Earlier this week, a well-known Minnesota blogger posted a movie quiz of his own, asking readers to guess who "this fellow" is from a 1957 movie: "He was in the news again this week-- peer hard at the face and see if you can recognize him." Yes, peer really hard.

Farther down, said blogger identifies this actor as "Charles Nelson Reilly, who died last Friday. That's him in the picture in his first and uncredited movie role. The film was A Face in the Crowd, starring Andy Griffith." Later Tuesday, however, the blogger posted an update acknowledging that he might be wrong, but as of Wednesday night, there's been no correction.

(Fact-checking in general seems a chore for him, at least in this entry. He also identifies the sci-fi story "The Roads Must Roll" as being by Ray Bradbury, although directly under his error is a pic of Astounding Science Fiction with the title and correct author, Robert Heinlein.)

Well, I can help him out-- the actor in question (at least for him) is really this fellow:

Star Trek and Walking Tall fans will recognize him as Logan Ramsey, an always-reliable character actor.

But I started thinking how much harder (for you) and fun (for me) the Movie Quiz would be if I did it his way. So here's my own similar, news-oriented "Guess the actor" movie quiz. Good luck!

This multi-talented woman has been making entertainment headlines for leaving the cast of a popular morning TV show. Her feud with Donald Trump got quite ugly, as you'd imagine.

Although a bona fide movie star, this lovable moptop is better known for his music, and has been getting rave reviews for his new CD, Memory Almost Full. A messy divorce almost behind him, he's happy again. And the teenage girls still love him!

This well-known actor worked in movies and TV for almost 30 years before landing the job of a lifetime: playing the President of the United States. Although still dead, he's made news every time the Republicans look at their current potential candidates and shake their heads with nostalgic despair.

(Real movie trivia P.S.-- one of the three above really was in A Face in the Crowd!)

Hammerhead (1968), starring Vince "Ben Casey" Edwards. An entertaining American Goldfinger ripoff (filmed in England), produced by Irwin Allen, the disaster king. There's virtually nothing from the Bond film that this one doesn't steal, except perhaps its style, wit, and budget. There's a mod blonde (Judy Geeson, who is good) and sinister older sexpot (the ever-platinum Diana Dors), a jazzy title tune, so lousy it's only played during a chase scene in the background on someone's radio, and even a ticking clock counting down the last seconds of the world! Its body-part-named villian (complete with murderous Man Friday) is only lacking a laser beam to mete out his evilness.

Vince Edwards' natural crudity steers the entire film. (How did millions of Ben Casey viewers ever believe this guy graduated from med school, or any kind of school? Probably the same way they believed the Ponderosa looked remotely real.) Instead of the suave jobs James Bond pretended to have while double agenting, Vince's character, the appropriately-named Charles Hood, is a dealer of vintage porn. Part of the retro fun of the movie is how it tries to be so dirty-- listen to this dialogue from a scene where Geeson, who is tied to Edwards, tries to remove the rope from Vince's wrists. Without the closeups of their bound hands to distract you, what does it sound like is really going on?

A tougher quiz this week, with an older film and only one picture clue:

I'll also tell you this: the man behind this film cast his new bride in the lead, and he did something shocking to her very-famous hair for her role in the movie.

And that's all I'll tell you. So if you think you know what this is, send me the title in an email by late Sunday night. If you're right, expect to see your name in next week's Chinese winner's circle.

"Hey, hey, hey. Who the heck ordered the blood shake? Hey, Ray, it's not Skip. It's Art. I'm just pretending to be Skip. Say, you didn't happen to see an ice pick around here, did you?"

"I recall seeing this in the theater. I thought since it had Tom Hanks, it would be a decent movie. I was wrong."

Heh heh heh. I have to admit, like the above emails, I really enjoyed the other reactions of last week's quiz winners to the movie in question, the 1989 Tom Hanks comedy The 'burbs, directed by horror expert Joe Dante. One thing about this strange little look at sinister goings-on in suburbia became clear from the responses-- the film inspires strong reaction, one way or the other. "I love this movie!" "What a terrible movie." "One of my all-time favs!" "This film is atrocious."

Then there were the assessments of Tom's acting and career arc: "A classic! It was all downhill for Hanks after The 'burbs, The Money Pit, and Bachelor Party." "Someone in the future doing some Tom Hanks AFI special or Oscar presentation is really going to have a lot of fun reading off the early movies in his career." "Might be Tom Hanks' best." I'm not sure I don't agree with the last assessment, more's the pity.

And I agree, too, with Bill Kelly's comment-- "Great score by Jerry Goldsmith"-- and Trevor Jackson's final verdict: "Bruce Dern steals the show."

And considering the size and variety of the rest of the cast, that's saying something. One of the treats of all of Dante's films is the eclectic group of character actors and iconic non-actors he puts together, and this one has a typical mix, including stars of the day like Hanks, Carrie Fisher and the dread Corey Feldman, as well as old standbys like Gale Gordon and Henry Gibson. He also featured the great Brother Theodore in what became his last movie.

As for the question I was asked most-- "You don't like this, do you?"-- the answer is, yes, because I enjoy the way Dante makes his movies. For me, there's more fun in even the 'burb bits that don't work than in all of last week's movie, Celebrity. And any movie that not only features the always lovely Wendy Schaal but allows Bruce Dern to deliver the line, "It smells like they're cookin' a goddamned cat!" is my kind of movie.

Again with the record-breaking turnout for winners this time. So congratulations and a sardine snack to the following folks: Wayne Palmer, Stacy Sarette, Amanda Kowalsky, Paul.W.Swartos, Bill Kelly, Diane Lake, Maggie Ripsin, Mark Gisleson, Donald Greene, Ned Krahl, Joe M., Robert Redwing, Gus Mastrapa, Jack Sparks, Shannon Thompson, Matthew Fitzthum, Michael Mattson, Spike & Theresa, Paul Morita, Anthony Zadra, Matt Melton, Maren Sonstegard, Bill Hearne, Dack Anderson, Elizabeth Schwalbe, Chris McMullen, Kaylee Mund, Vince Tuss, Trevor Jackson, and Nick Caster. And special congrats to Kent Hofmeister, who wins this week's grand prize, Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel!

Here's some stuff I found while trolling Google images with the words "grim news."

Who else would have said, "Sure I was glad to see John Wayne win the Oscar. I'm always glad to see the fat lady win the Cadillac on TV, too."

Like Celebrity, it's another two-star movie, ratings-wise, that will undoubtedly prove to be no one's favorite. Still, let's see what you can do with these three picture clues:

Hard as it may be to believe from these stills, the star of our film in question won not one but two Oscars. (Not so hard to believe, they both came after this movie.)

So if you think you know the title, send me an email by late Sunday night. If you're correct, expect to see your name in next week's neighborly winner's circle.

When Woody Allen's 1998 film Celebrity was released, the director's public image was so toxic-- he'd just married Soon-Yi-- that Miramax left his name out of the advertising for the movie! It didn't help make the movie a hit, however, and it was one of the last films Allen made with his producers/supporters Jean Doumanian and her wealthy boyfriend, Jacqui Safra. (Shortly afterward, the two sides would sue each other over their broken partnership, in lawsuits that would last over five years.)

In other words, 1998 was a shitty time for Woody, and in Celebrity, it shows. The flip side of Stardust Memories, his sour valentine to his fans, Celebrity is a collection of vignettes involving a very Woody-like writer protagonist and his brushes with the kind of famous people he wants to become, most of them unsatisfying to both the character and the viewer. The cast is huge, bloated with recognizable faces who often have little to nothing to do, and when one manages to stand out from the crowd (Bebe Neuwirth's banana fellatio, Charlize Theron for just . . . being), it's only a reminder of how flat the rest of the movie has been.

To hear Allen tell it, he didn't even get the actor he wanted for his lead (Alec Baldwin) and he was so dissatisfied with the performance by the star he did get-- Kenneth Branagh-- that, if he'd had his way, they would have reshot the entire film. So let's be glad that he didn't have his way, because Branagh's letter-perfect Wood-man is one of the few constant pleasures in a very fractured, hit-and-miss film. It also makes it blatantly evident how limited Allen can be as a writer: even though he claims he didn't intend the character to be "him," Branagh's performance shows how every line was custom-made for Woody's patented delivery, and no one else's.

So congratulations and a date with Donald Trump to the following quiz winners for recognizing a not-so-good movie when they see it: Wayne Palmer, Hank Gee, Corey Anderson, Vince Tuss, Michael Mattson, Robert Redwing, Holly Roberts, Tim Smit, Diane Lake, Joe Rosenberg, Bill Hearne, Mary L. Doyle, Maureen A Dunaway, Joe Dawkins, and Stacy Sarette. And special bravos to Nick Caster, who wins this week's grand prize: the new 2-disc DVD of Pan's Labyrinth!

Some of the friendly faces the Reverend Falwell is seeing right this moment . . .

And of course, Mom will be there . . .

(Pics from the 1925 Italian classic Maciste all'inferno aka Maciste in Hell, the film that made little Federico Fellini want to make movies.)

(The pic isn't quite as crass as it seems-- go here and scroll down to the words "The waterslide stunt".)