We complain about modern Hollywood’s lack of originality but it’s really nothing new. (Even the unoriginality is unoriginal!) The silent era was full of remakes and ripoffs and when sound came in, it was open season to rob from the silents.
Can you spot the remakes and ripoffs? Do you know who played what first? Let’s have a bit of fun and take a quiz!
(The quiz uses radio buttons so be careful when scrolling as it may move your selection to a different answer. All questions are mandatory.)
If the quiz is displaying incorrectly below, here is a pop-up version to try:
Pop-up Quiz!How did you do?
Note: As someone is bound to ask, the difference between a remake and a ripoff is a matter of credit. A remake will credit its source while a ripoff doesn’t.
Movies Silently 
I’m not revealing what my score was. Just suffice it to say, if I were driving this speed on the interstate, I could be arrested—for going too slow.
Anyway, a creative and fun quiz and I learned some things!
😉 No worries, you are under no obligation to reveal incriminating evidence. Thanks for playing!
80%! One good accomplishment in all my life I guess….
Whoohoo! Congrats. 🙂
70% – owing to some creative guessing. 🙂 Fun quiz! It is startling how few truly original films there are. Whenever I watch a movie I like to record the source (play, short story, novel, previous film) and am always on the lookout for an original screenplay. There certainly aren’t very many.
Yes, and even some original screenplays aren’t that original once we start digging. I think a lot of people are starved for something new but no one wants to take the risk.
Not when there’s another comic book or YA series to adapt!
Or a 1980s boardgame! (Battleship has to be the ultimate in weirdness for story inspiration.)
Is the private collector harassed by the feds in question #4 William K. Everson, the silent movies scholar? I remember reading something about him taking heat for showing old prints to his friends in a basement somewhere.
The very one! He was ratted out to MGM by Raymond Rohauer and Lillian Gish had to rush to his defense to get the feds to drop their charges. This is a veritable silent film who’s who!
Kevin Brownlow told some of the story in The Parade’s Gone By but by the time Everson passed away, he was able to tell the full tale and finger Rohauer as the stool pigeon.
40%….not bad!
Not bad at all 🙂
80%.
Fab!
70%! And a lot of that was guesswork! 😄
Good guessing