Summer is here...so it must be time for another edition of one of our popular features. The rules to this game: Given a pair or trio of films or performers, your task is to find the common connection. It could be anything--two stars who acted in the same movie, two movies that share a common theme, etc. As always, don't answer all the questions so others can play, too. There is a single best answer for each question.1. Paul Newman and Danny Kaye (might be a toughie!).
2. Kirk Douglas and Martin Landau.
3. Tony Curtis and Lee Majors.
4. Christopher Lee and Basil Rathbone (at least two connections!).
5. Robert Reed and Raymond Burr.
6. Jim Backus and Wally Cox.
7. Beach Blanket Bingo and Sullivan's Travels.
8. Spencer Tracy and Charlton Heston.
9. Richard Burton and Lee J. Cobb.
10. James Stewart and Keanu Reeves (another potentially hard one).
11. Steve McQueen and James Garner.
12. Gary Cooper and Ronald Reagan.
13. Alec Guinness and Charles Chaplin.
14. Peter Cushing and Laurence Olivier (and the answer is not Hamlet).
15. Bob Hope and Don Knotts.
4. Both Lee and Rathbone have played Sherlock Holmes more than once, and both played the Marquis St. Evremonde (A Tale of Two Cities). Both also starred in film versions of The Hound of the Baskervilles (Lee was not Holmes).
ReplyDelete5. Rbert Reed and Raymond Burr both played television attorneys (The Defenders, Perry Mason).
6. Jim Backus and Wally Cox voiced popular animated characters, Mr. Magoo and Underdog.
4. Both "Frankensteins" - as Monster and Dr., respectively.
DeleteAnd both on the losing end of Errol Flynn's sword.
VERY well done on all counts! You found bonus connections on Lee and Rathbone. There's one more, too: both played pirates--Basil in CAPTAIN BLOOD and Chris in DEVIL SHIP PIRATES.
DeleteBill, love the Frankenstein connection, which obviously never occurred to me.
Delete11. Both became major movie stars after achieving popularity in tv westerns, "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "Maverick". Appeared together in "The Great Escape".
ReplyDeleteThat's true, but a closer connection is the one Bill lists on auto racing below.
Delete11. Both in race car movies where each did some of his own driving.
ReplyDeleteYes, GRAND PRIX and LE MANS.
ReplyDelete3. Both Curtis and Majors played Vikings.
ReplyDeleteGreat job! Thought that one was pretty tough.
Delete#7 Father and son: Joel McCrea Sullivan's Travels" and Jody McCrea "Beach Blanket Bingo".
ReplyDeleteYou know, they didn't look very much alike!
Delete1. Both were brass musicians in films - Newman on the trombone in Paris Blues, and Kaye on the trumpet in The Five Pennies - also both films featured Louis Armstrong.
ReplyDeleteOoh, that's good! There's another connection, too.
DeleteThey both played boxers in films - Kaye in The Kid from Brooklyn and Newman in Somebody Up There Likes Me.
Delete12. Both played biographical sports legends in films -- Coop in Pride of the Yankees and Reagan in Knute Rockne, All American.
ReplyDeleteNot only that, but both played real-life baseball players (Reagan in THE WINNING TEAM).
Delete15. Hope in The Paleface and Knotts remade the film in the '68 The Shakiest Gun in the West.
ReplyDeleteWell done. My favorite of all those films was actually the sequel SON OF PALEFACE.
DeleteBeachgal's answer is now obvious, but my first thought was both played in Haunted House movies. Hope in Ghost Breakers and Knotts in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.
Delete14. Both played Nazis: Cushing in Shock Waves & Olivier in Marathon Man.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a connection I never thought of! There is another one...that's not as interesting.
Delete2. This might be a reach, but Landau played a master of disguise on the TV series Mission: Impossible, and Douglas used disguises in the film The List of Adrian Messenger. Oh, and they both played roles in sci-fi projects, Landau in TV's Space:1999 and Douglas in the film Saturn 3, co-starring Harvey Keitel & Farrah Fawcett.
ReplyDeleteI thought of their both having played Doc Holliday -- Douglas in Gunfight At the O.K. Corral, and Landeau on the TV series Tales of Well Fargo.
DeleteJohn, disguises was the first connection I thought of. You done good on a toughie!
Delete14. Van Helsing.
ReplyDeleteYou're good, Bill...
DeleteQuestions still be answered: 1, 8, 9, 10, and 13.
ReplyDelete9. Psychiatrists - Burton in Equus and Lee J. Cobb in All About Eve.
ReplyDeleteI had put this up under your comment to my first answer that you were thinking of another connection to 1, but I think my additional response was lost to your eyes possibly -- for 1 maybe you were thinking of -- They both played boxers in films - Kaye in The Kid from Brooklyn and Newman in Somebody Up There Likes Me.
ReplyDeleteThat is much, much better than the connection I thought of.
Delete9. Exorcist I and II?
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed! Remember the changed ending to E II?
DeleteWarners was ordering lotsa cuts to prints the day after the premiere.I think it's beautifully designed, philosophically challenging in its original cut. It's also wretchedly written, directed, acted.
Delete8. Both played Mexicans. Tortilla Flat, Touch of Evil.
ReplyDeleteI thought of American explorers -- Heston in The Far Horizon and Tracy in The Northwest Passage.
DeleteThose are fine connections, but there is yet another one...
Delete8. Earthquakes.
ReplyDeleteEarthquakes, it is. Another fine job!
Delete13. Were you thinking of the Adolph Hitler connection? Guinness in Hitler: The Last Ten Days and Chaplin in his Hitler parody in The Great Dictator?
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed. You've been very impressive today.
ReplyDeleteThey both also played bigamists.
Delete10. Angels? It's a Wunnerful Life, Constantine.
ReplyDeleteThat certainly works. They both also played FBI agent, James in THE FBI STORY and Keanu in POINT BREAK.
Delete