Theme:
Surprise Endings - The ending of each made-up film is an anagram of the last word of a well-known movie.
24A. Film about a soft-hearted creature?:
TENDER IS THE THING. Thing/Night anagram. "Tender is the Night" is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
32A. Film about a computer supervisor?:
LORD OF THE FILES. Files/Flies anagram. I've never heard of the novel "
Lord of the Flies". It's written by British novelist William Golding, Nobel Literature winner 1983.
51A. Film about Los Angeles losing its NFL team?:
A FAREWELL TO RAMS. Rams/Arms anagram. "A Farewell to Arms" is a novel by Hemingway. The Rams moved from LA to St. Louis in 1995. I faintly remember this trivia.
69A. Film about Broadway beginners?:
WEST SIDE TYROS. Tyros/Story anagram. The musical "West Side Story". Tyro means "beginner".
87A. Film about Santa enjoying his holiday cigar?:
A CHRISTMAS CLARO. Claro/Carol anagram. "A Christmas Carol" is a novel by Dickens.
Claro is a mild cigar.
105. Film about a home run derby?:
DAY OF THE CLOUTS. Clouts/Locust anagram. "
The Day of the Locust" is a novel by Nathanael West. Another unknown to me. Shouldn't there be a "The" in the theme answer then? Clout is a powerful hit/home run in baseball.
116. Film about gardening options?:
PLACES IN THE EARTH. Earth/Heart anagram. Not familiar the movie "
Places in the Heart" either. Looks like a strong cast.
Very "Surprising Endings" indeed.
Did you grok the theme immediately? I did not until I got A CHRISTMAS
CLAROL. Bollixed quite a few fill, but was able to solve the puzzle with mild cheating.
Always a great feeling to finish a Robert H. Wolfe puzzle. I tend to have difficulty getting into his wavelength.
Across: 1. Make __: match the scorecard, in golf:
A PAR. And
TEE (9D. Elevator on the links?). Links = golf course.
5. Little hooters:
OWLETS11. Two pages:
LEAF. Oh my, I thought LEAF is only one page.
15. Second Greek letter:
BETA. Alpha, beta and gamma.
19. Dieter's word:
LITE. And
CALORIE (43A. Heat measure). I connect CALORIE with food consumption rather than the heat it food produces.
21. Being, in old Rome:
ESSE22. Indiana senator
Bayh:
EVAN.
Gimme. Senator Bayh (pronounced like by) is a Democrat.
23. Gangsters' guns:
GATS. Or RODS. "Gangsters' girls" is MOLLS.
27. Studio sign:
ON AIR29. Chem., for one:
SCI. Hated chemistry while in school. Had a very menacing teacher.
30. Chicago-to-Louisville
dir.:
SSE31. Name on an armored truck:
BRINKS. Wow, I've never paid attention to
the name on those armoured truck.
36. Small surgical knife:
LANCET. New to me. Rooted in Lance. SCALPEL is "Small surgical knife" too.
37. Landlocked Afr. land:
ETH (
Ethiopia). Two other African landlocked countries are Lesotho and Swaziland.
49. Certain
Prot.:
EPIS (Episcopal). Saw this abbreviation somewhere before.
58. Continue after a setback, as one's life:
GET ON WITH61. Jack-in-the-pulpit family:
ARUM. Nailed it today.
62. Clean a spill:
MOP UP63. Poker action:
RAISE64. Scary film staple:
MONSTER67. Flat-topped rise:
MESA. Also a city in Arizona.
68. Picture-taking word ending:
CAM. As in
webcam/
skycam.
74. Some NFL linemen:
RTS (Right Tackles)
75. Publisher Chandler:
OTIS. No idea.
Wikipedia says
this guy was the publisher of LA Times between 1960 and 1980.
77. Chews out:
BERATES78. __ Major: Great Dog constellation:
CANIS. Latin for "dog".
80. 1/60 of a dram:
MINIM. New word to me. Related to minimum I suppose.
82. Kennel home:
CAGE83. Pretended to have written earlier, as a letter:
BACKDATES91. Fishing spot:
PIER92. Glaswegian gal:
LASS. Alliteration.
93. Drip from a bad pipe:
LEAK OUT. Verb phrase.
96. Tallahassee sch.:
FSU (Florida State University). The Seminoles.
97. Listless:
MOPEY100. Salt Lake City Olympics year:
MMII (2002)
102. Command to Spot:
SIT. Could be SIC.
104. Artist friend of Max Ernst:
MAN RAY. Not a familiar name to me.
He was a surrealist photographer. Full name in clue = Full name in answer.
112. Maintain:
ALLEGE113. Hairy Addams cousin:
ITT114. Harry Potter's pal:
RON. Easy guess. Have never read any Harry Potter series. You've probably guessed from Jazzbumpa's IRON/I RON wordplay that his real name is Ron.
115. Wreck completely:
TOTAL121. Harley or Honda:
BIKE122. Filmmaker Riefenstahl:
LENI. Most famous for her "Triumph of the Will" for Hitler. I remember
her name by
associating her with Lenin.
123. Forest feature:
TREE125. Away from the wind:
ALEE126. LAX listings:
ETDS. ETD = Estimated Time of Departure.
127. Things in locks:
OARS. Wanted KEYS. Good clue.
128. Ad with a credit card bill, e.g.:
INSERT129. Ding, but not dong:
DENT. Good clue too.
Down:1. Star in Perseus:
ALGOL (
AL-gol). Unknown to me. Also called the Demon Star. Al is Arabic for "the". Gol is from Ghoul, evil demon. Related to Gorgon Medusa, who was killed by Perseus (
PUR-see-uhs).
2. Grand, perhaps:
PIANO. Ah, we just had "Upright, for one" the other day.
3. Rose oil:
ATTAR6. Take away forcibly:
WREST7. Something to do with a business associate?:
LUNCH. Oh, I misinterpreted the clue, thinking of something "of a business associate".
8. Comic
Izzard:
EDDIE. No idea. He is
a British comic, born in
ADEN (38A: Port in Yemen).
10. Pol. letters until 1991:
SSR (Soviet Socialist Republic)
11. Abate:
LESSEN12. Politico
Kefauver:
ESTES. Adlai Stevenson's 1956 running mate.
13. Light gray:
ASH14. Most frail:
FEEBLEST15. Losing:
BEHIND. Ha ha, Tigers lost again! And Twins won. Poor
Jazzbumpa.
16. Demonstrate:
EVINCE. Know this word. Have never used it though.
17. Failed suddenly, in slang:
TANKED18. Emotional strife:
ANGST. Too much ANGST in rap.
26. Window over a door:
TRANSOM. Just learned the phrase "over the transom" the other day.
28. Campus recruiters, briefly:
ROTC33. Govt. loan insurer:
FHA (Federal Housing Administration). I drew a blank.
34. Pleasant forecast:
FAIR35. Nice notion?:
IDEE. Nice is the city in SE France.
41. Like music composed for a libretto:
OPERATIC42. Another name for biotin:
VITAMIN H. Big
stumper. Did not know the meaning of biotin. Have never heard of Vitamin H either. It's a water-soluble B-
complex vitamin.
44. Chou En-__:
LAI. China's first premier.
LAI is literally "come" in Chinese.
45. Frequently, in verse:
OFT46. Cheering cry:
RAH. Not OLE.
47. High-pitched:
FLUTY. I checked, it's a real word.
48. Dramatist Rice:
ELMER. No idea.
Wikipedia says
he received Pulitzer for Drama for his 1929 play "Street Scene".
50. "__ lied":
SO I. Wrote down YOU, influenced by Congressman Joe Wilson.
52. Diminishes:
WANES. Mine was FADES.
53. Formerly, formerly:
ERST.55.
Pre-meal drink:
APERITIF. Not for me.
56. Attractions not to be missed:
MUST-SEES57. Baden-Baden
et al.:
SPAS. Baden-Baden is a German spa town. Baden is German for "bathe". Totally unknown to me. Was it a gimme for you
, Kazie?
59. Sydney's state: Abbr.:
NSW (New South Wales). Definitely a gimme for
Kazie.
60. Hall of Fame NFL coach
Ewbank:
WEEB. Nope.
Strange name.
64. Tiny parasites:
MITES. GNATS have 5 letters too.
66. Music with many
subgenres:
ROCK.
Emo is a kind of ROCK.
68. Long time out:
COMA. And
NAP (79D. Short time out). Nice echo.
70. Religious factions:
SECTS. Like
Shia, Sunni.
71. Ore cars:
TRAMS72. Long tale:
SAGA. Epic too.
73. Low:
SAD76. Round Table title:
SIR. Don't let it be forgot/That once there was a spot/For one brief shining moment that was known/As Camelot.
81. Used-car datum:
MILEAGE83. Call to Bo-Peep:
BAA.
Nursery rhyme. "Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep..."
84. First rescue boat:
ARK. Noah's ARK is the first ever rescue boat.
86. Actress Joanne:
DRU. She's in "All the King's Men".
88. Accept, as a marriage proposal:
SAY YES TO89. Ad writer's award:
CLIO. Muse of history.
90. Explorer
Ericson:
LEIF. The first European to land in North America. Same pronunciation as LIEF (willingly).
94. Trojans' sch.:
USC (University of Southern California)
95. Incline:
TILT97. Croquet striker:
MALLET. Mostly wooden-headed.
98. Off the boat:
ON LAND99. Summary:
PRECIS (prey-SEE). Rooted in precise. APERCU is "Summary" too.
100. Dull finishes:
MATTES101. Tale involving Greek gods, e.g.:
MYTH103. "That's a shame":
TOO BAD105. Eatery traditionally modeled after a rail car:
DINER 109. Of service:
UTILE110. Like a movie seat with a coat on it:
TAKEN111. Winter fall:
SLEET117. S&L offering:
IRA (Individual Retirement Account)
119. Suffix with Caesar:
EAN.
Caesarean. C-Section.
120. He followed FDR:
HST. "The buck stops here".
Answer grid.C.C.