'What's Your 'I.Q.'?': Number Two

George Sidney's MGM one-reeler is a quick way to check how much one knows about different things. Just bear in mind most of the questions are of the tricky kind. In retrospect, thinking about them after the short film was over, they made perfect sense.

It goes to show how our minds work sometimes. We are thinking in one direction, but perhaps we are not really paying attention because when the explanation to the question is illustrated, we realize the answers were right there. Perhaps we responded much too quickly, not even knowing we are not giving the question the attention we should have.

The film points out about how humans rush to give a definite answer as fast as they can, instead of savoring the question and getting to the right conclusion concentration on what was asked of us.

What's Your I.Q.? # 2 (1940)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Another fun entry in the rather long-running Pete Smith series from MGM. Basically viewers get several questions to answer to see how smart they really are. The questions tackle a wide range of topics from what you do call the inhabitants at the South Pole to what direction you travel if you're going from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the Panama Canal. You also get a question about how many pieces of hair are on a woman's head. Somewhere along the way something went wrong because all of the questions are supposed to add up to 100 points but only 90 are available so I'm going to guess that one of the ten-point questions were dropped or perhaps that was just a joke to make those in the audience wonder where that missing question went. Overall this is a pretty entertaining entry in the series but obviously your level of interest is going to depend on whether you'd want to answer questions before watching a movie. I think the series is entertaining and I'm sure those people back in the day had a good time screaming their thoughts out at the screen. I think the clock that ticks down the seconds is a rather annoying touch but it's not bad enough to where it kills the rest of the film. The final joke in the film is certainly a winner.