Valentine’s Quiz – Femmes Fatales

Results

 

Joint winners this time so congratulations to

 

Mick              Mike   

 

It was very tight at the top, with just two marks covering the top six entries.  In a dead heat for first place were Mick and Mike, both with 19, followed by Merry (with help from Panikos) and Sue, both with 18, then by Terry and Keith, both with 17 and Bill with 15. 

 

Good entries too from Eccles, Sylvie and BrownFurby – thanks for your interest:  hope you all found it fun.  

 

Nearly everybody got the maximum on the History and Cinema sections, but Literature turned out to be tricky – best scores on this were 3 from Mick and Merry.  On Opera, Sue and Keith both got 4 and Merry had 4 on Song.  Two questions stumped everyone:  no. 10 where Adrian Mole was the teenager – 13¾ to be exact – and his idol was Pandora Braithwaite, and no. 15 where the singer Lulu was the extra clue to Lulu in the controversial opera by Alban Berg.

 

And here are all the answers:

Historical

 

                                                                       

  1. Helen (sculpture by Canova above), of Troy.  The face that launched a thousand ships, according to Doctor Faustus in the play by Christopher Marlowe
  2. Elizabeth, Tudor, Queen of England.
  3. Mary Queen of Scots:  Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland

 

Nell Gwyn

 

  1. Nell Gwyn (above).  Mistress of Charles II.  After the latter’s death, his brother, James II, granted her an annual pension of £1500
  2. Diana, Princess of Wales

 

Literature

 

  1. Maud from ‘Come into the garden, Maud’, poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson      

 

 

  1. Tess of the d’Urbervilles.  In the novel by Thomas Hardy, Tess dies with Angel Clare at Stonehenge (above)

 

  1. Jane Eyre.  In the novel by Charlotte Bronte (above), Jane is reunited with Rochester after his house burned down and he badly injured
  2. Lorna Doone, from the novel by R D Blackmore about an outlaw’s daughter, beloved of John Ridd
  3. Pandora Braithwaite, from The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend                                      

 

Opera

 

 

  1. Carmen.  In the opera by Georges Bizet, Carmen is murdered by Don Jose at the bull fight (typical poster above)
  2. Aida.  In the opera by Giuseppe Verdi, Aida shares the fate of her lover, Radamès, who is buried alive as a traitor

 

  1. Madame Butterfly, from the opera by Giacomo Puccini.  Cio-Cio-San, who works as a geisha (above), is abandoned by an American husband, Lt Pinkerton
  2. Norma.  [anagram of ‘Roman’]  In the opera by Vincenzo Bellini, the high priestess, Norma, is executed on a pyre with her unfaithful Roman lover, Pollione
  3. Lulu.  [namesake of the singer]  In the opera by Alban Berg, after murdering her admirer, Lulu escapes to London where she is herself killed by Jack the Ripper

 

Cinema

 

  1. Elizabeth Taylor.  After early appearances in Lassie films, Elizabeth Taylor made her name in the 1944 film National Velvet, before going on to a wide variety of Hollywood roles, eventually winning two Oscars (for Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)

 

 

  1. Mary Pickford (above).  American actress specialising in ‘little girl’ roles and co-founder of United Art
  2. Betty Grable.  After the title of her best known film.  She became the US forces’ favourite pin-up in World War II, which she helped to win, according to Eisenhower
  3. Grace Kelly.  Leading lady for Alfred Hitchcock, her last film being To Catch a Thief, before marrying Prince Rainier of Monaco

 

  1. Marilyn Monroe (above).  After the title of the Billy Wilder classic Some Like It Hot, in which she starred with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon

 

Song

 

  1. Molly Malone.  In the popular song by James Yorkston, Molly, a Dublin fishmonger, wheeled a wheelbarrow

 

  1. Peggy Sue.  In the 1957 golden hit song by Buddy Holly (above)
  2. Greensleeves.  Song said to be composed by Henry VIII                          
  3. Michelle.  In the 1966 song by The Beatles – ‘ma belle, these are words which go together well … très bien ensemble                                                                      

 

  1. Mrs Robinson.  From the Simon and Garfunkel sound-track to the 1967 film The Graduate (publicity still above)                        

 

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