Topic Challenge: Gene Wilder and his films [completed]

Question

August 29th saw the death of renowned actor Gene Wilder. So in honour of him and due to popular demand we're starting a new topic challenge. From 2016-09-05 00:00 UTC to 2016-09-11 23:00 UTC we're challenging you to all your great questions about Gene Wilder and the films he was in.¹

Once the challenge is over, we'll tally the results and winners (by question score) here. Also don't forget to suggest and vote for new topics for our next possible challenge.

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1) _{But don't feel compelled to add a gene-wilder tag to each and every of those questions, tag responsibly instead.}

Answer 1

The challenge is over and the top-voted question (with a score of 22 and ~1564 views) was asked by steelerfan, which makes her the winner of this challenge:

1. How did Mongo "punch" the horse?

The other questions asked, in order of votes are (the numbers are the votes and views):

2. Why did filmmakers choose to portray "What is Sodomy" in this manner? (7 / ~585)

3. How did Willy Wonka know the Golden Tickets would wind up in the hands of children? (6 / ~106)

4. Was the lecture in the classroom scene real or fictional? (3 / ~54)

   Why did the plot instantly skip from the monster's escape to the townspeople's defense preparations? (3 / ~44)

5. Why did George throw the book into his own suitcase? (2 / ~23)

   Was it a common practice to pronounce the fare on the cab door in the sixties? (2 / ~14)