This must have been my quickest ever solve of a Cinephile puzzle, with three quarters of the grid being filled during my first pass through the clues and the rest during the second. I was helped by solving 1ac immediately which revealed the theme.
That said, I spent longer parsing some of the clues than I did solving them (14dn in particular) and there are still one or two that I cannot fully explain.
Across
1 Parent in employment? On the contrary – M (6)
MUSEUM – USE (employment) in MUM (parent)
4 Intermittently belonging to supporter fellow (3,3,2)
OFF AND ON – OF (belonging to) FAN (supporter) DON (fellow)
9 Second in warning of M with 18 (6)
ALBERT – B (second) in ALERT (warning)
10 Be prominent and plump outside (5,3)
STAND OUT – STOUT (plump) around (outside) AND
12 Most of see enters lake, which is not so good (8)
MEDIOCRE – DIOC[ese] (most of see) in (enters) MERE (lake)
13 Girdle used by quiet flier (6)
GLIDER – anagram (used by) of GIRDLE
15 List of duties when climbing a hill (4)
ROTA – A TOR (a hill) reversed (climbing) – presumably this was originally written as a down clue
16 Immobile articles in shop next to checkout (5,5)
STOCK STILL – STOCKS (articles in shop) TILL (checkout)
19 I leave Kitchener or Profumo in Wiltshire (10)
WARMINSTER – WAR MIN[i]STER (I leave Kitchener or Profumo)
20, 23 Stresses hairstyle of stars? (10)
HIGHLIGHTS – def. and cryptic indicator
25 A container like this is prickly (8)
ACANTHUS – A CAN (container) THUS (like this)
27 Crime not committed by short range phone (8)
INTERCOM – anagram (committed) of CRIME NOT – ‘committed’ as an anagram indicator?
28 Go round largely decayed fancy cave (6)
GROTTO – GO around ROTT[en] (largely decayed)
29 Fool entertained by editor of periodical treated by hand (8)
MASSAGED – ASS (fool) in (entertained by) MAG ED (editor of periodical)
30 Great success in river like your average road system (3-3)
TWO-WAY – WOW (great success) in TAY (river)
Down
1 Army man moved to the Far East (7)
MYANMAR – anagram (moved) of ARMY MAN – Myanmar is a country in the Far East but the definition is somewhat vague
2 Proposer keeping marriage symbol from journalist (9)
SUBEDITOR – SUITOR (proposer) around (keeping) BED (marriage symbol)
3 Eradicate expert in outbuilding (6)
UPROOT – PRO (expert) in anagram (building) of OUT
5, 19 M goes well, as they say, with leaving document to smallest hour (11)
FITZ WILLIAM – homophone (as they say) of ‘fits’ (goes well) WILL (leaving document) 1AM (smallest hour)
6 One who makes records shrink, say? (8)
ANNALIST – homophone of ‘analyst’ (shrink)
7 Mysterious Dickensian starting down with a cross? (5)
DROOD – D[own] (starting down) ROOD (cross)
8, 21 M’s genuine past? (7,7)
NATURAL HISTORY – NATURAL (genuine) HISTORY (past)
11 M in prelate about to go slow shortly (7)
BRITISH – BISH[op] (prelate … shortly) around (about) RIT (to go slow) – the ‘shortly’ could be indicating that ‘rit’ is an abbreviation but I cannot find any support for ‘bish’ being a slang term for ‘bishop’ so I must assume that the instruction is to put ‘rit’ in ‘bishop’ and then shorten the result
14 M conned by superego? (7)
SCIENCE – if you add ‘con’ (conned) to this you get ‘conscience’ which can be synonymous with ‘superego’
17 Dish the flag when the south-west goes west ? (5,4)
IRISH STEW – IRIS (flag {flower}) anagram (goes west) of THE SW
18 Queen of M with 9 (8)
VICTORIA – cryptic def.
22 Patron of Scotland rewards devotees (6)
ANDREW – hidden in (of) ‘scotlAND REWards’ – Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland but I don’t see where the ‘devotees’ fits in
24 Bill for admission? (5)
GATES – double def.
26 Book that I received? (4)
TOME – TO ME (that I received?)
Thanks Gaufrid and Cinephile,
I had a similar, rapid solving experience.
I couldn’t parse SCIENCE, so thanks for that!
I saw HIGHLIGHTS as a triple definition, or double definition plus cryptic indicator (emphasises, coloured bits in hair and stars up in the sky).
“Bish” is used as short for “Bishop” by PG Wodehouse, and perhaps others.
I liked FITZWILLIAM a lot.
Thanks Gaufrid.
After reading your preamble I was hoping for a quick solve today. Unfortunately, 1 across
took me far too long for a good time!
I couldn’t parse SCIENCE either, so thanks from me too!
BRITISH: I think the clue reads better as an abbreviation of ‘Ritardando’ in ‘Bish’ using Muffyword’s
information @1.
ANDREW: devote – to use a certain amount of space or time to cover, say, a topic under discussion.
I read AND and REW as parts of the word ANDREW devoted in this sense.