Guardian 27,062 – Paul

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It was obvious that there was a theme based around 5d. After a fairly easy start (particularly in the NW corner) my way in was to spot the long phrase at 21,18,17 when I had a few crucial crossers, and work back from that.

The theme is the composer Ennio Morricone, and some of his film music. I also spotted a couple of other possible references at 12a and 13d – there may well be more. I didn’t know a lot about Morricone, but (apparently) enough to finish the puzzle without too much trouble. Thanks to Paul

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. WEBSTER Scorer defining route for lexicographer (7)
ST (street, route) in [Carl Maria von] WEBER
5. MANTRAP Catchy thing, 16th incantation? (7)
If the first incantation is Mantra A, the 16th is MANTRA P
9. COMIC Joker somewhat caustic, I’m occasionally contrary (5)
Hidden in reverse of caustiC, I’M OCcasionally
10. VERMONTER Rats dropping in, tenor distraught, one in a state? (9)
VERM[in] + TENOR*
11. EISENSTEIN Film director requires great intellect to capture scene after evacuation (10)
S[cen]E in EINSTEIN
12. FORD President is cross (4)
Double definition – there’s also John Ford, who wrote music for some classic Westerns
14. CASSOWARIES As swine in decay, they can’t fly (11)
AS SOW in CARIES (dental decay)
21,18,27. ONCE UP A TIME IN THE WEST Point to the new 19 and use new one of 5 down’s (4,4,1,4,2,3,4)
Anagram of POINT TO THE NEW CINEMA + USE. As usual with these long anagrams, I admire the construction, and in this case particularly the reference to another answer, but probably wouldn’t have bothered to work it out if I didn’t have to explain it here
22. THE MISSION One of 5 down’s is Jerusalem, with those people at the front (3,7)
THEM (those people) + IS SION
25. READINESS Being prepared, add last of sauce to sardines in a stew (9)
SARDINES* + S
26. EVENS Chance rugby game won’t start (5)
[S]EVENS (type of Rugby)
28. SUSTAIN Shame to shackle American bear (7)
US in STAIN
Down
1. WICKED Good and bad (6)
Double definition
2. BEMUSE Queen, perhaps, wrapping up problem puzzle (6)
Reverse of SUM in BEE (which could be a queen)
3. TECHNOCRAT Authority in control, he has contract for renegotiation (10)
(HE CONTRACT)*
4. RIVET Pin I check under top of roof (5)
R[oof] + I VET
5. MORRICONE Right image adopted by greater Italian scorer (9)
R ICON in MORE – Ennio Morricone, Italian composer who is probably most famous for his huge output of film music, some of which appears elsewhere in the puzzle
6. NOON Only off for 12 (4)
If you only have “off” then you have NO ON
7. RETROFIT Install new parts, strong girder finally put up over it (8)
Reverse of FORTE [girde]R + IT
13. SAINT-SAENS Scorer sent in, as doubled up in torment (5-5)
(SENT IN AS AS)* – music from The Carnival of the Animals was used in the film Days of Heaven, for which Morricone wrote most of the music
15. SLIGHTEST Most insignificant languages ultimately easiest to pick up (9)
[language]S + LIGHTEST
16. EUROCRAT Pitch business with regret after turning up to see Brussels official (8)
Reverse of TAR (pitch) CO (business) + RUE
17. CONCLAVE Group meeting bending over to welcome Lutheran leader (8)
L[utheran] in CONCAVE
19,8. CINEMA PARADISO One of 5 down’s ideas, a Roman pic for composition (6,8)
(IDEAS A ROMAN PIC)*
20. UNISON Agreement is working under alliance of nations (6)
UN + IS ON
23. MISTS Films to avoid, including Terminator for a start (5)
T[erminator] in MISS
24. VILE Foul conclusion in contest, ugly (4)
[fou]L in VIE (to contest)

29 comments on “Guardian 27,062 – Paul”

  1. My favourite setter but somehow this wasn’t quite up to his usual high standard. Or am I just annoyed with myself for not finishing it?

  2. Thanks Paul and Andrew

    Another long one I “solved” from a hint from the clue (Morricone) and the letter count, and didn’t bother to parse. I think these clues are more satisfying for the setter than the solver.

    You do learn things from films though – my only encounter with WEBSTER the lexicographer is Bob Hope and Bing Crosby telling me that his dictionary is “Morocco-bound”.

    Odd to have two “crats” – it surely doesn’t count as a minitheme, though!

  3. Fairly straightforward as i got 5d and happen to know Morricone’s music. Cinema Paradiso’s theme tune has me blubbing just remembering it.
    But made a mistake. Couldn’t parse 6d and had neon which i thought was a Ford model, thinking of 12a. Turns out to be a Dodge. Was this deliberate a mis-steering by Paul?

  4. Thanks Andrew. Though an ignoramus on both musicand cinema I did finish this sans aids, eventually. Loved MANTRAP. Thoroughly enjoyable.

  5. Took me a while to get the gateway clue – for no good reason, I was expecting a classical music composer. There is also a reference to his most famous film music for ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ in the clues for 1d and 24d. Quite apart from the theme, lots of enjoyable clues including CASSOWARIES, MANTRAP, WEBSTER and the very nice NOON.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

  7. A long struggle for me – MORRICONE was LOI (I hadn’t heard of him), and EISENSTEIN was also a late arrival. I was also surprised by the two OCRATS. Liked VERMONTER, CASSOWARIES, MANTRAP and SLIGHTEST. Thanks to Paul and Andrew.

  8. Very enjoyable. Excellent clue for the perennial answer at 6d. Would have been my LOI if I’d got it. Also wrote in rood for 12 ac but of course couldn’t fully parse. Noah Webster caught inflagrante by his wife:
    Wife: Noah, I’m surprised!
    Noah: No my dear, I am surprised. You are shocked.

  9. Good entertaining solve; thanks Paul.

    Thanks Andrew for the blog; I bunged in NOON without really seeing the significance of NO ON, doh!

    I got MORRICONE fairly early on, so was waiting for some dollars to appear, but they didn’t!

    I liked RETROFIT and others.

  10. Hard work for one unfamiliar with Morricone. True, I’d heard of him and his works but couldn’t have named one if I’d been asked. I needed electronic help to get him (although I’d worked out it probably contained ‘ricon’) and I’m afraid the same article noted CINEMA PARADISO and THE MISSION as his so I spotted them when they came up. I was thrown at first by the long clue: I thought I’d heard of Once Upon A Time In America but it wasn’t a huge leap to substitute The West.

    I liked BEMUSE, VERMONTER, EUROCRAT and, a short one, MISTS but favourite of the day is the brilliant MANTRAP.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

  11. I was also unfamiliar with the name of the Italian composer and had to choose between MorriCone and MorriKone. Guessing correctly, I plumped for the former. I would have preferred a more watertight clue.

    I was familiar with all the films mentioned. That made most of the crossword solving easy and I didn’t bother with the long anagrams relating to these clues.

    No problem with Eisenstein or Webster.

  15. Good fun. Thanks Paul and Andrew. We didnt know Marricone by name, but once we got cinema paradiso from the anagram, we looked online and quickly got the rest. Lots of favourites. We got held up on 10 trying to anagram tenor and rats.Loved noon and mantrap.

  16. At first glance, with all those scorers and “pitch” in 16d, I was afraid this was going to be cricket themed. Film music isn’t a much better topic for me, but at least I’d heard of Morricone and those films so I was able finish the puzzle thanks to some guesswork confirmed by imdb. I particularly liked the non-flying pigs and NOON.

    Thanks, Paul and Andrew.

  17. Entertaining enough – not really a theme for me but even if I only knew that one of the 3 scores was by Morricone the other two were at least well known films and fairly generously clued. Favourite CASSOWARIES, last in NOON after MANTRAP

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

  18. Thanks to Paul and Andrew. I too worked backward from CINEMA PARADISO to MORRICONE, but could not parse MANTRAP and waited until I had all the crossers to get the long anagram. I did get FORD and NOON early on. Lots of fun.

  19. Quite tricky, but the key for me was CINEMA PARADISO which allowed me to work backwards. And the long answer became so obvious that I didn’t bother to parse it. I loved MANTRAP and VERMONTER. LOI NOON.
    Thanks Paul.

    P.S.If anyone hasn’t seen Battle for Algiers for which EM did the score,they’re missing a treat.

  20. This was fun, despite the somewhat obscure theme. I had heard of Morricone–I had friends in college who were film students. Getting ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST from its enumeration and about a third of the crossing letters (and shruggingly figuring that the anagram worked out) was my entree. Kind of cheap to have that much of the grid filled so cheaply at one go, the critic in me thought.

    Having MORRICONE (famous, as noted, for the “Fistful of Dollars” trilogy), FORD (one of the greatest directors of Westerns), and NOON, I was really expecting to see a Western sub-theme and, thus, a clue for HIGH somewhere to go with NOON. Alas.

  22. John Ford was an eminent director of Westerns – Stagecoach, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance – but I’m not aware of him writing any film music. Perhaps Andrew could enlighten me?

  23. An excellent crossword, I thought, although at first I didn’t think it was going to be when I saw that parts of it evidently depended on an as yet unknown theme.

    At the outset I was fixated for a little while on 5d, hoping to solve it before getting on with the rest of the puzzle. Having tried and failed (like WordPlodder) with classical composers I turned to others (films?) and, coming up eventually with ‘MORE’ for ‘greater’, I suddenly thought of MORRICONE, and the long phrase starting at 21a quickly followed, without having to bother with the wordplay.

    I enjoyed the rest of the puzzle too as there was much to appreciate in the clues. I remember getting CASSOWARIES with only a couple of crossers and thought afterwards what a strange ‘definition’ to give for it: ‘they can’t fly’. Out of literally millions of creatures and inanimate objects that can’t fly, why are we led to think only of birds? Just a thought!

    Many thanks to both Paul and Andrew.

  24. Sorry to stagger you Bingybing@21, but I’m one of those who’d never heard of Morricone! Because of that I found this quite a slog – too much looking up of references in what has been a busy day for me. That said, I enjoyed some of the clues despite my lack of knowledge of the theme, notably 1,10 and 22ac.

    Thank you Paul & Andrew.

  26. No,I also thought this was a disappointing crossword from my favourite setter. The theme was too esoteric & I just lost interest & gave up

  27. Very late to post, but I’d hope that some of those who’d never heard of Morricone are glad they came across him through this puzzle – he really is a preeminent film ‘scorer’, along with e.g. Bernard Herrmann and John Williams … and I really enjoyed the way this puzzle teased out so I could solve it without any aids. Many thanks to Paul and Andrew.

  28. Having been defeated by the Indie today, this actually came as a bit of a relief. Finished it without aids.

    It may or may not be interesting that Eisenstein is famous for his film collaborations with the composer Prokofiev, Saint-Saens wrote an early film score in the silent days, and Michael Nyman’s music for Peter Greenaway’s film The Falls includes a Bird List Song that mentions the Cassowary. I’m sure this is all a coincidence.

  29. What’s the opposite of esoteric? Endoteric – “Likely to be misunderstood by only a small number of people with an exclusive specialised knowledge or interest”? The theme is swimming in multiple Oscar awards and nominations. Dooey Dooey Doo Mwa Mwa Mwa, for those still needing a nudge.

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