For those people who
stand around gossiping about Joan's husbands and cheeses (as one fan put it) and how many films in which she appeared
as a blonde (as Rome burns), this trivia test is just your cuppa! And even if you don't gossip, try it on for size!
It might put you on the Road to Ruin!
Please
note that only those silents reviewed on this site are included in the quiz. Some silents are not currently
available and a few, tragically, may be lost. I hope to track down whatever remains eventually and then will incorporate
them into the mix. As Wally Fay says in "Mildred Pierce," "We live in
hope."
Answers
will follow below. No cheating!
1.
Where in the World is Pepsi?
Have
you searched for Alfred Hitchcock's cameos in his films, proud that you could pick out that corpulent profile? How adept
are you at spotting soda? After marrying fourth husband, Pepsi bigwig Alfred Steele, Joan Crawford gave her usual
2,000 percent by promoting the product everywhere even in the remotest corner of Africa to tribes without shoes!
She also was a pioneer in product placement, displaying and featuring the Pepsi logo, discreetly and not, in
her films. Prior to becoming loyal ambassadress to Pepsi, Crawford actually endorsed Coke -- and every other product
under the sun (see my "Torch Song" review for her Peter Pan bra ad and wonder no more about that "bullet point breasts"
look of the 50's)!
According
to a Vanity Fair article called “The Lipstick Jungle” about the making
of “The Best of Everything,” when producer Jerry Wald asked her to introduce a young actress in a test scene, Crawford
insisted on playing the scene holding a bottle of Pepsi. Dierctor Jean Negulesco
objected, “to which she said, ‘No Pepsi-Cola bottle, and Joan Crawford goes home.’ He replied, ‘No, Joan. Pepsi-Cola stays, but Negulesco
goes home.’” Crawford cried. Guess she never thought
of wearing Pepsi earrings!
How many Pepsi placements
have you spotted? Name the film and the spot.
2. Joan
in LIVING COLOR!
How many films
featured Joan in color (television excluded, mind)? Name the films.
3. No
Tears in Your Vodka - Films in Which Joan Didn't Cry.
We all know Joan could put on the waterworks on and offscreen. Cliff Robertson, her co-star in "Autumn Leaves,"
even recalled with amazement that she would ask "which eye" a director wanted the tear to come from. But in which films did she remain dry-eyed?
4. Which films
did Joan swim in?
5.
In which films was Joan an actual shopgirl?
6. Which
films did Joan dance in? (The answer might surprise you!)
7.
In how many films did Joan -- gasp! -- die?
8.
In which films did Joan give her signature "double slap?" (The technique that could come in very
useful in our own lives with some deserving people...) (Yeah, go for it! I know there are plenty of you out there
who notice even the way Joan shakes hands, holding the palm up!)
9. In which films did Joan sing? Extra
points if you can name that tune!
10.
In which films was Joan a blonde?
11.
In which films did Joan wear a wedding gown?
12. Match Joan's profession to the film.
a. blackmailer 1.
Sudden Fear
b. senator 2.
Grand Hotel
c. anthropologist
3. Autumn Leaves
d. novelist
4. Ice Follies of 1939
e. playwright
5. The Women
f. stenographer
6. Daisy Kenyon
g. illustrator
7. Goodbye My Fancy
h. salesgirl
8. A Woman's Face
i. movie star
9. When Ladies Meet
j. typist
10. Trog
Get out your Number 2 pencils and think, think, think before looking at the answers, kids.
Don't bite on your erasers either!