Problematics | Dinner with Oscar non-winners

Every fan of international cinema will have mixed feelings about the Oscars. These are the most widely followed awards in cinema, and indeed we wait each year to see if the films we liked got honoured or not, and to prepare a must-see list from among the films we have not seen. On the other hand, a never-ending pet peeve of film lovers is about the films, the actors, the actresses and directors who get ignored. There are many examples. People never stop grumbling about Citizen Kane (1941) being denied Best Picture, and of Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin never winning for Best Director. Other exceptions include actors Peter O’Toole (8 nominations) and actresses Deborah Kerr (6) and Glenn Close (8) never getting an Oscar for Best Actor or Actress. While Close still has a chance to cross that barrier, Hitchcock, Chaplin, O’Toole and Kerr are no longer with us. They are among the celebs being celebrated by our Oscar puzzle this week.

Puzzle #128.1

A dinner brings together the teams of five films that did not win the Oscar for Best Picture. The films belong to five different genres, and each team includes the director, an actor and an actress, none of whom ever won the Oscars in their respective categories. Each team is seated at a table, numbered #1 to #5 from left to right.

In the following clues, the actors, actresses and directors are named after real-life deceased personalities who never won an Oscar for Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director respectively. The five films being named are actually the titles of popular movies that did not win Best Picture. However, a couple of disclaimers are in order. In real life, these celebs were not associated with these films, and these films actually belong to genres that are different from what is being indicated by these clues:

1. The actors include Peter O'Toole (Table #2) and Cary Grant (Table #3).

2. Actress Marlene Dietrich and actor Kirk Douglas are in the same team.

3. Actor James Stewart and actress Greta Garbo are in different teams.

4. Actress Deborah Kerr and director Charlie Chaplin are at adjacent tables.

5. Stanley Kubrick is the director who cast actress Judy Garland in his film.

6. Actor Richard Burton’s team is immediately left of director Oscar Welles’s team.

7. Stanley Kubrick’s team is immediately right of the Enter the Dragon team.

8. Director David Lynch made one of the films, which is not the western.

9. Director Alfred Hitchcock’s team is at one of the two end tables.

10. Dirty Harry is a sci-fi movie; The Terminator is of another genre.

11. Cary Grant’s team and the romance film teams are at adjacent tables.

12. The comedy team is seated immediately left of the Enter the Dragon team.

13. Charlie Chaplin’s table is somewhere right of Deborah Kerr’s table and somewhere left of the Dirty Harry team.

14. The Enter the Dragon team is at table #3.

15. From left to right, the horror film team, the Die Hard team and the sci-fi film team are at consecutive tables.

16. From left to right, the Rambo team, Charlie Chaplin’s team and actress Marilyn Monroe’s team are at consecutive tables.

Which team of which film of which genre sits at which table, and who are the members of each? A tabular presentation, as usual, will make it easier for me to read your answers.

Puzzle #128.2

Here is a simple puzzle based on a trick many of us will have played on friends at school. Ask a friend to write down any five-digit number not ending in 0. The trick will also work with more digits or fewer, but specifying the number as five (or six if you witch) helps create that extra effect tricksters strive for.

Ask the friend to add the five digits and subtract the sum from the five-digit number. From the result, ask them to remove any one digit and tell you the remaining digits. You immediately announce which digit was crossed out.

This sitter would become even simpler if I asked you how the trick is done. So, rather than how, why does it work?

MAILBOX: LAST WEEK’S SOVERS

#Puzzle 127.1

The three drank beer, rum and whisky respectively. Thus the first two are liars and the third is telling the truth. This solution is unique. If the first were truthful, the second too would become truthful. If with the first a liar the second were truthful, the third too would become truthful. Hence the first two are lairs and the third is truthful. The second being a liar means he took rum. The third being truthful took whisky and the first beer.

— Kanwarjit Singh, Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax (retired)

#Puzzle 127.2

Hello Kabir,

Interesting puzzles. The second one with the crossword was pretty-time consuming. Thanks for keeping us busy.

— Dr Sunita Gupta, Delhi

The second puzzle of last week was apparently tougher than I had expected it to be. Apart from Dr Gupta above, another regular reader has solved it and said it was tough, while one more was actually unable to complete it.

Solved both puzzles: Kanwarjit Singh, Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax (retired), Dr Sunita Gupta (Delhi), Yadvendra Somra (Sonipat), Professor Anshul Kumar (Delhi), Aishwarya Rajarathinam (Coimbatore)

Solved Puzzle #127.1: Dr Vivek Jain (Baroda), Sanjay Gupta (Delhi), YK Munjal (Delhi), Ajay Ashok (Delhi)

Problematics will be back next week. Please send in your replies by Friday noon to problematics@hindustantimes.com.