Multiple Choice Quiz

For each of the questions that follow, only one choice accurately completes the statement. In some cases, more than one answer may seem plausible, so carefully consider each option before choosing the response that accurately completes the statement.

1		The film titled The May Irwin—John C. Rice Kiss (1896) caused outrage in many locales across America
			A)	because the actors appeared to be only partially clothed.
			B)	because the actors’ kiss lasted a full five minutes onscreen.
			C)	because it featured the two actors in a close-up, creating a sense of intimacy not possible on the stage.
			D)	because the actors involved were rumored to be engaged in an extramarital affair, heightening the sense of scandal.
2		Established in 1909, the National Board of Censorship
			A)	was the U.S. government’s first official censoring board.
			B)	for a time reviewed nearly all of the films produced in the country.
			C)	withheld its seal of approval from a full third of movies submitted for review.
			D)	gave its full seal of approval to Griffith’s Birth of a Nation despite bitter protests from political groups.
3		In the 1920s, black filmmakers
			A)	were able to secure financing for professional actors, sophisticated lighting, and innovative editing.
			B)	broached sensitive topics like white squeamishness about interracial romance despite censorship concerns.
			C)	were able to work outside the censorship impositions placed on their white counterparts.
			D)	found themselves suddenly in demand by a Hollywood newly sensitive to racial injustice.
4		With dramatized stories of infidelities, vulgarities, and illicit passions, this filmmaker set the standard for cinematic salaciousness in the increasingly hedonistic Jazz Age:
			A)	D. W. Griffith.
			B)	Oscar Michaeux.
			C)	Cecil B. DeMille.
			D)	Robert Wiene.
5		In the 1920s, the impression that Hollywood was synonymous with the unsavory life
			A)	was perpetuated by the offscreen behavior of stars like Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, and Mary Pickford.
			B)	was largely ended by the careful restrictions imposed by the National Board of Censorship.
			C)	was of little concern to an increasingly liberal culture.
			D)	was mitigated by the tabloid press’s refusal to report negative stories about Hollywood stars.
6		The Motion Picture Production Code offered a set of guidelines that detailed various offenses against middle-class morality not to be shown on film and was officially placed into effect in
			A)	1920.
			B)	1925.
			C)	1930.
			D)	1935.
7		One of the findings of the Payne Fund Studies published in 1933 was
			A)	that the dictates of the Production Code were frequently unevenly applied.
			B)	that movies were a source of imitation, unintentional learning, and emotional influence for young people.
			C)	that of all the art forms, movies were the most effective at shaping young people’s conception of the world.
			D)	that the films of the previous decade contributed greatly to the increasingly anti-Semitic attitudes of the young.
8		Among press baron William Randolph Hearst efforts against Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane was
			A)	personally offering RKO $800,000 to destroy the picture’s negative and all of its prints.
			B)	banning publicity for Kane and all other RKO features in his newspapers.
			C)	bringing a libel lawsuit naming Welles and co-writer Herman Mankiewicz as defendants.
			D)	publicly denying that the term “Rosebud” was a pet name for his long-time mistress’s private parts.
9		The Breen office of the Production Code Authority remained steadfast in its efforts to maintain cinematic morality even during wartime, requiring numerous revisions to not only the script, but also even the editing of
			A)	Mildred Pierce.
			B)	Citizen Kane.
			C)	Casablanca.
			D)	The Bicycle Thief.
10		One of the most prolonged challenges to the conservatism of the Breen code came from a fictional account of Billy the Kid, produced and directed by Howard Hughes, and notorious primarily for
			A)	a scene in which a young boy tries to urinate against a wall.
			B)	its ample display of the bosom of its female lead.
			C)	multiple scenes featuring violent and bloody shootouts.
			D)	the first onscreen utterance of an epithet that would seem commonplace in today’s cineplex: “Damn!”
11		The MPAA rating system developed in 1968 led to company executives self-imposing this rating—the most restrictive possible at the time—on the critically acclaimed 1969 film Midnight Cowboy:
			A)	M.
			B)	R.
			C)	X.
			D)	NC-17.
12		Since 1968, the ratings of the MPAA for individual films
			A)	have remained internally consistent despite the challenges of various films, subject to objective standards of community decency.
			B)	have changed along with society’s mores, so that some films earning the R today would have likely been rated X in previous decades.
			C)	have remained unchanged from the original four designations.
			D)	have changed along with the apparent whims and idiosyncrasies of each incoming MPAA president.