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		Between 1948 and 1958, the number of drive-in theaters in America increased from fewer than 1000 to more than nearly 5000, even as over 5000 indoor movie houses went out of business, primarily because
			A)	of great advances in the technologies used for sound and projection in drive-in theatres.
			B)	the government’s successful antitrust efforts rendered the big studios unable to compete with the flush of “B” movies produced and exhibited by their smaller competitors.
			C)	the indoor theatres failed to bring new innovations to their patrons.
			D)	of changing demographics, especially the postwar baby boom, a massive shift to suburbia, and the “teenaging” of adolescents.
2		This now-legendary producer directed such lurid titles as It Conquered the World, The Undead, and The Wasp Women for American International Pictures in the 1950s, features each reportedly made in less than a week on a shoestring budget:
			A)	John Ford.
			B)	Roger Corman.
			C)	Elia Kazan.
			D)	Dalton Trumbo.
3		Invented in the late 1930s but briefly popular in the 1950s, this process for shooting and exhibiting films required three projectors displaying crisscrossing images simultaneously on a semicircular screen encompassing nearly the entire field of human vision:
			A)	CinemaScope.
			B)	VistaVision.
			C)	Cinerama.
			D)	Natural Vision.
4		Employing a special anamorphic lens that compressed a widescreen image onto normal 35-millimeter film without distortion, this format was embraced first by Twentieth-Century Fox and later by its competitors:
			A)	CinemaScope.
			B)	VistaVision.
			C)	Cinerama.
			D)	Natural Vision.
5		The aspect ratios for most widescreen films in the United States eventually became standardized at these two sizes:
			A)	1:1 and 1.33:1.
			B)	1.33:1 and 1.85:1.
			C)	1.85:1 and 2.35:1.
			D)	2.35:1 and 2.75:1.
6		Among the reasons for the popularity of the anthology drama on television in the 1950s was
			A)	the lavish set construction, sophisticated visual design, and fantasy-oriented scripts.
			B)	the small-screen intimacy of the productions, which featured psychological tension, small casts, and uncomplicated set constructions.
			C)	the relatively simplistic resolution offered to conflicts in the scripts, which mirrored the advertisers’ commercials for deodorant, hair tonic, shaving lotions, and other “quick solutions.”
			D)	the ability to refine the productions through script doctoring, multiple takes and retakes, and postproduction editing.
7		Though production studios first saw television as a threat to potential profits, the eventual sales of films backlogs to television in the 1950s led quickly to
			A)	studios regarding television as one facet of the potential box office profits.
			B)	many feature films being seen only during the run of their theatrical release.
			C)	feature films comprising the bulk of most cable television programming.
			D)	the continued popularity of the popular anthology drama format through the 1960s and 1970s.
8		By 1958 some 65 percent of Hollywood movies were being made by
			A)	the major studios, which maintained their dominance of the market despite the government’s antitrust efforts.
			B)	overseas production companies, which could deliver product on a lower budget and with fewer constraints.
			C)	American independent producers, although the major studios still controlled distribution and exhibition.
			D)	United Artists, which had by this point established a virtual monopoly unprecedented in the industry.
9		The eventual collapse of the studio system allowed stars like William Holden, Cary Grant, and Elizabeth Taylor to
			A)	establish their own production companies and choose “vanity projects” based on their own interests.
			B)	engage in the kinds of risky, alternative, and non-commercial projects that the studios would have avoided.
			C)	negotiate huge salaries and unprecedented participation deals based on percentages of box office receipts.
			D)	participate for the first time in films other than those produced by the studio to which they were bound by contract.
10		Stars, producers, directors, and writers banded to form this group, which took as its charge the exorcising of the communist demon from Hollywood via the government investigation of subversive activity:
			A)	The Hollywood Ten.
			B)	The Committee for the First Amendment.
			C)	The House Un-American Activities Committee.
			D)	The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals.
11		When the congressional hearings resumed in 1951, this prominent director “named names” of suspected communist sympathizers; nearly 50 years later, as he was feted by the Academy for lifetime achievement, protestors still criticized his failure to apologize for testifying:
			A)	John Ford.
			B)	Roger Corman.
			C)	Elia Kazan.
			D)	Dalton Trumbo.
12		At the time the biggest success in its parent company’s history, this 1969 feature—a huge box office success at a time when many big-budget productions were bombing—helped make the movie industry more inclined to gamble on the young directors and new projects that came to be known as the “New Hollywood”:
			A)	Ben-Hur.
			B)	Cleopatra.
			C)	Easy Rider.
			D)	The Godfather.
13		At the start of the 1980s, the practice of giving directors substantial creative freedom
			A)	led to widespread losses across the industry.
			B)	continued despite the occasional debacle like Heaven’s Gate.
			C)	fell into disrepute as management assumed closer control over the way movies were made.
			D)	became industry-wide practice for even minority directors like Spike Lee, Julie Dash, and Ang Lee.
14		The generation of talented moviemakers including Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and George Lucas
			A)	tended toward the traditional in their moviemaking style, eschewing innovation and experimentation in favor of the conventional idioms of the Hollywood film.
			B)	was the first to have studied film as a formal academic subject in graduate programs.
			C)	achieved little critical acclaim during the 1970s despite a slew of commercial successes.
			D)	became entrusted with autonomy and creative freedom only near the end of their careers.
15		While some female moviemakers like Amy Heckerling, Joan Chen, and Kathryn Bigelow made inroads into Hollywood in the 1990s, recent estimates suggest that
			A)	almost no major studio productions have been directed by women since 1998.
			B)	membership in the Directors Guild is still limited exclusively to men.
			C)	no more than ten percent of major movies in any given year are directed by females.
			D)	nearly half of the films released in 2000 were directed by females.