What is your favourite Christmas film? My sentimental pick would be It’s a Wonderful Life, from 1942, but some guys watch Die Hard religiously every December. I “triple dog dare ya” to try this quiz about movies made in our turkey neck of the woods. Sorry, no one wins a leg lamp, but happy holidays.
1. Which local church (see photo at left) is featured in a main scene from this year’s hit, The Best Man Holiday?
2. The RC Harris Water Treatment Plant plays a prison in which 1996 thriller starring Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson? (Hint: is amnesia rampant among spies?)
3. This nostalgic comedy from 1983 has become a holiday classic, played for 24 hours straight on TBS at Christmas. You can spot our old P.C.C. streetcars in a couple of scenes near Queen Street.
4. In which movie did Rachel McAdams and Lindsay Lohan sing Jingle Bell Rock at Malvern CI?
5. Who played the little blond girl Molly in One Magic Christmas (1985)?
6. In what cynical, dark comedy from 1994 does a cat burglar hold a bickering family hostage on Christmas Eve? Denis Leary labelled it an “anti-Christmas” movie.
7. Which animals at the Toronto Zoo were among the ‘big stars’ of The Santa Clause (1994)?
8. What building served as the police station in Black Christmas (1974)?
9. Why did Christopher Plummer’s character dress up as Santa Claus in The Silent Partner (1978)?
10. Bonus question for serious trivia buffs only: What was the name of the Lone Ranger’s nephew’s horse?
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1. Last April, two busloads of extras were brought in for a scene at Calvary Baptist Church, on Main Street at Benlamond for The Best Man Holiday. Filming went on into late evening for this sequel (to what?) about college friends reuniting over the Christmas holidays. How do you feel when big trucks, cranes and bright lights descend on your street?
2. In The Long Kiss Goodnight, Geena Davis’ amnesiac assassin plays Mrs. Claus in a local Christmas parade and her ‘cover’ is blown. The action pic filmed all over Ontario. After Muskoka’s Windermere House burned down during filming, the movie was dubbed ‘Gone With the Windermere.’
3. A Christmas Story is celebrating its 30th anniversary and still going strong as part of holiday traditions (catch it on CBC on Dec. 23 at 8 p.m.). Ralphie beats up bully Scut Farkus in an alley near the TTC’s Russell Yard streetcar barns at Queen Street East and Connaught Avenue, where you can still spot two of the vintage P.C.C. streetcars, introduced to Toronto in 1938, available for charters or movie shoots. The ‘Oh, fudge’ scene was filmed on Cherry Street – now go wash your mouth out with soap. And don’t let the neighbour’s dogs steal your turkey, or you may have to eat at the Chop Suey Palace – now Batifole – on Gerrard Street East.
4. Mean Girls (2004).
5. Actor and director Sarah Polley made her film debut at age six in One Magic Christmas, which was filmed on a Scarborough street.
6. The Ref has one scene of a boat sailing off Cherry Beach, though much of the film was shot in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
7. Polar bears competed with Tim Allen for acting honours in The Santa Clause.
8. Community Centre 55 on Main Street was allocated to the community in 1975, after serving as Police Station #10 and later Division 55.
9. Plummer was planning to rob a bank in the newly opened Eaton Centre. A number of scenes were shot at Kew Gardens and on Kew Beach.
10. Victor was the horse, of course (see: A Christmas Story).
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