Oscar Trivia 2009 #6

A ripple ran through the publishing world yesterday with an announcement about job cuts and restructuring at Harper Collins. Just when I thought the ax was finished falling, at least in the world of publishing. I'd better make my next proposal irresistible . . . and realize that even that might not be good enough.


All of you guessed that Monday's quotes came from Mildred Pierce (1945). I think most of you, if not all, knew that the daughter-from-hell was so disrespectully addressing her mother. Donna told me she thinks I used this movie in last year's trivia. It's one of my favorites. Still, I'll have to watch that repeating.

Interestingly, Shelia said the movie was playing as she posted her answer. Shelia, did you know the answer ahead of time, or did you happen to hear Veda bash her mother while watching the movie? Incidentally, I don't think the movie has been remade. If they were to remake it, they'd probably follow the plot of the James M. Cain novel more closely. The mother of the boy Veda tricked into marrying her recognized Mildred from when she'd applied for a job as a maid in her household, and Veda ended up getting away with the whole enchilada, her mother's money, control of her business, and her husband!

Donna, I totally agree with your comments. You and I will have to get together for lunch one weekend and chat about old movies and their wonderful structuring.

And now for today's quote. This time there's three of them, all from the same film and by the same character:

#1, "I lost my leg with John Paul Jones back in '78."

#2, (five minutes later) "Now, if you’d lost a leg . . . I lost mine in action against the French off Jamaica. A French surgeon did the trick for me. He apologized in French, and I cursed him in English."

#3, (a day or two later) "Now, if you’d lost a leg, my lad . . . I lost mine with a Spanish pirate off the coast of Trinidad. A bullfighter did the trick for me. He was so drunk he nearly cut off the wrong leg."

Five points for the name of the movie. A big 4 bonus points if you can name the occupation of the one-legged man sprouting all this hyperbole (yes, he had a function other than spinning tall tales and, of course, drinking).

The answer will be provided on Friday. Sometime tomorrow, probably in the evening (I'm off tomorrow but am meeting friends for lunch and have a dental checkup), I will publish the tally of where everyone stands through the Mildred Pierce question. On Friday we'll do a "lightning round" of five questions, since it's the weekend.

I'm outta here! Have a good one!