Computer that accurately predicted Ike's 1952 election / WED 7-12-17 / Modern-day remake of WC Fields film / Gardner who wrote Case of the Negligent Nymph / Animals that provided hair used in Chewbacca's costume / Kind of boid that catches the woim

Constructor: Elayne Boosler and Patrick Merrell

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: Modern-day remakes— famous 20th-century film titles with updated (i.e. "remade," i.e. 21st-century) title elements, and then a revealer that is also "remade": GMO POPCORN (?!) (60A: ... and something to eat while watching the remakes)

Theme answers:

• UBER DRIVER (18A: Modern-day remake of a Robert DeNiro film?)
• THE PAYPAL DICK (28A: Modern-day remake of a W.C. Fields film?)
• HOLIDAY AIRBNB (Modern-day remake of a Bing Crosby film?)

Word of the Day:"The Bank Dick"(See 28A) —

The Bank Dick (released as The Bank Detective in the United Kingdom) is a 1940 comedy film. Set in Lompoc, California, W. C. Fields plays a character named Egbert Sousé who trips a bank robber and ends up a security guard as a result. The character is a drunk who must repeatedly remind people in exasperation that his name is pronounced "Sousé – accent grave [sic] over the 'e'!", because people keep calling him "Souse" (slang for drunkard). In addition to bank and family scenes, it features Fields pretending to be a film director and ends in a chaotic car chase. The Bank Dick is considered a classic of his work, incorporating his usual persona as a drunken henpecked husband with a shrewish wife, disapproving mother-in-law, and savage children. // The film was written by Fields, using the alias Mahatma Kane Jeeves (derived from the Broadway drawing-room comedy cliche, "My hat, my cane, Jeeves!"), and directed by Edward F. Cline. Shemp Howard, one of the Three Stooges, plays a bartender. // In 1992, The Bank Dick was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". (wikipedia)

This had highs, lows, and creamy middle—just like a good, or at least entertaining—film, I guess. From the jump it was hard, because of the Funny. Not surprising to see an abundance of wacky, quirky, "?"-type clues when the co-constructor is a comedian, but (for me) they drove the difficulty level up. Even the simple (and comedian-related) 1D: Give it up, so to speak (CLAP) had me falling on my face, as I had the "C" and instantly guessed CEDE. Had no idea what was going on with DANNO until the last cross (65A: Guy with a lot of bookings?). Still have no idea what 42D: Film lovers may run in it? means (SLO-MO!?!? Maybe if you specifically love "Chariots of Fire," I guess, but ...?). Had trouble seeing through tricky vagueness of 42A: Completely busted (SHOT). Clue on BODYSCAN also too general for me to understand it for a while (39D: T.S.A. screening). I guess it's funny to end with GMO POPCORN (takes "remake" to a different level), but GMO doesn't really replace anything in a familiar phrase (i.e. it doesn't fit the theme pattern), so it felt cheap / off / wrong. Please don't tell me GMO replaces "fresh" or "hot" because GMO POPCORN (?) (whatever that is) can be both. Another wonky thing about the theme: UBER DRIVER is a very real thing, where the others are ridiculous not-real things (and therefore, in this context, Much better—go wacky or go home). How many sub Gen-X people have even heard of "The Bank Dick"!?!? I am a TCM addict, so I managed to suss it out OK, but I can see that answer giving solvers a ton of trouble, just because that is by far the least familiar film of the bunch ("Holiday Inn," also, if you're not a big old movie buff, not exactly common knowledge (anymore)).


The worst thing for me about this puzzle was I fell into a terrible trap that I'm sure hardly anyone else fell in, but I know ... I pray ... that at least one other solver out there, somewhere, had this exact, insane experience: I wrote in RUBON for 15A: Apply, as lotion (RUB IN)—since That Is The Phrase I Would Use—and then ended up with FORE at the beginning of what looked very very very much like a golf clue (8D: What may have a dog leg to the left or right?). So I never, ever (ever) questioned the FORE part. Had *&%^ing FOREPLAY in there at one point, and ended up with FOREPLUG. Since "fire hydrant" is The Phrase That I Would Use, the idea that FOREPLUG was an obvious misspelling of FIREPLUG ... never occurred to me. I do not play golf, so I just assumed FOREPLUG was some dumb golf term I didn't know. The End. Too bad, because the FIREPLUG clue is pretty cute. And if the "I" cross had been clear *or* the wacky "?" clue hadn't contained a golf term ("dog leg"), I would've been able (ABEL!) to get an appreciate it. But instead I fell into a pretty hilarious hole and never got out. Game over. You have an error. So sorry. Better luck next time.


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. that clue on OILY is four-star (45D: Kind of boid that catches the woim?)

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