Get Nostalgic With This Quiz on Classic Films

The ultimate prize in this 1941 crime caper is a jewel-encrusted falcon statue, so eight falcon props were made for filming. Six were made from plaster, and two were lead, weighing around 50 pounds each. During filming, costar Lee Patrick accidentally dropped one of the lead versions on Humphrey Bogart’s foot, denting the falcon’s tail feathers. Fortunately, Bogart was OK, and today, the dented statue is on display in the movie museum at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California.

In the award-winning film “Lawrence of Arabia,” the titular British army colonel embarks on a long journey to meet Prince Faisal I of Iraq, portrayed by Alec Guinness. The actor held a lifelong fascination with British archaeologist T.E. Lawrence and had originally wished to play that character, but was told he was too old. However, Prince Faisal is often considered to be one of the actor’s best roles.

While in hot pursuit of the broad-hatted Bandit (Burt Reynolds), the bumbling Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) stops at an Arkansas roadside diner and barks at the cashier, “Let me have a diablo sandwich, a Dr Pepper, and make it fast — I’m in a goddamn hurry.” Fans still aren’t sure what was inside the sandwich, but pulled pork slathered with spicy sauce on a hot dog bun is a popular theory.

The 1959 epic “Ben-Hur” may be set in Jerusalem, but it was filmed in Italy. The Cinecittà Studios, which are just outside Rome, are the largest in Europe, so they were perfect for the monumental sets the movie required — a lake was even constructed at the studio for a naval fight scene. Plus, Italy’s Roman buildings made perfect doubles for Roman-era Israel.

In the 1951 adventure movie “The African Queen,” Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn's characters travel through the African Great Lakes in a small steamboat named African Queen. Today, the 1912-built vessel is on permanent display at the Holiday Inn dock in Key Largo, Florida — you can even charter the steamboat for a special event.

“Casablanca” is considered one of the greatest films of all time, but it was based on what was once called the world’s worst play. That play was an unproduced work titled “Everybody Comes to Rick’s.” The script was pooh-poohed from the start, but was nonetheless acquired by Warner Studios. Producers improved the storyline and turned it into the 1942 Hollywood classic we know today.

Greta Garbo began her career in Tinseltown as a star of the silent screen. The Swedish actress’ first talkie feature was MGM’s “Anna Christie” (1930), which was billed as “Garbo talks!” Known for her more melancholic roles, Garbo landed her first comedic lead with the film “Ninotchka” in 1939. In a play on the old publicity campaign, the slogan “Garbo laughs!” was used to promote the more lighthearted fare.

In reality, the hotel where Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) conducts his illicit relationship with Mrs. Robinson in 1967’s “The Graduate” was the old Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, which was demolished in 2006. In the movie, it’s called the Taft Hotel, where the young Braddock goes by the fake name “Mr. Gladstone.”

In the 1976 film “Network,” disgruntled news anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) implored viewers to yell that they were “mad as hell” and “not going to take it anymore!” He found his program on the fictional Union Broadcasting System, or UBS.

Screenwriter Truman Capote’s top choice for the character of Holly Golightly was Marilyn Monroe, although Paramount preferred Audrey Hepburn, who was ultimately cast in the starring role. Monroe reportedly turned down the role in part because her acting coach advised her against playing a “lady of the evening.”

The 1952 hit “Singin’ in the Rain,” a fun but critical look at life in the golden age of Hollywood, did not originate as a stage show like many of the movie musicals of the time. Instead, songs from other famous musicals were incorporated into an entirely new script, creating a movie beloved across generations.

It may seem like Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown” got snubbed at the 1975 Academy Awards, with 11 nominations and only one win. But what you have to realize is that “Godfather: Part II” was also nominated that year. With Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece cleaning up, the only trophy that went to Chinatown was for its screenplay, written by Robert Towne.

Chasen’s Restaurant on Beverly Boulevard was once the hottest hangout for Hollywood stars. Elizabeth Taylor was particularly enamored with its chili, which she had flown to Rome during the filming of “Cleopatra” (1963). Her note to the owner read, “The chili is so good. Please send me 10 quarts of your wonderful chili in dry ice to 448 Via Appia Pignatelli. Love and kisses.”

Located in upstate New York, the charming fictional town of Bedford Falls serves as the setting for the classic Christmas film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” starring Jimmy Stewart. Director Frank Capra was inspired by a visit to New York’s Seneca Falls, and certain town landmarks, such as the bridge and the high school, bear an uncanny similarity to the locations in the film.

The Big Five Oscar categories include Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, and, of course, Best Picture. The first film to win them all was Frank Capra’s 1934 hit, “It Happened One Night,” a screwball comedy that threw together socialite Ellen Andrews (Claudette Colbert) with “bad boy” reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable) on a cross-country adventure.

Considered one of the finest horror movies of all time, Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" wasn't exactly in need of a remake. But director Gus Van Sant thought differently and wanted to do an experiment with a shot-by-shot color remake in 1998. Starring Anne Heche, Viggo Mortensen, and Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates, the film unfortunately didn’t live up to the critical and commercial success of the original.

Errol Flynn is no stranger to films where a dashing protagonist takes on an extraordinary sword-fighting adventure. The actor may be best known for 1938’s “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” but his first outing in a swashbuckler film was in Michael Curtiz’s “Captain Blood” in 1935. Flynn played an enslaved doctor who breaks free with his fellow captives and becomes a pirate in the West Indies.

In the 1960 classic "The Apartment,” Jack Lemmon stars as an insurance man who falls in love with his boss' mistress, played by Shirley MacLaine. The Christmas-set romantic tragicomedy went on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

The 1959 spy thriller “North by Northwest” ends with an epic chase around Mount Rushmore. However, the Department of the Interior said no to filming on location, so a model of Mount Rushmore was built on a Hollywood set, and with some movie magic, it looked like the characters Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) and Eve Kendall (Eve Marie Saint) were really being chased on the monument.

The 1953 Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck flick “Roman Holiday” made whizzing about the Italian capital on a Vespa look oh-so-chic. The scooter’s brief appearance in the movie — in which Hepburn rides behind Peck — gave Vespa’s parent company, Viaggio, a healthy boost of an additional 100,000 sales that year.

At the end of the 1959 American crime comedy “Some Like It Hot,” smitten millionaire Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown) discovers that his love interest, Daphne (Jack Lemmon), is a male con artist disguised as a woman. Instead of running away, Osgood simply states, “Well, nobody’s perfect,” leaving Daphne speechless. The line has since become one of the most beloved lines in Hollywood history.

The character Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) is based on newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, and his sprawling, lavish estate in “Citizen Kane” is called Xanadu, a nod to Hearst Castle in California. “Rosebud,” meanwhile, is (spoiler alert!) the name of a sled the young Kane was playing with on the day he was taken away from his mother, and the name has a big moment at the end of the film. Bill Gates named his own mansion Xanadu after Kane’s estate.

The Wicked Witch of the West was a tough cookie, but she was no match for a bucket of water in the 1939 classic. Played by Margaret Hamilton, the “Wizard of Oz” villain sought to kill Dorothy, a young girl played by Judy Garland. The tables turned when Dorothy inadvertently splashed the Witch of the West with a bucket of water, melting the witch in front of her henchman.

In an iconic scene from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961), Audrey Hepburn, as stylish socialite Holly Golightly, sits on her New York City fire escape playing the wistful Henry Mancini tune "Moon River." The studio originally thought it would need to dub Hepburn’s voice since she was not a trained singer, but Mancini penned the song to sit right in the sweet spot of her range. It won that year’s Oscar for Best Original Song.

This line comes from the 1950 classic “Sunset Boulevard,” and was named the seventh-greatest movie quote ever by the American Film Institute. When news cameras show up at the house of former movie star and current murder suspect Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), she utters this now-famous quip: “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”

Not only did actors Gary Merrill and Bette Davis play a couple on screen in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1950 awards darling “All About Eve,” but the duo fell in love off screen as well. In the Oscar-winning film, Davis stars as a revered Broadway star whose boyfriend is a director, played by Merrill. Davis and Merill tied the knot in July 1950, and were married for 10 years.

The 1939 classic "Gone with the Wind" is an epic film, based on the book of the same name, that follows the trials and tribulations of Scarlett O’Hara before and during the American Civil War. In the film, Scarlett’s home, Tara, is depicted as a typical Southern plantation. In reality, the film was shot on constructed Hollywood sets.

If you know Cartier, Tiffany, and Harry Winston, you know they’re in the diamond business, and they all get a shout-out in “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” The song was introduced on Broadway by Carol Channing, but on film, it’s Marilyn Monroe who sings it in 1953’s “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”

Although Gregory Peck wasn’t the first choice to play Atticus Finch in the film adaptation of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” his portrayal of the principled provincial lawyer won the actor an Oscar. Lee sang his praises, saying he was ultimately the perfect choice because the role “gave Peck the chance to play himself… he was that man.”

The 1955 drama “Rebel Without a Cause” starred James Dean as a troubled teenager, one of the actor’s final roles before his untimely death that same year.

Although everyone quotes Rhett Butler’s legendary line, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” that is not the closing passage to the 1939 film “Gone With the Wind.” The film comes to a close after Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) says, “After all, tomorrow is another day.” The line is in reference to her perseverance and determination to win back the affection of Rhett (Clark Gable).