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Answers: January 23rd, 2004
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 Q&A column from December 6th, we had a reader ask what movie the line "This year we're going to rule the school" was from. I didn't know it but we had many, many readers write in with the correct answer- "Grease". Unfortunately over the holidays I had some computer issues so I lost all of my email archives, so the 10+ of you who wrote in with the correct answer I cannot thank by name- but you know who you are, so thanks guys n' girls.
What was the name of the innkeeper at the inn of the Prancing Pony?
-Jesse
CMT Answer:
I know you're referring to "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring", and I can tell you that the forgetful innkeeper was none other than Barliman Butterbur. The rotund (at least in the books, anyway), barkeep helped out our friendly hobbits by providing them with Bill the pony (again, in the books). I don't think his name is mentioned in the movie, but he was played by actor David Weatherly. He had previously appeared in a bunch of British movies and TV shows I've never heard of.
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What 1987 movie was the first major Hollywood movie to be made in the People's Republic of China?
-Mark

CMT Answer:
That movie was the Best Picture Academy Award winning "The Last Emperor". The flick was not only the first western movie to be filmed in communist China, but also was the first feature film to be shot in the Forbidden City. It starred Ricky Tan from "Rush Hour 2", aka John Lone, as the titular emperor.
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I was watch an old James Bond movie "Live and Let Die" and I think I recognized Denzel Washington as the shoeshine boy who reports Bond's travel through Harlem. Am I right?
-Anderson
CMT Answer:
For some reason I thought I had answered this question, but I don't see it in my archives. If I have, please forgive this duplicate.

I did an IMDB search of Denzel and there is no list of him appearing in any Bond movie, and the shoe shine boy in "Live and Let Die" is not listed in the credits. Normally, if a major star had a bit role when they were a younger no-name, you can be sure that that role gets picked up and listed on IMDB so completists can have the definitive record. To double check, I did a Google search and nothing came up listing Denzel in the role.

Denzel was born in 1954 and the movie was released in 1973, so Denzel would have been 18 at time of filming. I don't remember how young the shoe shine boy was in the flick, but Denzel probably would have been out range anyways,
even with his boyish good looks (tee hee).

As a mostly unrelated side-note, I just saw Denzel's recent flick "Out of Time" and it was much better than the lame commercials made it out to be- so if you haven't seen it, it ain't a bad renter
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What did they call the Babe Ruth candy bar that was floating in the pool in "Caddyshack"?
-Dale Tuftee
CMT Answer:
I believe the technical term for it was a "doodie".
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Who was the singing voice for Audrey Hepburn In "My Fair Lady"?
-Barb Wentzel
CMT Answer:
Although Audrey did alot of singing preparation for the movie, her "Rain in Spain" and other classics were dubbed by a singer/ actress known as Marni Nixon. Marni also did some dubbing for other famous musicals of the day, including Deborah Kerr's singing in "The King and I", and Natalie Wood's singing in "West Side Story". She most recently sang the voice of "Grandmother Fa" in the Disney flick "Mulan"..
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What comedian had a hit song in the 80's called "Party All The Time"?
-Kisha
CMT Answer:
That would be the star of the runaway hits "Showtime" and "The Adventures of Pluto Nash", Eddie Murphy.
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When was the orginal movie "Cheaper By the Dozen" made and who were the stars of the movie?
-Kathy

CMT Answer:
The Steve Martin remake was based on a 1950 comedy that was in turn based on a real life family. It starred 40's and 50's star Clifton Webb (who was great in one of my favorite oldie movies, "Laura"), and also featured Myrna Loy.

You can check out all the juicy details on the movie at IMDB here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042327/
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In the movie Crocodile Dundee 2,when Mic when made a "phone call" he swung a wood item in the air. What is it called?
-Ken Hartman
CMT Answer:
I remember the scene of Dundee whipping that thing around his head in the 1988 sequel but had no idea as to the name. After some digging I finally came up with it, it's called a "Bullroarer". It is apparently a sacred instrument to the Aboriginal people, and only 'initiated' men are supposed to use it. However that crass Paul Hogan had to show off once again to his costar and went around whipping it to and fro.
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In the movie Roadhouse, with Patrick Swayze, he fights someone named Jimmy, in the movie. My question is what is the actors name, and has he also been in the movie Armageddon, with Bruce Willis?
-Rachel

CMT Answer:
Jimmy was played by actor Michael Teague, and yes he was in Armageddon with Bruce Willis, playing an air force colonel. Teague has also played military types in numerous action flicks, including the Nic-Cage-Top-Gun-wannabe "Fire Birds" and "The Rock".
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What was the first movie to cost over $1 million to make?
-Tom Propes
CMT Answer:
Good question, and to find your answer I hit the movie history books. I started by looking at "Birth of a Nation", which also was basically the birth of the modern feature movie. This D.W Griffith flick was budgeted at $40,000, which was four times the normal rate for a feature made in that day. However, the flick ended up costing just over $100,000. Nice to see that movie budgets would get way overblown, even back in 1914 when the movie was made. Griffith was a major pioneer in alot of the ways movies are shot, and produced, even today.

After the insane success of the movie, Griffith wanted to create an Epic with a capital 'Ep', to try and top the big-scale Italian flicks that were playing well in America at that time. Also, he wanted to try and atone a little for the harsh criticism he received for the brutal racism in "Birth of a Nation". He went to town making 1916's "Intolerance"- including (but not limited to):
-Creating a full scale model of ancient Babylon, over 10 acres in size and 300 feet high
-Hiring 60 main actors and over 18,000 extras
-Eight assistant directors
-Initial length of eight hours. (Finally cut to 3 1/2 hours).

The final tally: over two million dollars. I did some searching on the Italian epics made in the day but none came close, so I'm going with "Intolerance" as the first over-budgeted, over-hyped, blockbuster-wannabe. The movie flopped and nearly ruined Griffith.

The funny thing is, using a Consumer Price Index calculator, $2 mil back then wasn't as much today as I thought it would be. It comes out to just over $36 million dollars. When you think "Pearl Harbor" had a (record) budget of $130 mil, the mega budgets of today are still mega by any standard.
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In "The Omen" Part 1, what animal's skeleton was in Damien's mother's grave?
-Manuel Combes
CMT Answer:
During the invesitgation into Damien's heritage in the 1976 chiller, Gregory Peck and his friend travel to Rome looking for answers. While there, they finds two graves: one is that of Peck's son who was murdered, and the other is of Damien's mother. That grave contained the bones of a jackal. Cool eh? Even niftier was the fact that soon after, Gregory Peck's buddy was beheaded by a sheet of glass, all Final-Destination-style.
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I really need help. I have been trying to think of this movie for more than a month. I only remember one scene. A woman talks about when she was growing up- she had to take care of her sister, who had some illness. The girl was always afraid of her, and just wished she would die. You see the sister in a few flashback scenes, she is wearing a blue dress in bed, rotting away. She looks all bony, her face is fleshy, and she leans forward at one point and you can see the outline of her spine and rib cage on her back. She does eventually die in the bed. In another scene, the girl is at the bottom of the staircase in her house, and hears the sister's voice calling for her.

Please help me figure out what it is, it's driving me nuts.
-Scott Sharpy

CMT Answer:
I knew this movie as well, but couldn't think of it off the top of my head. The same as you, I saw it when I was younger, and also the same, it was starting to drive me a little nutty trying to think of it. I totally remember the twisted spine and it freaked me out.

After some IMDB'ing, Googling, and message board posting, I have our answer. It's Stephen King's 1989 chiller "Pet Sematary". The sister's name was Zelda, and she had spinal meningitis. The movie character who had to look after Zelda was Tasha Yar, a.k.a Denise Crosby. Her character's name in the movie was Rachel Creed, and was the wife of the protagonist of the flick.
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When was the last time in a movie that it said "The End" on it?
-Roberta

CMT Answer:
Well the last one I can think of was "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King".
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