A splendid romp with an overt theme…
Which just happens to be my favourite film and that of many others, I believe. A couple of quibbles but great fun. Thanks, Sayang.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1, 4 | PLAY IT AGAIN SAM |
Request for rerun of wartime film (4,2,5,3)
|
| In 13, Rick asks Sam the pianist to play the song ‘As Time Goes By’ once more, although – as everyone knows – not quite in these words. | ||
| 10 | TOREADORS |
Bullfighters to study alternate site first (9)
|
| TO READ (= ‘to study’ at college) + OR (‘alternate’) + 1st of ‘S{ite}’. | ||
| 11 | DEIGN |
Condescend to hear European (5)
|
| Homophone of Dane. | ||
| 12 | RING |
Call round (4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 13 | CASABLANCA |
Feature film for the White House? (10)
|
| ‘Casa blanca’ being ‘white house’ in Spanish. | ||
| 15 | APRICOT |
Endless rice in a pot of fruit (7)
|
| A + POT contains RICe, unfinished. | ||
| 16 | PLEXUS |
Quiet Japanese car network (6)
|
| P[iano] (‘quiet’) + LEXUS, luxury ‘Japanese car’. The ‘solar plexus’ is an example of a biological ‘network’. | ||
| 19 | ADVERB |
Notice part of speech carefully, for example (6)
|
| AD[vertisement] (‘notice’) + VERB (‘part of speech’). A bit close? | ||
| 21 | COCTEAU |
Cute tailless coat tailored for French film-maker (7)
|
| Anagram (‘tailored’) of CUTE + (foreshortened) COAt. | ||
| 23 | ADULTERATE |
Water into wine? To do this is corrupt (10)
|
| If one introduces water into wine, one aldulterates it. | ||
| 25 | CROP |
Prune harvest (4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 27 | STUFF |
Mostly strait-laced material (5)
|
| STUFFy, most of ‘strait-laced’. | ||
| 28 | MONARCHIC |
Smiling woman, right smart and regal (9)
|
| MONA (Lisa), Leonardo’s enigmatic ‘smiling woman’, + R[ight] + CHIC (‘smart’). | ||
| 29 | SILICONE |
The stuff making mountains out of molehills perhaps (8)
|
| Material for breast-enlargement, I take it. Not a clue to my taste. | ||
| 30 | VELDTS |
Starts to visit each landowner developing the southern grasslands (6)
|
| 1st letters of words 3-8 of clue. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PATERNAL |
Protective father not a liar, initially (8)
|
| PATER (‘father’) + 1st letters of ‘Not A Liar’. A bit duplicatory again? | ||
| 2 | AARONS ROD |
Plant a magical stave (6,3)
|
| Double definition. In the Bible, Aaron’s rod (‘stave’) is turned by God into an almond tree. Allegedly. | ||
| 3 | IRAN |
Writer managed country (4)
|
| I (the ‘writer’) + RAN (‘managed’). | ||
| 5 | GAS LAMP |
Doctor crossing a strike? It’s illuminating (3,4)
|
| G[eneral] P[ractioner] (‘doctor’) contains A + SLAM (‘strike’). | ||
| 6 | INDULGENCE |
Cryptic clue ending a treat (10)
|
| Anagram (‘cryptic’) of CLUE ENDING. | ||
| 7 | SCION |
Casino evicting a misbehaving child (5)
|
| Anagram (‘misbehaving’) of CaSINO without ‘A’. | ||
| 8 | MANIAS |
Cravings for Adam’s wine, brewed without dew (6)
|
| Anagram (‘brewed’) of ‘AdAMS wINe’ without letters of ‘DEW’. | ||
| 9 | BOGART |
Picture of the swamp appeared in 13 (6)
|
| In 13 toilets, graffiti are often of camels with uniquely horizontal backs. This is known as ‘hump-free bog art’. | ||
| 14 | SCIENTIFIC |
Methodical hospital department I found in Asimov’s books about . . . .. (10)
|
| SCI FI (as in books by Isaac Asimov) contains I + E[ar] N[ose] and T[hroat] (‘hospital dept’) then C[irca] (‘about’). | ||
| 17 | UNEARTHED |
. . . . the unread composition discovered (9)
|
| Anagram (‘composition’) of THE UNREAD. | ||
| 18 |
See 24
|
|
| 20 | BERGMAN |
Composer and novelist cut short female in 13 (7)
|
| Alban BERG, Austrian composer, + Thomas MANn, German author. Ingrid Bergman, Ilsa Lund in 13, is the most beautiful woman ever to have lived. (That’s not just my opinion. It’s a fact.) | ||
| 21 | CITING |
Spotting sound quotation (6)
|
| Homophone of ‘sighting’ (‘spotting’). | ||
| 22 | TARSUS |
American sailor’s first bone (6)
|
| US (‘American’) preceded by TARS (“sailor’s”). | ||
| 24, 18 | USUAL SUSPECTS |
They were rounded up in 13 (5,8)
|
| ‘Major Strasse has been shot. Round up the usual suspects’. Claud Raines’ finest moment in cinema. | ||
| 26 | FREE |
Unfettered right to intervene in appearance money (4)
|
| F.EE (‘appearance money’) contains R[ight]. |
Thank you Grant, I had no idea what was going on in 2D, not helped by misreading the enumeration as (3,6) and getting as far as AIR/_N_ROD before (correctly) assuming it would involve a combination of things beyond my GK (and beyond my ability to count, as it turns out). Luckily the rest proved manageable once I had remembered that BERGMAN rather than Bacall was the female star. Agree with your grumbles too but they were fairly minor (and thanks, I think, for the toilet humour!) – always good to be reminded of this great film so thanks Sayang, don’t think I have solved one of yours before, hopefully this is the beginning of a beautiful ‘friendship’!
Good to see Sayang back after an absence of about 2 1/2 years with a nice theme to kick off the FT year. I missed the parsing for the beautiful Ingrid but everything else made sense. I only knew AARONS ROD from past appearances in crosswords.
I take your point about ADVERB and PATERNAL but didn’t mind SILICONE. The ‘hump-free bog art’? Oh dear.
Thanks to Sayang and to Grant
My first Sayang too, and on this showing, a winner. Always love a film theme and this is a perennial favourite with (the) Usual Suspects also bringing to mind another enjoyable film (Gabriel Byrne/Kevin Spacey) and Cocteau into the bargain.
Like Wordplodder, Aaron’s Rod is one I’ve seen before in crossword land. The NW corner slipped in so effortlessly, it wasn’t far off being a write-in. I liked the reference to the ‘smiling woman’ in 28.
Thanks to Sayang and to Grant for that dash of bog humour. May be time to give Casablanca another airing…
Thanks Sayang (welcome back) and Grant
It has been a while, but it was good to get a more straightforward puzzle again after a series of ones that I have struggled with (and that doesn’t count the two Christmas / New Year ones that I haven’t started).
The theme did really bounce out – and I’m pretty sure that I have never watched it – must make It a 2022 task. Did smirk slightly at the audacity of 29a. Didn’t find ADVERB too bad, but did struggle to equate ‘protective’ as a direct synonym of paternal – you can be fatherly without necessarily being protective.
Rattled through the top half but slowed up a bit at the bottom, finishing with STUFF, MONARCHIC and FREE.
I enjoyed encountering Sayang again. There have been about thirty of his puzzles in the FT, but as WordPlodder says @2, this is the first for about two and a half years. He used to be a blogger on this site under the name of Uncle Yap.
Ah Thanks Uncle Yap-I knew you set puzzles but a long time between drinks
Welcome back
Hadn’t encountered Sayang, found it most enjoyable. 2d was the only one that floored me. Grant, did you mean to underline “hospital” in 14d?
Thanks for the blog, very enjoyable puzzle ,many neat and clever clues.
I had SCIENTIFIC very slightly different, ENT + I in SCI ….. FI , does not really matter but I think Geoff@7 is right about a stray underlining.
ACD
Thanks to Sayang and Grant. Great fun. I rarely spot a theme, but this time I not only spotted it, starting with 1-4 across, not the movie title, but also having it help me get the three others where otherwise I would have struggled. LOI was SILICONE where I needed all the crossers.
Except for AARONS ROD this was pretty much a write-in, albeit an enjoyable one. Favourite clue was MONARCHIC. Thanks to both.
Our second themed crossword today (after the Indy) and just as delightful as the first. Thanks, Sayang and Grant.
Yes, a very pleasant puzzle and useful blog – so thanks to Sayang and Grant.
Favourites were MONARCHIC and SCIENTIFIC.
Agree with brucew re some challenging offerings over the last couple of weeks.
Definitely a top three film (and classic theme tune) for me and thanks to Diane – Usual Suspects will be watched this week.
Finally, welcome back to the FT and the crossword!
Sorry to go against the grain, but I thought this was an awful puzzle. 26/32 solutions on first pass does not make for a challenge.