Comments on: Financial Times 13,545 / Cinephile

By: BrigC

BrigC — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:52:22 +0000

New to the FT cryptic. Managed the theme without resorting to Google but didn’t much like loud = making noise at 1d.

By: Tony Welsh

Tony Welsh — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:07:27 +0000

Bamberger, never presume what the theme is in advance. In this case though there were hints that it had something to do with the entertainment/film industry. I thought it was going to be a film star which would have left me in the dirt because I hardly know any. But then I hit on opera and remembered that the Marx Brothers had done a film along that line. And then duck soup clinched it. I did not know they had done a film about Casablanca, but looked up an on-line list of their films.

By: scarpia

scarpia — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 00:47:18 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid.
Spotted the theme more or less straight away,so this made the puzzle fairly easy for me,a big fan of the MBs.Still took a while to work out some pretty difficult clues and had to check on meaning of DUCK SOUP,which I didn’t know.
I guess it’s not everyone’s cup of tea,but I always find this hilarious –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nK8l2p1AYg

By: bamberger

bamberger — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:25:26 +0000

Spotted immediately that MB =megabyte and so the theme was computing (very naive in hindsight to expect anything scientific in a crossword). The realised MB=Bachelor of medicine (no idea why the reversal) so the theme was medicine. When that failed thought about mercedes benz, municipal borough and even “men in black”. Got some other clues out but without getting the correct theme was never going to get far. I have heard of the Marx Brothers and sat through a few minutes of one of their films once but didn’t find it remotely amusing. I suppose that is the problem with themes-spot it and it becomes straightforward, miss it and you are stuck .

By: Tony Welsh

Tony Welsh — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 19:11:10 +0000

Thanks, Gaufrid. Started out with opera and duck soup. Finished it with some help from an online dictionary and a list of Marx Brothers’ films, but I did not get some of the word play. Like casa blanca equals white house equals presidency! Never heard of ayah either, or a workhorse punch, or filbert, or a service tree. So I learned a lot this morning and will now promptly forget it all again.