Can You Score 20/20? Expert-Level Movie Classics Identification Trivia Quiz!

Answers Below – No Peeking!

Test your expertise on cinematic masterpieces with this challenging quiz identifying iconic movie classics. Spanning Golden Age Hollywood to New Hollywood gems, these 20 questions escalate from tough to expert-level brain-teasers. Grab a pen and see if you can name them all!

20 Trivia Questions on Movie Classics

Question 1: In which film does Humphrey Bogart’s character Rick Blaine own a nightclub called Rick’s Café Américain?

A. The Maltese Falcon
B. To Have and Have Not
C. Casablanca
D. Key Largo

Question 2: Which Orson Welles film is often cited as the greatest ever made, featuring the character Charles Foster Kane?

A. The Magnificent Ambersons
B. Touch of Evil
C. Citizen Kane
D. The Lady from Shanghai

Question 3: Which Francis Ford Coppola epic begins with the line "I believe in America"?

A. Apocalypse Now
B. The Godfather
C. The Godfather Part II
D. Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Question 4: Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror classic features an infamous shower scene and the Bates Motel.

A. The Birds
B. Vertigo
C. North by Northwest
D. Psycho

Question 5: Which film stars James Stewart as a photographer spying on his neighbours from his wheelchair?

A. Rope
B. Rear Window
C. Vertigo
D. The Man Who Knew Too Much

Question 6: In which Billy Wilder film does Gloria Swanson play faded star Norma Desmond?

A. Some Like It Hot
B. The Apartment
C. Sunset Boulevard
D. Double Indemnity

Question 7: Which 1949 film noir is set in post-war Vienna and stars Joseph Cotten chasing Orson Welles?

A. The Killers
B. Out of the Past
C. The Third Man
D. Laura

Question 8: David Lean’s epic about T.E. Lawrence features Peter O’Toole crossing the desert.

A. Doctor Zhivago
B. The Bridge on the River Kwai
C. A Passage to India
D. Lawrence of Arabia

Question 9: Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi masterpiece opens with "Thus Spake Zarathustra".

A. Dr. Strangelove
B. 2001: A Space Odyssey
C. A Clockwork Orange
D. The Shining

Question 10: Which 1974 film noir directed by Roman Polanski stars Jack Nicholson uncovering a water conspiracy?

A. The Two Jakes
B. Rosemary’s Baby
C. Chinatown
D. The Tenant

Question 11: In which film does Marlon Brando utter "I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse"?

A. A Streetcar Named Desire
B. On the Waterfront
C. Apocalypse Now
D. The Godfather

Question 12: Judy Garland sings "Over the Rainbow" in which 1939 Technicolor classic?

A. Meet Me in St. Louis
B. The Wizard of Oz
C. Babes in Arms
D. For Me and My Gal

Question 13: Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler famously says "Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn" in which film?

A. It Happened One Night
B. Mutiny on the Bounty
C. Gone with the Wind
D. Boom Town

Question 14: Gene Kelly dances in the rain in which 1952 musical?

A. An American in Paris
B. On the Town
C. Singin’ in the Rain
D. Brigadoon

Question 15: Marilyn Monroe hides her gender as a musician in which 1959 comedy?

A. The Seven Year Itch
B. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
C. How to Marry a Millionaire
D. Some Like It Hot

Question 16: Dustin Hoffman plays a recent graduate seduced by Mrs. Robinson in which 1967 film?

A. Midnight Cowboy
B. Little Big Man
C. The Graduate
D. Straw Dogs

Question 17: Jack Nicholson’s Randle McMurphy rebels against Nurse Ratched in which 1975 film?

A. The Shining
B. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
C. Easy Rider
D. Five Easy Pieces

Question 18: Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle asks "You talkin’ to me?" in which 1976 film?

A. Raging Bull
B. The Deer Hunter
C. Taxi Driver
D. Mean Streets

Question 19: Bette Davis and Anne Baxter star in a tale of Broadway ambition in which 1950 film?

A. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
B. The Letter
C. All About Eve
D. Now, Voyager

Question 20: Peter Sellers plays three roles in which 1964 Kubrick satire on nuclear war?

A. Lolita
B. Paths of Glory
C. Dr. Strangelove
D. Spartacus

Answers

  1. C. Casablanca – Directed by Michael Curtiz in 1942, it’s set in wartime Morocco at Rick’s Café. The others are Bogart films but lack this specific nightclub setting.
  2. C. Citizen Kane – Welles’ 1941 debut revolutionized cinema with its narrative structure and "Rosebud" mystery. Others are later Welles works without Kane.
  3. B. The Godfather – Coppola’s 1972 Best Picture winner opens with Amerigo Bonasera’s plea. Others are Coppola films with different openings.
  4. D. Psycho – Hitchcock’s 1960 shocker introduced the shower murder and Norman Bates. The others are Hitchcock classics without these elements.
  5. B. Rear Window – Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller has Stewart wheelchair-bound, voyeuring neighbours. Others feature Stewart but different plots.
  6. C. Sunset Boulevard – Wilder’s 1950 noir stars Swanson as the delusional silent star. Others are Wilder films with different leads.
  7. C. The Third Man – Carol Reed’s 1949 classic features the Vienna sewers chase. Others are film noirs but not set there.
  8. D. Lawrence of Arabia – Lean’s 1962 epic won Best Picture with O’Toole’s desert march. Others are Lean films sans Lawrence.
  9. B. 2001: A Space Odyssey – Kubrick’s 1968 film pairs Strauss music with cosmic evolution. Others are Kubrick but lack this opening.
  10. C. Chinatown – Polanski’s 1974 neo-noir exposes 1930s LA water scandal. Others are Polanski films in different genres.
  11. D. The Godfather – Brando’s Don Corleone delivers the line in 1972. Others star Brando but without this quote.
  12. B. The Wizard of Oz – Victor Fleming’s 1939 musical has Garland as Dorothy longing for home. Others feature Garland sans the song.
  13. C. Gone with the Wind – Fleming’s 1939 epic ends with Gable’s iconic dismissal. Others star Gable but lack the line.
  14. C. Singin’ in the Rain – Gene Kelly’s 1952 musical celebrates talkies with the puddle dance. Others are Kelly musicals without it.
  15. D. Some Like It Hot – Wilder’s 1959 comedy has Monroe as Sugar with Lemmon and Curtis in drag. Others star Monroe in female roles.
  16. C. The Graduate – Mike Nichols’ 1967 hit has Hoffman as Benjamin pursued by Anne Bancroft. Others star Hoffman in different stories.
  17. B. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Milos Forman’s 1975 Best Picture has Nicholson’s lobotomy fight. Others feature Nicholson sans Ratched.
  18. C. Taxi Driver – Scorsese’s 1976 film has De Niro’s mirror monologue. Others star De Niro but lack the line.
  19. C. All About Eve – Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1950 Best Picture dissects theatre rivalry. Others star Davis in unrelated plots.
  20. C. Dr. Strangelove – Kubrick’s 1964 black comedy has Sellers as Mandrake, Ripper, and Strangelove. Others are Kubrick without his triple role.

How many did you nail? Drop your score in the comments and challenge friends to conquer this expert quiz!