This puzzle is a list of movie titles with something in common. The movie titles have been broken into “doublets”, and the doublets then alphabetized. Example:
RE AR WI ND OW
AR ND OW RE WI Problems:
Each title was altered before it was broken into doublets. The altering was done in the following manner: One letter per title was changed to another letter.
There is an extra doublet in each title. This extra doublet is not part of the altered title at all. Mitigating Circumstances:
If you are looking for a prize for being the first to solve this puzzle, the whereabouts of that prize may be found by reading the extra doublets. Start reading them downwards from a point to be determined, circling back to the top after the extra doublet from answer #13.
The titles have been, rather helpfully, listed below in alphabetical order by their original unaltered common factors.
Can you discover the original titles and the prize message?
EC EJ HE ON OR RI TI
AR AR DE HN JO LS MA ON SW WI
CO EN FV IL RO US VE
AN CE CO DA EN HE ND OL RW
AP AS EN GE HH OP SA TO
EE EH EN NP OI SO SW TP
&L DA IN IN OD RY TO TR UC UC YO
BL CO DA DI EE EN IS MM NG ON RE TI UR
AD AI AS CH CH EO ET FT HE NM RE RE TH UR
AR AT EC GN IO IS LA NI NP RE SI ST
ES EY HE HE HT IT KI LO MA NW VE XT
AC AR BU CT IC IN KI NE NE NG ON OU RT SC SI SI SS TH UR UT
AK AP AR DU EA ET GE GR HE LA NT OR OS RI SH ST TA TW
I talked to my friend Mike. He lives in in Western Quebec and is also obsessed with puzzles. He says that doublets are often harder to de-anagram then single letters. After all, spaces between words are sometimes located in the individual doublets. He recommends putting the doublets on flash cards and then moving them around to see if something takes shape. If that doesn’t work, try downing a double shot of whisky and then taking a stab at the doublets again.
Most of the movie titles are familiar (11 and 13 not so much so…but they are all available on DVD at Amazon). Two are more famous as books than movies.
Hopefully these hints will be enough for someone to crack the puzzle. I’ll check back tonight after my miniature golf game!
How much are those of us who have only solved parts of it allowed to spoil? So far I have 3, 9 and 10, but it will probably take me until November to work all of them out.