Sunday Morning Puzzle #53--- A Complicated Matter

Instructions:

In this puzzle you’ll find a string of related movie titles. The titles have been encrypted using KEY PHRASE ENCODING. In KPE, a phrase with no repeating letters is chosen. Whenever a letter from the key phrase occurs in the text to be encoded, it is replaced with the following letter from the key phrase. All other letters remain the same. In today’s puzzle, the last letter of the key phrase does not appear in any of the text to be encoded.

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Example:

Key Phrase: QUITE HARD
Text to be encoded: MOVIE TITLE PUZZLE
KPE encoded text: MOVTHETELHPIZZLH

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Note: The key phrase in today’s puzzle identifies the relationship of the movie titles.

To complicate matters, the movie titles have been randomly broken into either two or three pieces, and the order of the pieces has been changed within each title. The above example might be broken thus: IZZLH MOVTHET ELHP.

To further complicate matters, ten of the blocks of letters below are not part of any of the titles at all. Instead these letter blocks relate to the subject of the key phrase in another way.

And to further complicate matters, the ten extra letter blocks have been encoded instead in REVERSE KEY PHRASE ENCODING. In RKPE, when a letter from the key phrase appears in the text to be encoded, it is replaced by the previous letter from the key phrase. All other letters remain the same.

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Example:

Key Phrase: QUITE HARD
Text to be encoded: MOVIE TITLE PUZZLE
RKPE encoded text: MOVUTIUILTPQZZLT

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And to still further complicate matters, once a solver finds the movie title blocks and the ten extra letter blocks, he/she will discover that there are still two unused letter blocks. These two blocks are neither part of the movie titles, nor part of the extra ten letter blocks. Their meaning, however, should be self-explanatory.

Can you discover the key phrase, decipher the movie titles, determine the meaning of the ten extra letter blocks, and identify the two leftover letter blocks?


FXSMD SRFMY NTH HNINVSFES RBGMR THSBPYW YNUND XCS ABBRM IYIXVSTW FS THUD ROMII DN FR OO NDFBM FXME RSLNRSVSR TNMKXII EMJO MVXSW SR GNIF LXDG XTHTHSGNIFSDG UD CBOOMRY THSEMDW SMDF GMBRGM IXV ISTFXS XII SDBSTNK IXC FJZMOSY ASBTYBB NDHSREM SCRSTBSRVXCS TLABTHY VII IFSDSYS NJFTBO GN THINVS RUBBXMWX LRNE UGH THSWN RIFXBDNTSDN UBBY NCTNP MGMXD PLMRCM DSVSRB MYDSVSR EN KSR NDRM XDGFMYIXGHTB THSIXV TNENRR XSB NWDSVSRF NURSY SRBEOJO SBNDIY LNRY

An interesting one. I have no chance. I would have, had you not further complicated things so much.

In KPE, what do you do when, to use your example, a D is used? Is it replaced with Q, and vise versa in RKPE?

If a D was used in the KWE example, then it would indeed be replaced with a Q. In RKWE, a Q used would be replaced with a D.

However, in the actual puzzle, the last letter of the key phrase is never used in the text to be encoded.

In the ten RKWE entries, by the way, the FIRST letter of the key phrase is not used in the text to be encoded.

Is that clear…?

Perfectly clear, thanks. Makes the puzzle a tiny bit simpler, too, but I’m still not going to get it.

Bueller. Ferris Bueller.

I really like most of those movies there, Biotop. And I really like the plot of the one with George in the leading role, in spite of the fact he personally wasn’t so hot.

MonkeyMensch:

I guess this puzzle wasn’t too complicated for you! And I suppose, then, that you spied the two unused letter blocks as well. ZSRNZSRNBSVSD.

Never seen the George picture…I’ll have to rent it. And the new one looks promising…