# Unanswered Questions about Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 19, 2005, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899 "2005-06-19T08:01:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/101 "2005-07-07T20:48:36Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > So, this is the part of _Miracle on 34th Street_ that you find hard to swallow? Probably so; Sawyer gets his comeuppance in the courtroom, when Mr. Macy, after stepping down from the witness stand, fires him. That said, the most difficult part of the movie to “swallow” was: How did Kringle’s cane wind up in the new house Fred and Doris (with Susan) went into at the end? ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/102 "2005-07-08T00:11:58Z")
In _Driving Miss Daisy_, Houk (the Morgan Freeman character) has the job of being Miss Daisy’s chauffeur. Later on, when Daisy is tending her husband’s grave, she asks him to put some flowers on another grave, telling him the name, and he confesses that he doesn’t know how to read. Question: If he is illiterate, how did he get a driver’s license? Didn’t they have written tests then? ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/103 "2005-07-08T02:27:23Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > _Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark:_ Indy flies to Africa on a transoceanic airliner, one year before such service actually began. And he comes back on a dirigible–about a year after the _Hindenburg_ disaster sealed the fate of airship travel. ☹ > And in a scene set in the Berlin airport, about the same time, two people are reading newspapers. 1918 newspapers. I think you might be mixing up _Raiders_ with _Last Crusade_. There’s no airship in _Raiders_–Indy starts to leave Cairo by boat, but the boat is boarded by the Germans. He then hitches a ride on a U-Boat to their secret base (either by lashing himself to the periscope or staying on top because the U-Boat just coasts along the surface, depending on which script or novelization you read). _Raiders_ starts in 1936, and the _Hindenberg_ happened in May of 1937. _Last Crusade_ takes place in 1938, so you have a beef there. [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_flight) says Pan-Am started running commercial transatlantic flights in the 1930s, but doesn’t get more specific than that. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/104 "2005-07-08T12:15:15Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > How about “the Incredibles”? What happened to Mirage? Sure, she helped the family escape the island, but shouldn’t she have been charged with at least being an accomplice to the murders of scores of superheroes? (all the files of “Terminated” heroes that Mr. Incredible finds.) Perhaps, rather then being a normal, powerless person, perhaps she has the ability to make illusions. She could easily use them to escape. The name “Mirage” could go either way, really. Or, perhaps she was arrested, but off-screen. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/105 "2005-07-22T22:45:28Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I think a harder question is: you’ve got Grace Kelly in the room. Why on earth are you looking out the window? Well, here’s your answer: Grace Kelley wasn’t always in the room. She was Stewart’s girlriend, all right, but she wasn’t there all the time and he was. In fact, Thelma Ritter as the caretaker was there more often–and _she_ had no sex appeal for Stewart! Besides, he could watch Miss Torso, and even Miss Lonelyhearts–who must have had _some_ appeal, to get the attention of composer Ross Bagdasarian (and even the masher). ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/106 "2005-07-22T23:50:46Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I think a harder question is: you’ve got Grace Kelly in the room. Why on earth are you looking out the window? > [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Well, here’s your answer: > Grace Kelley wasn’t always in the room. She was Stewart’s girlriend, all right, but she wasn’t there all the time and he was. In fact, Thelma Ritter as the caretaker was there more often–and _she_ had no sex appeal for Stewart! Besides, he could watch Miss Torso, and even Miss Lonelyhearts–who must have had _some_ appeal, to get the attention of composer Ross Bagdasarian (and even the masher). I think **BobLibDem** ’s question was meant to be rhetorical. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/107 "2005-07-23T04:28:08Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > In _Driving Miss Daisy_, Houk (the Morgan Freeman character) has the job of being Miss Daisy’s chauffeur. Later on, when Daisy is tending her husband’s grave, she asks him to put some flowers on another grave, telling him the name, and he confesses that he doesn’t know how to read. > > Question: If he is illiterate, how did he get a driver’s license? Didn’t they have written tests then? Even today, states will adminster the written test to you orally if you can’t read or don’t know English or whatever language the test is offered in. If you’re figuring that Hoke got his license back in the 1930s, illiteracy would have been a big issue for a lot of people. ---
**Author:** ![Pashnish\_Ewing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/108 "2005-07-23T04:59:28Z")
> [@DrMemory](#): > > And, what was in the trunk of the Nova in Repo Man? _Ohhhhhh, you don’t want to look in there._ ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/109 "2005-07-23T21:57:57Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > Even today, states will adminster the written test to you orally if you can’t read or don’t know English or whatever language the test is offered in. > > If you’re figuring that Hoke got his license back in the 1930s, illiteracy would have been a big issue for a lot of people. This too may be primarily rhetorical, but in California, quite literally, drivers-license applicants are expected to be able to read English well enough to understand road signs. An illiterate person would have a hard time doing this. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/110 "2005-07-23T22:35:07Z")
> [@DrMemory](#): > > And, what was in the trunk of the Nova in Repo Man? A couple of dead aliens. I want to know what was in the case in _Ronin_? ---
**Author:** ![Nic2004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4491bb/32.png) [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/111 "2005-07-23T22:54:15Z")
In the Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy takes the Scarecrow down and he starts into his song-and-dance he says > [@](#): > > …I could be a Ding-A-Derry if I only had a brain What’s a Ding-A-Derry? ---
**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/112 "2005-07-24T02:34:38Z")
It’s pretty much just a scarecrow with a brain. ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/113 "2005-07-24T02:46:12Z")
> [@](#): > > I want to know what was in the case in Ronin? That movie is so confusing- at least the second time, I understood the situations. Jesus, I didn’t even realize we didn’t know what was in the package. Who was that guy in whose house De Niro wakes up in after the failed heist, who has the Ronin figures, and thus explains how these dudes are like Ronin loyal to their boss for the time being. And, uh, what was Frankenheimer thinking with the whole Ronin thing anyways? And with making a boring movie? ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/114 "2005-07-24T02:49:08Z")
> [@](#): > > What’s a ding-a-derry? No need to look anywhere but Google.\* [http://www.eskimo.com/~tiktok/faq15.html#6](http://www.eskimo.com/~tiktok/faq15.html#6) Let’s just say that lyricist E. Y. Harburg was more concerned with how his words fit together and rhymed than that they were all real words and used properly! These are two examples of lyrics he made up for the songs, both sung by the Scarecrow. “Ding-a-derry” is something good, but I have no idea how clever a gizzard is. (I doubt that this is the same gizzard that is a part of a bird’s digestive system!) \* ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/115 "2005-07-24T03:03:41Z")
> [@andrewdt85](#): > > Who was that guy in whose house De Niro wakes up in after the failed heist, who has the Ronin figures, and thus explains how these dudes are like Ronin loyal to their boss for the time being. That was Jean Reno’s friend. > [@](#): > > And, uh, what was Frankenheimer thinking with the whole Ronin thing anyways? Well, De Niro’s character was somewhat of a ronin-type figure. > [@](#): > > And with making a boring movie? Hey, I liked it, and I fail to see how you could find the chase sequences boring. The actors certainly _didn’t_ (they were in the cars doing the chases at high speed). ---
**Author:** ![Nic2004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4491bb/32.png) [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/116 "2005-07-24T03:14:21Z")
> [@andrewdt85](#): > > No need to look anywhere but Google.\* > > [http://www.eskimo.com/~tiktok/faq15.html#6](http://www.eskimo.com/~tiktok/faq15.html#6) > > Let’s just say that lyricist E. Y. Harburg was more concerned with how his words fit together and rhymed than that they were all real words and used properly! These are two examples of lyrics he made up for the songs, both sung by the Scarecrow. “Ding-a-derry” is something good, but I have no idea how clever a gizzard is. (I doubt that this is the same gizzard that is a part of a bird’s digestive system!) \* That was very interesting. Thanks. A little source of confusion way back in my head is finally quieted. Now, for the other bazillion… ---
**Author:** ![Nic2004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4491bb/32.png) [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/117 "2005-07-24T03:17:24Z")
Oh, and the thing about the Wicked Witch’s castle guards: It always sounded like they were chanting “Oreo…Eorey”, or something similar. Anyway, Oreo was in there somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/118 "2005-07-24T03:25:17Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > In the 1950’s War of the Worlds, there a shot in the war room near the middle-end of the movie. For a few seconds, you see a map of the world, with Martian units/represnted by black triangles being pushed around like shuffleboard…things. > > Anyway, at one point, you can see a map of austraila, and it is fricken covered with Black triangles, forming a large black polyhedron of some sort. and it’s not on the coasts either. It’s right there in the middle of the continent. > > So what’s so special about Austraila that the martians have all their stuff there in full force? > > Or is the Military just keeping their spare triangles there for lack of space?(because nobody lives in austraila, apparently) Don’t know why they liked Austraila, but when you first see the table, the extra triangles are all parked at the edges of the map, and then moved inwards, so they weren’t simply sticking them there because they had no place else to put them. I have a feelignthat it was being done to represent the fact that they’d had no communication out of there, so the assumption would be that the place would be overran with guys wearing tennis shoes and Roman Legion style helmets, all looking for their missing Illudium P-36 Space Modulators. ---
**Author:** ![Nic2004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4491bb/32.png) [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/119 "2005-07-24T03:48:40Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > … overran with guys wearing tennis shoes and Roman Legion style helmets, all looking for their missing Illudium P-36 Space Modulators. That’s the martian on Bugs Bunny, right? That’s funny. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MackoUr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MackoUr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MackoUr)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/120 "2005-07-24T06:07:23Z")
Regarding the contents of the case in _Ronin_ and _Pulp Fiction_, as well as what was in the trunk of the car in _Repo Man_, it is the great nuclear thingamajig from _Kiss Me Deadly_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899.md?page=7)