Movie References In "Hail, Caesar!" by helitzur

The movie-within-a-movie of "Hail, Caesar!" is subtitled "A Tale Of The Christ." What real-life big-budget "sword and sandals" 1950s movie epic, which several of the scenes shown from the fake "Hail, Caesar!" closely resemble, was based on a novel with that same subtitle?

The fake "Hail, Caesar!" also resembles which other 1950s epic, whose story also focused on a Roman general who eventually accepts Christianity? This movie starred Robert Taylor as the general, with Peter Ustinov playing Emperor Nero as a petulant sociopath. It was based on a novel by a Nobel-prize winning author.

Scarlett Johansson plays DeeAnna Moran, a star of "water pictures," musicals that revolved around elaborate numbers set in and under water. What real-life competitive swimmer-turned-star of musicals such as "Neptune's Daughter" and "Million Dollar Mermaid" is that character based on?

The main character of Eddie Mannix, played by Josh Brolin, is based on the real-life studio executive of that same name, who was also portrayed by Bob Hoskins in the 2006 movie "Hollywoodland." Brolin's character works for the fictional Capitol Pictures, but what real-life studio did Mannix work for between the 1920s and 1950s?

Brolin's character of Mannix reports on the phone to studio chief Nicholas Schenck, who was his boss in real life as well. Schenck's brother Joseph was also a real-life movie executive, but at a different studio from the one in question 4. Joseph Schenck, along with his business partner and production chief Darryl Zanuck, founded what major studio in 1935, via the merger of two existing production companies?

When DeeAnna Moran gets pregnant, Mannix suggests a cover story where she could disappear from the public eye for a few months, put the baby in an orphanage, and then adopt the baby at a later date. This scheme happened in real life with what star who got pregnant out-of-wedlock by Clark Gable in the 1930s? She later won an Oscar for "The Farmer's Daughter" in the 1940s, as well as three Emmys for her eponymous TV drama anthology show in the 1950s.

Channing Tatum's character, Burt Gurney, stars in a musical number called "No Dames," dressed as a sailor. This resembles scenes from multiple Gene Kelly movies, but it also references the song "There Is Nothin' Like A Dame" from what real-life musical, which did *not* star Gene Kelly? This show was a massive box office hit when it opened on Broadway in 1949, and it was later adapted as a movie in 1958.

The character of Hobie Doyle, a star of "singing cowboy" movies, most closely resembles what real-life Hollywood "King Of The Cowboys?" In "Hail, Caesar!", one of Doyle's co-stars is a comic relief character played by a look-alike of the real-life Gabby Hayes, who appeared in several dozen movies with this real-life western star.

Hobie Doyle's date for his movie premiere is musical star Carlotta Valdez, whose real-life counterpart is indicated when Hobie asks her how she does her song and dance numbers "with all them bananers on yer head." Name this real-life star known for her signature head-dressing in musicals including "Down Argentine Way" and "The Gang's All Here."

The name "Carlotta Valdes" is a direct reference to what Alfred Hitchcock movie, where it first appears as the name of a woman in a portrait in a museum, as well as on the gravestone of that same woman?

Tilda Swinton plays identical twin gossip columnists Thora and Thessaly Thacker, a reference to what powerful Hollywood columnist of that era whose first and last names also started with the same letter as each other?

Frances McDormand has a one-scene role based on Margaret Booth, a pioneering female practitioner of what aspect of movie-making from the silent era all the way into the 1970s?