Answers: September 24th, 2003
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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  Other Answer pages:  

CMT Answer Update:
In our last Q&A column, we had one reader ask what market Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd tried to corner in "Trading Places". I incorrectly answered 'pork bellies'- ... I dunno what I was smoking that day but luckily we had two readers right in with the correct answer, 'frozen orange juice'. Cheers go to V and Mark.
What movie used the phrase "Can you dig it? I knew that you could"?
-Mary
CMT Answer:
That quote is from a 1977 classic. No, not the original Star Wars, but a different kind of classic- Saturday Night Fever. The movie featured John Travolta's career-defining role (up until "Look Who's Talking Now"), as Tony Manero, the disco king.

Here are some other great SNF quotes just for fun:
"Disco Bob is the coolest, hippest cat I know"
"Are you as good in bed as you are on that dance floor?"
"Would ya just watch the hair. Ya know, I spend a long time on my hair and he hit it; he hit my hair."
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What are the first two movies of the "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" trilogy?
-Jennie

CMT Answer:
The two preceding flicks in the trilogy were also both directed by Robert Rodriguez. The first was 1992's "El Mariachi", famously shot on a $7,000 budget which Rodriguez earned part of by submitting himself to a psychological hospital for experiments. This film garnered acclaim on the arthouse movie circuit, and the attention of Hollywood execs. Rodriguez's
first major Hollywood feature was the follow up to "El Mariachi", 1995's "Desperado". Desperado saw Antonio Banderas take over the lead role of the Mariachi, and marked Rodriguez's entry as a major action movie director in Hollywood. He's since followed up with "From Dusk Till Dawn", the "Spy Kids" movies, and "The Faculty".

One cool thing about Rodriguez is he hasn't forgotten his shoe-string budget beginnings. He shoots all of his movies on a much lower budget than other comparable movies, and on a much tighter schedule. All of the primary filming for "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" was done in seven weeks.
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In Interview with a Vampire, what was Louis's deceased wif'es name?
-Kim Dooley
CMT Answer:
After some searching I came across an online script of the movie, which lists his wife's name as "Diane". If this is incorrect, I'm sure I'll get fifty e-mails from fans of the book letting me know... which is all good, of course.
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How many weapons has Jason Voorhees used since the first Friday the 13th movie to Freddy vs Jason?
-Sean
CMT Answer:
I couldn't find a list of just weapons for Jason, but I did find this website that lists all of his kills in each movie:
http://www.fridaythe13thfilms.com/saga/bodycount.html

You can go through each movie and make a list of the different weapons he uses.
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A HUGE bet is riding on this. PLEASE HELP! My friend says that Oprah Winfrey was in the 1992 film "Straight Talk" with Dolly Parton and James Woods. He claims she was not listed in the credits, however. I say Oprah did not play the African-American switchboard operator or receptionist Dolly replaced. May we please have an expert's opinion? Please reply. Thank
you!
-T. J. Hoven
CMT Answer:
I did a boatload of searching online but could not find any reference to Oprah Winfrey making an appearance in the movie. From my experience, I would say that no, she didn't appear in the flick. I based this on:

1) IMDB not listing Winfrey. Even if she was uncredited, most of the major movies IMDB contains will have uncredited appearances added to their online credits, especially if the uncredited appearance is by a well-known actor or actress. For example, Sean Connery was not listed in the credits of "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves", but is in the IMDB credits. Another example of a lesser well-known cameo is both Cameron Diaz and Cameron Crowe appearing in "Minority Report". Again, uncredited in the movie but listed in IMDB.

2) No Google results. I tried "Oprah Winfrey" "Straight Talk" and "cameo" together which only brought back four results, none of them relating to an appearance by Oprah. I then tried "Oprah Winfery" "Straight Talk" and "Dolly Parton", but again no results that indicated an appearance by Oprah in the movie.

It's possible she did appear in the movie, although from my searches I would say highly unlikely. You may have no choice but to re-rent the movie and freeze frame it for final confirmation! .
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In the first Superman movie, Lois and Clark stayed in a honeymoon suite in Niagara Falls. Was this a real hotel and what was the name of it?
-Terri Ryan
CMT Answer:
The Niagara Falls hotel scene with Lois and Clark was in Superman II- one of the few great sequels to live up to the original (well, in my opinion, anyway). The only drawback to the flick being the new unexplained super powers- mind erasing, cellophane giant S throwing, teleportation. Oh well.

Getting back to your question, I don't have the actual movie to verify the hotel name. However, according to the shooting script, which described it as "a typical motel of the area", the place was called "Honeymoon Haven". Another tip-off that it was not a real hotel was the way it was portrayed. The room's extra cheese of the heart shaped bed with mirrors over it, the lava lamps, and the sleazy bellboy all brought about a negative image, and the hotel's owners would have to be idiotic to allow an actual property to be displayed like that on-screen.
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In Silence of the Lambs, what kind of moth was found in the mouth of the cadaver?
-Bill Dooley

CMT Answer:
The moth pupa found by Clarice in the 1992 Academy Award winner is a rare species known as a "death's head hawk" or "death's head". It get's it's name from the skull-like markings found on it's back. The moth is native to Africa but has been found naturally as far away as the U.K, where the six-inch green and purple caterpillars have been found munching on nightshade and other yummy treats.
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Was there a Fred Astaire movie titled "Happy Days" or "Happy Daze"? I heard a song this weekend ("Crazy Feet") that was supposedly from the above named movie, but I have no knowledge of it.
-Tom
CMT Answer:
Fred didn't star in any movie with either the word "Happy", "Days", or "Daze" in it. There was a 1919 silent movie called "Happy Daze", but I'm guessing that's not the movie you were after. Fred also had an album and a song called "Crazy Feet". Looking at info for the album, it lists as containing "many tracks from his Broadway days".
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Who played James Bond in the movie Casino Royale? When was it made?
-Tony

CMT Answer:
Casino Royale is kind of the 'black sheep' of the Bond films- it was a spy spoof released in 1967, and starred David Niven as James Bond. The movie was based on the first James Bond book, which was the only one that the company that bought the rights to the others did not acquire, and so was up for grabs. Because Sean Connery's Bond was already very popular by '67, Casino Royale was shot as a spoof instead of a 'real' Bond movie, and the result was a disappointing movie that most true Bond fans would rather forget...
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What was Keyser Soze's assistant's name in the movie Usual Suspects?
-Yuri Kletsman
CMT Answer:
Keyser's assistant Kobayashi (although his name wasn't REALLY Kobayashi...) in the 1995 insta-classic was played by British actor Pete Postlethwaite. He's one of those great character actors you see all over the place, but might not really put a name to his face; he's appeared in well-known flicks like: Alien 3, Dragonheart, Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Amistad.
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What was the title and/or author of the poem quoted at the funeral in "Four Weddings and a Funeral"? Thank you.
-S. Lambert
CMT Answer:
The poem read at the funeral of the 1994 romantic comedy was "Funeral Blues" by W.H. Auden.
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Was Harrison Ford's hat in the Indiana Jones movies felt or leather?
-Bob

CMT Answer:
Well I found the perfect page that answers your question- a place online that sells Indiana Jones hats. Here's the link:
http://www.millerhats.com/indianajones_index/indjonesindex.html

They list the 'Original' hat as "100% Smooth Finish Fur Felt". There are various other models for sale including leather versions or ones with leather bands, but the basic answer is "felt". I also cross-referenced with three other sites, and they all list felt as the basic material from which the hat was made.
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I can't remember the name of a movie that I watched on DVD. Recently I watched a movie about three girlfriends who met a quy at a bachlor party. One girl falls for a quy at the party and they decide to track him down by going to the wedding, only to realize that the guy is the groom. In the end the guy does not get married, but searches for the girl. Can you help?
-Cindy
CMT Answer:
Sounds like the 2002 comedy "The Sweetest Thing" starring Cameron Diaz. It flopped in theaters and seems to have an either love it or hate it (with more viewers leaning towards 'hate') spread of user comments on IMDB. You should be able to find it at any major video rental chains.
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In the Movie the Godfather, they refer to the "thunderbolt" that hits Michael. What is this and what is the Italian wordage they use to describe the "thunderbolt"?
-Stillettoe
CMT Answer:
The "thunderbolt" refers to Apollonia, the girl that Michael meets in Sicily and marries while in hiding there. In America, once his brother Sonny is assassinated by Don Barzini's men, word is sent to Michael and he and his new bride are moved to Syracuse. Unfortunately, she is killed in a car bomb that was targeted for Michael.

So in Godfather mafia lingo, getting "hit by the thunderbolt" was getting instantly smitten with a girl. However, I couldn't find any 'Italian wordage' used in the movie to describe the thunderbolt. Here are a few lines from the script:

FABRIZZIO
You got hit by the thunderbolt, eh?

CALO pats him on the shoulder.

CALO
Easy man.

MICHAEL
What are you talking about?

FABRIZZIO
You can't hide it when you're hit by the thunderbolt.

Looking through the rest, I only saw 'the thunderbolt', no Italian phrase used.
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Where can I find accurate Top 20 box office listings by year for movies from 1925 to 1979? Most of the sites I've found only go back 25 years or so. Hope you can help.
-Steve Rea
CMT Answer:
The problem with finding accurate box-office records for the years you are after is there isn't really a definitive source. Many of the movies released during those years had multiple theatrical re-releases and depending on the source, inflation may or may not be taken into account, and there were different ways of calculating a movie's box office gross. For example, I've seen the box office take for Gone With the Wind vary anywhere from around 200 million to over 1 billion depending on what website you are looking at.

Here's a great quote taken from movieweb.com top 50 gross faq that explains this phenomena:

Why isn't this list adjusted for inflation? ... It would be a better idea to adjust the movie grosses for inflation to reflect the true dollar value of the ticket sales. For example, ticket prices at present are ~$7 on average as compared to 50 cents in 1939 when Gone With the Wind (#52 on the list) was released. If one uses only the dollar sales as an indicator of a movie's ticket sales, the new movies would always come on top as against the movies released in the past. It is too difficult to adjust for inflation as many of these films have been re-released over the years. The only way to calculate the true adjusted gross revenue (on a film which has been re-released) is to obtain the revenue from EACH YEAR that the movie was released (we don't have access to this information) & then multiply that dollar-amount by the inflationary-index vs. today's dollar.

In order to know the adjusted gross for (let's say) Disney's (original) "101 Dalmatians", you would have to know the revenue for the movie in 1961 x the 1961 adjusted dollar-value + the revenue for the movie when it was re-released in 1970 x the 1970 adjusted dollar-value + ... the other 3 times it was re-released.
ALSO, the number of tickets sold is not counted ... only the total gross ticket sales.

If you are in desperate need of top ranked movies grosses, you can try the all-time top list at boxofficemojo.com or boxofficeprophets.com
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In "Down and Out in Beverly Hills", what does the character David Whiteman manufacture?
-Marcia
CMT Answer:
In the 1986 comedy, Dave Whiteman (played by Richard Dreyfuss) ran a company that manufactured clothes hangers.
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How do the producers of a movie decide whos name goes first on the movie box/poster?
-Danny
CMT Answer:
It's usually the agent of the actor signed on who negotiates an 'above-the-title' name placement. For bigger stars, it's a given that the name will go first as this is also a selling point for the movie. Depending on the various box office draws and/or contracts negotiated by agents, more than one name will end up above the title. In the case of similar box-office-power stars appearing in the same movie, it will usually be up to the stars' agents to negotiate who will come first in the credits.
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I tried IMDB & Google (among others) to find the answer to this, but to no avail. My boyfriend is trying to remember the name of a movie he saw, but all he remembers about it is ONE scene. The movie came out fairly recently he believes. There are two cops (who he believes were really criminals) who show up at a boy's house looking for their money -- they think this boy stole it from them. When they got outside they saw a brand new Corvette and thought it was the boys'; it apparently belonged to the neighbor.
-Nikki

CMT Answer:
I originally tried the same method- Google and IMDB but couldn't find it. However, I did just happen to remember a movie that could fit the bill, did some double checking, and I think I have your answer.

The flick your boyfriend is most likely after is 1998's "The Big Lebowski". It's a Coen brothers movie, and stars Jeff Bridges (as "The Dude"), and John Goodman as his psychopathic best friend. The scene your boyfriend remembers is when Bridges and Goodman are trying to recover some lost ransom money they were supposed to delivery to kidnappers in a payoff-gone-bad. They track the money to a 15 year old kids house, and upon seeing the Corvette outside Goodman procedes to demolish it with a crowbar. As you mentioned, the car was unfortunately the neighbor's.|
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