CiSRA Puzzle Competition 2010 - Solutions

1A. The Third Down Below

It should be possible to recognise some movie title fragments from parts of the list, such as "Nanook of the ...", "... Meets the Wolf Man", and so on. A quick trip to the Internet Movie Database or other places on the Internet should confirm this, fill in some of the more obscure titles, and establish that each line consists of two partial film titles.

A further insight should reveal that there is a third movie title that fits in between each pair, using the words added to make the first two movies, plus one or more additional words. The pattern is also demonstrated by the puzzle title, "The Third Down Below":

The Third Man - Man On Fire - Fire Down Below

Finding all the movies in the puzzle gives the following:

Nanook of the North	North by Northwest	West Side Story
The Princess Bride	Bride of Frankenstein	Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
Operation Dumbo Drop	Drop Dead Fred	Fred Claus
To Die For	For Your Eyes Only	Only The Lonely
A Time To Kill	To Kill a Mockingbird	Bird on a Wire
Three Nights on a Saturday	Saturday Night Fever	Fever Pitch
Bad Boys	Boys Don't Cry	Cry Freedom
Sucker Punch	Punch-Drunk Love	Love, Actually
Heaven Can Wait	Wait Until Dark	Dark Star
Life Is Sweet	Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song	Song of the South
Very Bad Things	Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead	Dead Man Walking

Examining the middle part of the middle movie (ie. the part that is not shared with the outer movie titles) reveals:

By North

Of

Dead

Your Eyes

A Mocking

Night

Don't

-Drunk

Until

Sweetback's Badasssss

To Do In Denver When You're

The initials spell the phrase "BODY AND DUST".

Trying to apply the same rule again and splitting this into two parts potentially gives:

Body and Soul - ? - Stardust

However this does not lead to any movie title in the middle. There are a few other films ending in "Dust", but again, none of those lead to a movie title in the middle. The correct approach is to move the "and" to the other side:

Body Heat - ? - Heat and Dust

This approach gives the same word on both sides, emphasising its importance. In fact Heat is the name of a famous Michael Mann film. It's also what a man on fire would be feeling, tying back into the puzzle title.

HEAT is the answer.