Enigmatic Variations No. 1279: Mythological Film Club by Samuel

A cinematic pun-fest from Samuel this week, in MYTHOLOGICAL FILM CLUB…

The preamble states that:

“In a game of MYTHOLOGICAL FILM CLUB, ten thematic clues each consist of a partial film title which can be improved upon by the introduction of a name associated with mythology. For example, in the clue ‘Flash ______’, the answer would be GORGON. These names must be entered into the grid where they will fit; their unchecked and mutually-checked letters could give HERDS LYNCH DR BLISS. In 16 normal clues, the wordplay leads to the answer and an additional letter not to be entered into the grid; these give a further partial film title, the missing word of which must be highlighted (six letters). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

Film Titles

* ______ to the Future
* Live and Let ______
* Hansel and ______
* Fifty ______ of Grey
* Local ______
* ______ Lone
* ______ Who’s Talking
* 2001: A Space ______
* No ______ Please, We’re British
* The ______ of the Lambs

So my first thoughts on running through the list were: ‘BACCHUS To the Future’? And ‘2001: A Space ODYSSEUS’? Likely candidates, and checking through the unclued slots in the grid there seemed to be two spaces where a 7 (BACCHUS) would fit, and two for an 8 (ODYSSEUS).

I could have lingered longer, but I jumped into some solving of clues, to try and find some crossing letters to match my initial guesses to…and soon enough answers like ALAMEIN and DATURA were suggesting that these two were top-left-ish.

I made steady progress hereafter, with the next thematic as LOKI (who’s talking!), followed swiftly by (Live and Let) DIONYSUS. (A serendipitous coincidence, given the sad death of Roger Moore that week…)

Some diversions:

• held up a bit thinking HORA was an Egyptian god(dess), but ‘Local HORA’ didn’t quite scan, and I was clearly mis-thinking of HORUS!
• spent some time trying to fit in ‘The SIRENS of the Lambs’, which I think scans better than the singular, but would have been harder to fit in and still keep that almost-symmetrical positioning of the thematics
• vaguely (mis)remembered a god called SEKT, so was trying to use him for ‘No SEKT Please…’. A quick e-check reveals that SEKT is actually a German sparkling wine, although the Egyptian god SETH does have variations Set, Setekh, Sut, Sutekh and Sety
• Fifty HADES of Grey was a laugh-out-loud moment!

Last thematic in was HERA, a real goddess (but Greek this time!), and the full list was:

* BACCHUS to the Future
* Live and Let DIONYSUS
* Hansel and GRENDEL
* Fifty HADES of Grey
* Local HERA
* HOMER Lone
* LOKI Who’s Talking
* 2001: A Space ODYSSEUS
* No SETH Please, We’re British
* The SIREN of the Lambs

 

And those extra letters? Neatly placed in separate groups, they started to yield ‘QUEEN OF THE DESERT’…reminiscent of another film title, with PRISCILLA replaced by SCYLLA, down the main NW-SE diagonal.

In the end, I didn’t need the extra hint from the unchecked/crossing letters, but they might have been useful if I had got stuck, and I did double-check them at the end, to be sure, to be sure…

Such fun! – as Miranda’s mother would say – and a pleasantly diverting, amusing and relatively gentle puzzle, which my brain much appreciated, after a hard weekend of golfing and drinking away with ‘the boys’. The preamble refers to this as a ‘game’ – not sure if it a well known parlour/after dinner game, maybe a favourite in the Samuel household?…all good punning fun, and a pleasure to re-visit for the blog as well…thanks Samuel.

I’m sure there might be a few more title suggestions in the comments below…maybe some Bond ones in tribute to Sir Roger?:

• For Your IDES Only?
• The Man With the VULCAN Gun?
• MARS-raker?

Over to you…

 

Across
Clue No	Extra letter	Solution	Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing
6		GAS	Talk depression over (3) / SAG (depression), over
8		ALAMEIN	Battle site that’s imperfect, hosted by Scotland’s own (7) / A_IN (own, Scottish) around (hosting) LAME (imperfect)
10		RECTI	Flexing these muscles, she could be chestier (5) / subtractive anagram, i.e. flexing, of C(HES)TIER, without the letters of SHE
11		RESITE	Model in Glaswegian yard? Move elsewhere (6) / RE_E (yard, enclosure, Scottish, i.e. Glaswegian) around SIT (model, pose)
12	Q	CAUSAL	That leads to water containing sulphur in chlorine? (6) / C_L (chlorine) around A(Q)U_A (water), itself around S (sulphur)
13	U	HALE	Fit? Pull European! (4) / HA(U)L (pull) + E (European)
14	E	PILLION	Store animal’s seat (7) / PIL(E) (store) + LION (animal)
16	E	UNARM	Make defenceless close to Baku and close to Malta (5) / U (closing letter of BakU) + N(E)AR (close to) + M (Malta)
18	N	EYEING	Looking good after nine, the old reflcted (6) / EYE(N)IN (NINE + YE, the, old, all ‘reflected) + G (good)
19		SANCAI	Glaze over leaving icons playing with two amateurs (6) / anag, i.e. playing, of IC(O)NS (with O – over, leaving) + AA (two Amateurs)
21		HIGH END	Top-class drunk shed light on dropping lost mobile (7, two words) / subtractive anagram, i.e. drunk, of (S)HED (L)IGH(T) (O)N, minus the ‘mobile’ letters of LOST
23	O	TOTE	Bear near little piggy (4) / TO (near) + T(O)E (little piggy)
24	F	AREA	Remote East American district (4) / (F)AR (remote) + E (East) + A (American)
26		WEAR ON	Pass by wagoner moving to avoid government (6, two words) / anag, i.e. moving, of WA(G)ONER, avoiding G (government)
28		CLOACA	Privy council liaised initially over accountant (6) / CL (first letters of Council Liaised) + O (over) + ACA (Associate Chartered Accountant)
29	T	E-BOOK	In recession, busy person nearly stole PC publication? (5) / EB (nearly BE(E), busy person, in recession) + (T)OOK (stole)
30	H	DAN DARE	Hard criminal captured by Scandinavian illustrated character (7, two words) / DAN_E (Scandinavian) around (capturing) DAR(H) (anag, i.e. criminal, of HARD)
31	E	SIT	Locate brood (3) / double defn, of sorts – SIT(E) can be to locate; SIT can be to brood
Down
Clue No	Extra letter	Solution	Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing
1		OLGA	Some scallywag looks up holy Russian girl (4) / reversed hidden word, i.e. ‘some’ and ‘up’ in ‘scallywAG LOoks’
2		DATURA	Plant information describing regular ingredients in curry (6) / DAT_A (information) around (describing) UR (regular letters of ‘cUrRy’)
3		SERAC	Mind about splash of soda served up with large ice cube (5) / CARE (mind about) + S (first letter, or ‘splash’, of Soda) – all served ‘up’
4	D	ENSHIELD	Protect sanctuaries current cuts successfully defended (8) / (D)ENS (sanctuaries) + H_ELD (successfully defended) around (cut by) I (current)
5	E	URIC	Like stale posh cereal (4) / U (posh, not non-U!) + RIC(E) (cereal)
7	S	ATHLONE	Quiet cheers upset uninhabited town (7) / AT (TA, cheers, upset) + H(S) (SH, quiet, also upset) + LONE (uninhabited)
9	E	MESARCH	Note hunt from somewhere wet (7) / ME (note, on Sol-Fa notation) + S(E)ARCH (hint)
14	R	PYINKADO	Fuss after shade covers younger tree (8) / P_INK (shade, colour) around (covering) Y(R) (younger) + ADO (fuss)
15	T	LEOTARD	Start to eat too much, stuffing fat in tight clothing? (7) / L_ARD (fat) around (stuffed by) E (start to Eat) + OT(T) (too much, over the top)
17		NAIROBI	Display embraced by toff on island? Capital! (7) / N_OB (toff) around (embracing) AIR (display), plus I (island)
20		MOREAU	Vivisectionist added gold (6) / MORE (added) + AU (gold)
22		LEANY	Poet’s unproductive line encapsulates article (5) / LE_Y (line) around (encapsulating) AN (article)
25		ALOD	Somewhat malodorous estate (4) / hidden word in ‘mALODorous’
27		OARS	Rows increase in number when cycling (4) / (S)OAR (increase in number) cycling its first letter to the end = OARS