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Happy Holidays, crime writers! Well, it’s taken me three years, but I finally finished the Christmas quiz. Not that I was working on it all this time—I’m just a procrastinator.
Maybe you can answer the questions faster than I wrote them. Use the words in the Christmas Carol to help you.
1.    First Day—An inept television show host exploits a hostage situation
2.    Second Day—Divorcee and her daughter are caught up in a life-threatening situation.
3.    Third Day—The bad guys get caught by a lawman in a chicken costume.
4.    Fourth Day—About to be released after fifty years in prison, a con releases his pet bird.
5.    Fifth Day—Not rings, but specially-minted gold bars cause a falling-out among thieves
6.    Sixth Day—The sound of geese play a critical part in the solution.
7.    Seventh Day—A dancer is accused of hitting her rival with a car.
8.    Eighth Day—A woman is convinced her husband plans to kill her with a glass of poisoned milk.
9.    Ninth Day—1920s dancers wind up in jail for murder
10.    Tenth Day—Who murdered Sir William?
11.    Eleventh Day—Australian military officer executed for revenge murders
12.    Twelfth Day—Knifing, shooting and general bedlam arise around an oblivious drummer.

ANSWERS
1.    Alan Partridge—Steve Coogan
2.    Betrayal of  the Dove (1992)—Helen Slater, Billy Zane
3.    U S Marshalls—Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Downey, Jr.
4.    The Shawshank Redemption—Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman
5.    The Italian Job—Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron
6.    Arabesque – Gregory Peck
7.    Black Swan—Natalie Portman
8.    Suspicion—Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine
9.    Chicago – Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger
10.    Gosford Park—Helen Mirren, Clive Owen
11.    Breaker Morant—Brian Brown
12.    The Mambo Kings—Armand Assante

We know the bad guy’s plan is supposed to get foiled, right? But sometimes the crook’s failure strikes a sympathetic chord in the moviegoer’s chest. Some of my favorite movies are on this list. Name the movie and the starring actors.
NOTE: These did not all start out as crime novels, but what the heck—they still had to be written, didn’t they?

1.    Mob enforcer sent on a job in California gets bitten by the movie bug.
2.    A veteran mobster is sent to eliminate an inept newbie, but winds up his mentor, instead.*
3.    So these two escaped cons walk into a monastery…
4.    She took the hit on him, and he’s supposed to whack her.
5.    A bumbling police inspector works to foil the efforts of a notorious jewel thief, not realizing his wife is the thief’s accomplice.
6.    Stressed-out Mafia don needs a psychiatrist
7.    Put-upon brother can’t deal with his sibling’s temptress girlfriend and her other lovers.
8.    The best con man on the continent and his American copycat are flimflammed by their female counterpart.
9.    Incompetent goons demand ransom from the wrong guy—and then they ruin his rug.
10.    Timid kidnappers’ plan to ransom a wealthy man’s wife is foiled when she starts ordering them around.
★    Extra Credit Classic: Trip to Mexico in search of riches is a bust.
*This could describe a lot of films, so name your poison.

ANSWERS
1.    Get Shorty (1995)—John Travolta, Rene Russo, Danny DeVito--based on Elmore Leonard’s novel
2.    In Bruges (2008)—Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson
3.    We’re No Angels (1989)—Robert De Niro, Sean Penn
4.    Prizzi’s Honor (1985)—Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Anjelica Huston
5.    The Pink Panther (1963)—David Niven, Peter Sellers, Robert Wagner
6.    Analyze This (1999)—Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal
7.    A Fish Called Wanda (1988)—Jamie Lee Curtis, John Cleese, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin
8.    Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)—Michael Caine, Steve Martin, Glenne Headly
9.    The Big Lebowski (1998)—Jeff Bridges, John Goodman
10.    Ruthless People (1986)—Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhold, Helen Slater
11.    Extra Credit Classic: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)—Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston—based on B. Traven’s novel