Answers: February 8th, 2006
Here are the answers I've emailed out to some of the questions you have asked. As you'll see, I don't always know the correct answer but hope to at least provide a hint to steer the person asking in the right direction. If you can clarify, or want to dispute, any of the answers- be sure to contact me and I'll follow up. Every so often I'll add a new page of answers so check back often!
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CMT Answer Update:
In our November 16th Q&A column, we had a question on which mother had played the grandmother to her sons in a movie. Jen, the reader who sent in the original question, replied that she had found the answer. The mom in question was Eileen Ryan, mother of Sean Penn and the recently deceased Chris Penn. The movie was 1986's "At Close Range" . Thanks, Jen!

Are there any other movies besides "Cool Hand Luke" that has the line "What we have here is a failure to communicate..." It seems so familiar and recent. Thanks.
-Ginger Garrette
CMT Answer:
That line from Cool Hand Luke was made into more of a pop icon statement by being used at the start of the Guns N' Roses song "Civil War". Personally, I knew the quote from the song before I had seen the movie, so when the quote came up when I was first watching the flick (which as a side note was the first movie I ever saw on the DVD format), I was all like "Hey it's the Guns N' Roses song!"
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In "Top Gun", Val Kilmer was Ice Man. What was his wingman's handle?
-Micki Hall

CMT Answer:
Ice Man's wingman was that fourth dream-boat in the beach volleyball game, Slider. He was played by Rick Rossovich, who was kind of a rising star in the 80's after Top Gun with biggish roles in "Roxanne" (he was the guy who Darryl Hannah was dating instead of Steve Martin), and in the 1990 bomb "Navy Seals". He hasn't done all that much lately, although he did have a string of guest roles on in the tv show "E.R', reteaming with the 'other' wingman from "Top Gun", the ill-fated Goose.
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What was Cool Hand Luke's prison number?
-Dean Barbee
CMT Answer:
Another Cool Hand Luke question eh? Paul Newman, the prisoner who would not conform, was #37. It was a reference
to the biblical passage Luke 1:37 which reads "For with God nothing shall be impossible."
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How much did it cost to see a movie in the 1950's - 60's?
-Laura

CMT Answer:
Doing a bit of digging I came across a good site that I have actually used before in looking up answers for this page. It contains stats compiled by NATO (not the defense organization, but the National Association of Theater Owners), and lists average U.S prices from 1948 to present day. However for the time period you are after, they only have listings for certain years. Here is a list of what they had below, along with their most recent ticket average price (2004):

2004 - $6.21
1967 - $1.22
1963 - $.86
1958 - $.68
1954 - $.49

Using the Consumer Price Index as a measure to adjust for inflation, in 2004 dollars this equals:

2004 - $6.21
1967 - $6.91
1963 - $5.31
1958 - $4.44
1954 - $3.45

It's also interesting to note that although we think that ticket prices have skyrocketed in the last ten or so years, in the 13 years between 1954 and 1967 prices went up roughly 250%, whereas for the same timespan between 1991 and 2004, prices went up only roughly 50% from $4.21 to $6.21. So, for this period at least, movie-goers would have been complaining about the skyrocketing price of movies just as moviegoers of today also seem to do.

You can check out the whole list of ticket prices here.
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The quote "Sex happens to be the one subject I can speak about with absolutely no authority whatsoever. " I thought it was from the Movie "My Favorite Year" with Peter O' Toole. Am I wrong?
-Dave K.

CMT Answer:
Hope you didn't bet any money on that, the quote is from the 1985 musical "A Chorus Line", starring Michael Douglas. It was spoken by the character Gregory, who was played by Justin Ross.
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In the movie "Cujo", how did Cujo get rabies?
-Daniel Block

CMT Answer:
The big mean St. Bernard in the 80's horror flick was one of King's early horror icons and one of his first post-Carrie horror movies made, back when they were still adapted semi-seriously. The dog in the flick got his rabies the same way he did in the book, which was from being bitten by a rabid bat. Mayhem, suffering, and all kinds of regular King-induced events followed.
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What's the name of the movie that the quote "Keep the change ya filthy animal" is from?
-?

CMT Answer:
A variant on this question has been answered in a previous column here. It's kind of a trick question, as you'll see when you come across the answer.
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What is the bloodiest scene ever filmed? I say it's the scene from Scarface, my "little friend" says it's Saving Private Ryan...
-Michele

CMT Answer:
Well this is a pretty subjective question. Is it just pure amount of blood used? Blood and violence? Any kind of gore? Does realism count?

For pure 'bloody' you could go with the elevator opening in "The Shining" that is completely filled with blood. There is also a ton of blood in "Evil Dead 2" when Ash is trying to kill his runaway hand. For disturbing sicko violence there is the Japanese flick "Ichi the Killer", which would never, ever make it in its original form to a theatrical release stateside. For my money, however, the bloodiest scene I can think of right now is the climax of one of Peter Jackson's early films, the great "Braindead" (aka "Dead Alive"). Near the end of that flick the hero cleans out an entire house that is
stuffed with zombies by using a lawnmower, and THAT is just pure, clean fun.

"Scarface" and "Saving Private Ryan" definitely do qualify as having two great, bloody scenes though. You would think your "little friend" would be all over "Scarface", though....

If you have any other great bloody scenes you would like to add, send me a note!
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I have a quick movie trivia question. What movie has made a product popular for just being seen in that movie, I can't think of any. Can you help me? Thank you.
-Debbie

CMT Answer:
Hmmm... a good question. One that jumps off the top of my head, and is probably the poster child for a successful product placement, is Reese's Pieces from E.T. I remember those spiking hugely in popularity after E.T munched on the little things and hooked up with Elliott. Apparently sales soared about 80% after the flick was released.

Another one I can think of off-hand is the 'fame' cars get as being 007's vehicle of choice. There is the Aston Martin from the earlier movies and the BMWs from the more recent flicks, with various others in-between. Also I would bet that sales of the Walther PPK have seen a boost thanks to early Bond flicks.

However I wonder how much of the 'in-your-face' product placement of many recent flicks actually pays off. Did anyone actually buy those crappy Adidas shoes after seeing Will Smith plug them endlessly in "I, Robot"? And even if so, enough to offset the marketing cost? I doubt that as much as the fact that we'll have walking, sentient robots less than 30 years from now.

Know of any more popular product placements? Send em in!
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How does Buddy answer the phone in "Elf"?
-Laurie

CMT Answer:
Buddy the Elf! What's your favorite color?
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