Q 01/05

Billy Wilder was born in 1906 in Sucha, a small town in Galicia that was then part of which empire?

A) Imperial Germany

B) Tsarist Russia

C) Ottoman Turkey

D) Austria-Hungary

Answer · why

D) Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary broke up when Wilder was twelve, by which time his family had moved to Vienna; his birthplace is now in Poland.

Q 02/05

Billy Wilder, born Samuel, was nicknamed Billie by his mother after which legend of the American frontier?

A) Wild Bill Hickok

B) Buffalo Bill

C) Billy the Kid

D) Pawnee Bill

Answer · why

B) Buffalo Bill

Buffalo Bill Cody fascinated his mother, who had lived in the United States in her youth, so the boy registered as Samuel was Billie at home in Europe...

Q 03/05

Which fictional detective did Billy Wilder give a 'private life' in a 1970 film?

A) Hercule Poirot

B) Philip Marlowe

C) Sherlock Holmes

D) Sam Spade

Answer · why

C) Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes: Wilder planned The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes as a long roadshow epic of several cases, but the studio cut whole episodes before...

Q 04/05

Which crooner starred in Billy Wilder's 1948 musical The Emperor Waltz?

A) Bing Crosby

B) Frank Sinatra

C) Dean Martin

D) Perry Como

Answer · why

A) Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby played an American salesman hawking gramophones to an emperor; Wilder made the frothy musical straight after his army service in the ruins...

Q 05/05

Billy Wilder turned his weeks as a hired dance partner in a 1920s Berlin hotel into what?

A) A stage comedy

B) A cabaret revue

C) A radio play

D) A newspaper serial

Answer · why

D) A newspaper serial

A newspaper serial: Wilder was a freelance reporter at the time, and he wrote up his stint as a hotel dancer for hire in a Berlin daily under the titl...