Hawks
B)Ernst Lubitsch
C)Fred Astaire
D)Busby Berkeley

Question 6

All of the following qualities are true of George Cukor's outstanding,Garbo-starring film except:

A)luxurious mise en scène
B)underplayed acting
C)careless writing
D)great performance

Question 7

All of the following are typical examples of a Frank Capra movie except

A)It Happened One Night
B)Red River
C)Mr.Deeds Goes to Washington
D)The Strong Man

Question 8

John Ford's movies are characterized by which of the following?

A)visual economy
B)independent women
C)loosely structured plots
D)none of the above

Question 9

The actor that worked successfully in westerns with both Howard Hawks and John Ford was

A)Humphrey Bogart
B)James Cagney
C)Clark Gable
D)John Wayne

Question 10

Which of the following is true of the gangster in gangster movies?

A)He is poorly educated.
B)He is incapable of love.
C)He is a man of the city.
D)He is incapable of humor.

Question 11

Which of the following is true of an Ernst Lubitsch comedy?

A)it is very realistic
B)it makes secondary characters the butt of jokes
C)it is never cold nor brittle
D)it stays true to traditional comic technique

Question 12

What did Mae West possess that made her a "startling apparition"?

A)beauty
B)bravery
C)great voice
D)political savvy

Question 13

_____ were "the legitimate descendents of the American iconoclastic tradition."

A)The Gold Diggers
B)Mae West and Cary Grant
C)The Marx Brothers
D)none of the above

Question 14

Ben Hecht's writing was embodied in a dynamic,no-nonsense style which helped define 30s comedy and drama.___

Question 15

In a Busby Berkeley movie the star was really the editor,not the actor and not the camera.___

Question 16

Ernst Lubitsch was the screen's resident master of the grotesque through the early 1930s.___

Question 17

The gangster movie cycle began with which film?

A)Scarface
B)Underworld
C)Little Cesar
D)Public Enemy

Question 18

Greta Garbo laughed for the first time on film in which movie?

A)The Little Foxes
B)It's a Wonderful Life
C)Front Page
D)Ninotchka

Question 19

Who first administered the censorious Production Code?

A)Joseph I.Breen
B)Will Hays
C)neither a nor b
D)both a and b

Question 20

What replaced the sight gag in comedies when sound was introduced?

A)wisecrack
B)fast talk
C)double entendre
D)non sequitur
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Question 21

Matching
a.Busby Berkeley's musical in which pianos move
b.Mae West puts Cary Grant in his place
c.William Wyler films starring Bette Davis
d.Marx Bothers' surrealistic assault on order and reason
e.starred James Cagney,bruised,without illusions…
f.George Cukor film starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor
g.Frank Capra film starring James Stewart
h.director John Ford's first critical hit
i.gangster film written by Ben Hecht,directed by Howard Hawks
j.starred Fred Astaire,the musical's inventor
Scarface ___ place

Question 22

Matching
a.Busby Berkeley's musical in which pianos move
b.Mae West puts Cary Grant in his place
c.William Wyler films starring Bette Davis
d.Marx Bothers' surrealistic assault on order and reason
e.starred James Cagney,bruised,without illusions…
f.George Cukor film starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor
g.Frank Capra film starring James Stewart
h.director John Ford's first critical hit
i.gangster film written by Ben Hecht,directed by Howard Hawks
j.starred Fred Astaire,the musical's inventor
Duck Soup ___ order and reason

Question 23

What things did the Production Code prohibit in movies?

Question 24

Matching
a.Busby Berkeley's musical in which pianos move
b.Mae West puts Cary Grant in his place
c.William Wyler films starring Bette Davis
d.Marx Bothers' surrealistic assault on order and reason
e.starred James Cagney,bruised,without illusions…
f.George Cukor film starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor
g.Frank Capra film starring James Stewart
h.director John Ford's first critical hit
i.gangster film written by Ben Hecht,directed by Howard Hawks
j.starred Fred Astaire,the musical's inventor
The Informer ___

Question 25

Matching

-Camille ___

A)Busby Berkeley's musical in which pianos move
B)Mae West puts Cary Grant in his place
C)William Wyler films starring Bette Davis
D)Marx Bothers' surrealistic assault on order and reason
E)starred James Cagney,bruised,without illusions…
F)George Cukor film starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor
G)Frank Capra film starring James Stewart
H)director John Ford's first critical hit
I)gangster film written by Ben Hecht,directed by Howard Hawks
J)starred Fred Astaire,the musical's inventor.

Question 26

Frank Capra's movies are morality plays of loss followed by reclamation as can be seen in It's a Wonderful Life.___

Question 27

The Marx Brothers were more dependent on their writers than quieter,more behavioral comics like Laurel and Hardy.___

Question 28

Matching
a.Busby Berkeley's musical in which pianos move
b.Mae West puts Cary Grant in his place
c.William Wyler films starring Bette Davis
d.Marx Bothers' surrealistic assault on order and reason
e.starred James Cagney,bruised,without illusions…
f.George Cukor film starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor
g.Frank Capra film starring James Stewart
h.director John Ford's first critical hit
i.gangster film written by Ben Hecht,directed by Howard Hawks
j.starred Fred Astaire,the musical's inventor
It's a Wonderful Life ___ Garbo and Robert Taylor

Question 29

Musical underscoring is what made bad movies "bad" and,as well,often distracted from the emotion a key moment in a movie.___
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Question 30

Fred Astaire used dance as a metaphor for character,courtship,love,and,yes,sex.
___

Question 31

Matching
a.Busby Berkeley's musical in which pianos move
b.Mae West puts Cary Grant in his place
c.William Wyler films starring Bette Davis
d.Marx Bothers' surrealistic assault on order and reason
e.starred James Cagney,bruised,without illusions…
f.George Cukor film starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor
g.Frank Capra film starring James Stewart
h.director John Ford's first critical hit
i.gangster film written by Ben Hecht,directed by Howard Hawks
j.starred Fred Astaire,the musical's inventor
Angels with Dirty Faces ___

Question 32

Matching
a.Busby Berkeley's musical in which pianos move
b.Mae West puts Cary Grant in his place
c.William Wyler films starring Bette Davis
d.Marx Bothers' surrealistic assault on order and reason
e.starred James Cagney,bruised,without illusions…
f.George Cukor film starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor
g.Frank Capra film starring James Stewart
h.director John Ford's first critical hit
i.gangster film written by Ben Hecht,directed by Howard Hawks
j.starred Fred Astaire,the musical's inventor
The Little Foxes ___

Question 33

Bette Davis made her mark as a shy,retiring woman who would surrender her will to stronger characters,especially men.___

Question 34

Matching
a.Busby Berkeley's musical in which pianos move
b.Mae West puts Cary Grant in his place
c.William Wyler films starring Bette Davis
d.Marx Bothers' surrealistic assault on order and reason
e.starred James Cagney,bruised,without illusions…
f.George Cukor film starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor
g.Frank Capra film starring James Stewart
h.director John Ford's first critical hit
i.gangster film written by Ben Hecht,directed by Howard Hawks
j.starred Fred Astaire,the musical's inventor
Swing Time ___

Question 35

Howard Hawks's films are characterized by a concise sense of plot,verbal economy,visual economy,and,at their end,triumphant characters.___

Question 36

What was impossible for director Frank Capra in movies? What was his core
message?
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Question 37

Matching
a.Busby Berkeley's musical in which pianos move
b.Mae West puts Cary Grant in his place
c.William Wyler films starring Bette Davis
d.Marx Bothers' surrealistic assault on order and reason
e.starred James Cagney,bruised,without illusions…
f.George Cukor film starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor
g.Frank Capra film starring James Stewart
h.director John Ford's first critical hit
i.gangster film written by Ben Hecht,directed by Howard Hawks
j.starred Fred Astaire,the musical's inventor
She Done Him Wrong ___

Question 38

What was it that Fred Astaire managed to achieve through his dance musicals in the
30s?

Question 39

Matching
a.Busby Berkeley's musical in which pianos move
b.Mae West puts Cary Grant in his place
c.William Wyler films starring Bette Davis
d.Marx Bothers' surrealistic assault on order and reason
e.starred James Cagney,bruised,without illusions…
f.George Cukor film starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor
g.Frank Capra film starring James Stewart
h.director John Ford's first critical hit
i.gangster film written by Ben Hecht,directed by Howard Hawks
j.starred Fred Astaire,the musical's inventor
The Gold Diggers of 1935 ___

Question 40

John Ford's films are full of compositions which are painterly,in-depth,and in deep focus,but whose narrative is often rambling.___
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Question 41

What was the appeal of the American musical,both in technique and story,to American audiences?

Question 42

What did gangster movies generally have in common with the optimistic orientation
of most American movies (that is,until the typical gangster movie reached its bloody
conclusion)?

Question 43

With what character type was John Ford preoccupied in his movies?

Question 44

In American movies,which is the more powerful thematic impulse: idealism or pragmatism?

Question 45

What would be the delights and problems with director William Wyler's excessive attention to detail in making his movies?