11
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I've curated a nice selection of Christmas movies on tape and DVD. Unfortunately, what I wrote on each one was not the film's title but a subtitle that I had made up for it.* Oh, and the year of release. See if you can find the correct title for each one.

  1. A cut that bled through its adhesive bandage (1973)
  2. … farewell, I think. I mean, Jesse Owens was outta there like, well, Jesse Owens. (1982)
  3. Get Tony to chill out (2001)
  4. Gorilla, Canis, Apis, and so on (1926)
  5. Herr Auch's "Rechenmaschine" (1990)
  6. Lost a brother, mourned for seven days (2010)
  7. Peroxide, cyanide, bicarbonate, and bromide (2010)
  8. Previously "her", now identifying as agender (1999)
  9. The beginning of Rijsel (or Lille) (1951)
  10. The Reliant Regal… now, that was truly weird (1968)
  11. The Southern Ocean, maybe? I guess it depends how you count them. (1957)
  12. They sandbagged the shoreline and saved the island (1970)
  13. This reddish thing? Oh, I carry it around for good luck. Found the poor guy dead in the woods, and cut it off of him. (1989)
  14. Those sneakers really are silent! (2018)
  15. Very funny. Now quit kidding around and get your gun (1977)
  16. Wisk. It gets ring-around-the-collar and your whole wash clean. (2017)
  17. Y'know, like The Art of Racing in the Rain or The Last Family in England (1994)
  18. Yeah, that square has nothing crossing it, but, still, only certain letters can go there. Wait, is this sudoku or…? (1991)

* By "subtitle" I mean like the second part of "Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor".

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1 Answer 1

12
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This is a tricksy puzzle, and depending on your level of knowledge can involve a terrific amount of trawling the Web for answers! (It kept me thoroughly entertained last night while waiting for the kids to fall asleep so Father Christmas could come... It genuinely took one of them until 1:40am... And I've come back quickly this morning to try and finish it off in a very sleep-deprived state.)

I'm just missing one answer (#9)...

The trick to this puzzle is that these movie descriptions...

...are not of 'Christmas films' in the typical sense of movies having a Christmas setting or theme. Instead, they are of imagined plots of movies if all instances of the letter 'L' in their title are removed. i.e. they are No 'L' ("Noel") movies!

They should be resolved as follows:

1. A cut that bled through its adhesive bandage (1973) S(L)EEPER
2. … farewell, I think. I mean, Jesse Owens was outta there like, well, Jesse Owens. (1982) B(L)ADE RUNNER
3. Get Tony to chill out (2001) B(L)ACK HAWK DOWN
4. Gorilla, Canis, Apis, and so on (1926) THE GENERA(L)
5. Herr Auch's "Rechenmaschine" (1990) JACOB’S (L)ADDER
6. Lost a brother, mourned for seven days (2010) SA(L)T
7. Peroxide, cyanide, bicarbonate, and bromide (2010) FOUR (L)IONS
8. Previously "her", now identifying as agender (1999) SHE’S A(LL) THAT
9. The beginning of Rijsel (or Lille) (1951) (still unsolved)
10. The Reliant Regal… now, that was truly weird (1968) THE ODD COUP(L)E
11. The Southern Ocean, maybe? I guess it depends how you count them. (1957) THE SEVENTH SEA(L)
12. They sandbagged the shoreline and saved the island (1970) KE(LL)Y’S HEROES
13. This reddish thing? Oh, I carry it around for good luck. Found the poor guy dead in the woods, and cut it off of him. (1989) MY (L)EFT FOOT
14. Those sneakers really are silent! (2018) A QUIET P(L)ACE
15. Very funny. Now quit kidding around and get your gun (1977) ANNIE HA(LL)
16. Wisk. It gets ring-around-the-collar and your whole wash clean. (2017) THE DEATH OF STA(L)IN
17. Y'know, like The Art of Racing in the Rain or The Last Family in England (1994) PU(L)P FICTION
18. Yeah, that square has nothing crossing it, but, still, only certain letters can go there. Wait, is this sudoku or…? (1991) NAKED (L)UNCH

My order of solving:

In the night: 11, 15, 14, 4, 10, 13, 1, 2, 7, 17, 8
The next morning, reinvigorated to some extent: 3, 12, 16, 5, 6, 18, (9 still to go)

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  • $\begingroup$ For #9, I wasn't completely fair, since the clue is referring rot13(abg gb gur pvgl vgfrys ohg gb vgf anzrf, fb gung V fubhyq'ir chg gur anzrf va dhbgngvba znexf be vgnyvpf). $\endgroup$
    – msh210
    Dec 26, 2022 at 4:10

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