MAD Launch Contest Puzzles — Answers

MAD Launch Contest Puzzles
MAD Launch Contest Winners & Recap
MAD Launch Contest Answers:

MMX

Crossword solution:

The instructions for the final answer to the MMX crossword puzzle:

      Astute solvers (like you) will note that two clues in the crossword are anagrams
      of each other, with their answers, taken together, forming the title of a 1978 film
      that is consistent in a way with ten of the Across answers in the grid.  The full
      ten-letter film title is the MMX final answer.

The anagrammed clues:

      73-Across:  “Toy Story” or “The Women,” e.g.
      64-Down:  “The Omen,” “Toys,” “Troy,” or “W.,” e.g.

      94-Across [E-cars] and 99-Across [Scare] also were anagrammed clues but their answers didn’t work for the final answer.

The final answer:  

      MOVIE MOVIE

If you would like to have an unlocked Across Lite version of the MMX puzzle, here it is:

     MMX (.puz)
 

FilmFest 101

The Five Weekly Hints

Movie Minute No. 1  (1/1/10) / Screening 21
Two of the characters with reduplicated names were roles for the same actor.

Movie Minute No. 5  (1/7/10) / Screening 16
Two of the people who are namesakes of presidents were major league ballplayers.  (It’ll help to know their full name.)

Movie Minute No. 9  (1/13/10) / Screening 23
Two movies released 30 years apart share the same title, each featuring a different Our Gang actor.  (There’s one other film title with an Our Gang actor.)

Movie Minute No. 13  (1/19/10) / Screening 20
I had a hint for you about those characters with amnesia, but it seems to have slipped my mind…well, anyway, three of their five films start with the same letter.

Movie Minute No. 17  (1/25/10) / Final Screening
The final answer to the puzzle is the title of the American remake of a 1973 film.

The Screenings
(at least two, and as many as five, films per screening)

1. Film titles with two letter M’s (2)
        Dial M for Murder
        The Pajama Game
2. Films starring one-named singer-actors (includes singer-actresses) (5)
        8 Mile (Eminem, along with Proof and Xzibit)
        Around the World in Eighty Days (Cantinflas)
        Dancer in the Dark (Björk)
        Les Enfants du Paradis (Arletty)
        Mask (Cher)
3. Films for which Bruce Springsteen composed and performed original songs (3)
        Dead Man Walking
        Philadelphia
        The Wrestler
4. Films in which Hitchcock cameos feature musical instruments (3)
        The Paradine Case (carrying a cello as he leaves the train station)
        Rear Window (winding a clock behind the songwriter at the piano)
        Strangers on a Train (carrying a double bass as he boards a train)
5. Film titles that are names of trains (4)
        The General
        The Polar Express
        Silver Streak
        Twentieth Century
6. Films with scenes of motorcycle crashes involving main characters (3)
        The Great Escape
        I’m Not There
        Lawrence of Arabia
7. Films with protagonists named McQueen (2)
        Cars (Lightning McQueen)
        Odd Man Out (Johnny McQueen)
8. Films with a color of the Irish flag in the title (3)
        A Clockwork Orange
        How Green Was My Valley
        White Heat
9. Films set primarily in Australia (5)
        On the Beach
        Picnic at Hanging Rock
        Rabbit-Proof Fence
        Shine
        Walkabout
10. Films directed by women (5)
         Big (Penny Marshall)
         Cléo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda)
         Harlan County, U.S.A. (Barbara Kopple)
         The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino)
         The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
11. Films directed by men named Mann (3)
         Marty (Delbert Mann)
         Public Enemies (Michael Mann)
         T-Men (Anthony Mann)
12. Films based (loosely) on works of Shakespeare (5)
         10 Things I Hate About You (The Taming of the Shrew)
         Forbidden Planet (The Tempest)
         Ran (King Lear)
         Throne of Blood (Macbeth)
         West Side Story (Romeo and Juliet)
13. Italian films that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes (3)
         La Dolce Vita
         The Leopard
         The Tree of Wooden Clogs
14. French films that won the Golden Lion at Venice (3)
         Au Revoir les Enfants
         Belle de Jour
         Last Year at Marienbad
15. Films from before 1920 in the National Film Registry (5)
         Broken Blossoms
         Gertie the Dinosaur
         Intolerance
         The Great Train Robbery
         The Kiss
16. Biopics about people who are namesakes of U.S. presidents (4)
         Bound for Glory (Woodrow Wilson “Woody” Guthrie)
         The Stratton Story (Monty Franklin Pierce Stratton)
         The Winning Team (Grover Cleveland Alexander, played by Ronald Reagan)
         W. (George W. Bush, a president and the namesake of a president)
17. Films featuring African-American presidents (3)
         2012 (Danny Glover)
         Deep Impact (Morgan Freeman)
         The Man (James Earl Jones)
18. Films about the news biz (3)
         Absence of Malice
         His Girl Friday
         Network
19. Films with characters who get a new face through surgery (3)
         Dark Passage
         Eyes Without a Face
         Face/Off
20. Films about characters with amnesia (5)
         The Bourne Identity
         Mirage
         Mr. Arkadin
         Mulholland Drive
         Random Harvest
21. Films with key characters who have reduplicated (i.e., repeating) names (4)
         And Now… Ladies and Gentlemen… (Valentin Valentin*)
         Catch-22 (Major Major Major, and after his promotion from captain, he’s Major Major Major Major)
         Lolita (Humbert Humbert*)
         The Blue Angel (Lola Lola)
         * Both were roles for Jeremy Irons
22. Films with key characters named Wallace (3)
         Braveheart (William Wallace)
         Pulp Fiction (Mia and Marsellus Wallace)
         The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Wallace of Wallace and Gromit)
23. Films featuring Our Gang actors in adult roles (2)
         In Cold Blood (Robert Blake)
         Superman (1948: Tommy Bond, as Jimmy Olsen; 1978: Jackie Cooper, as Perry White)
24. Films featuring the line “What a dump!” (3)
         Beyond the Forest
         Fallen Angel
         Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
25. Films with Kevin Bacon (4)
         Diner
         Frost/Nixon
         Mystic River
         Planes, Trains and Automobiles

The Final Screening

          Hotel Rwanda (2004)
          American Beauty (1999)
          Prizzi’s Honor (1985)
          Patton (1970)
          Yojimbo (1961)
          North by Northwest (1959)
          Easter Parade (1948)
          Wuthering Heights (1939)
          You’re Darn Tootin’ (1928)
          Easy Street (1917)
          A Trip to the Moon (1902)
          Repas de Bébé (1895)

The FilmFest 101 Final Answer

           HAPPY NEW YEAR

Favorite Film

The final answer to the Favorite Film “puzzle” is the answer to the following question:

What is your favorite new film of 2009?

Later this week I’ll have a post with responses to the Favorite Film part of the contest.  [Update:  That post you can find here.]