Reds great Roush / SAT 4-7-12 / Frobe who played Goldfinger / Traitors Gate locale / 1930s film dog / Affliction aka blue devils / Site of first British colony in Caribbean 1624 / Cherokee deemed it good training for war

Constructor: Robert H. Wolfe

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: GERT Frobe (44D: Frobe who played Goldfinger) —

Karl Gerhart Fröbe, better known as Gert Fröbe (German pronunciation: [ˈɡɛɐt ˈfʁøːbə]) (25 February 1913 – 5 September 1988) was a German actor who starred in many films, including the James Bond film Goldfinger asAuric Goldfinger, The Threepenny Opera as Peachum, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Baron Bomburst, and in Der Räuber Hotzenplotz as Hotzenplotz. (wikipedia) (my version of the puzzle did Not have the umlaut in the clue)

• • •

Easy and mostly dull. CHANCE OF SUCCESS (34A: Nonstarter's lack) doesn't quite feel like a crossworthy answer. I get the "offing" part of [Reward in the offing?], but the ONE'S part of the answer (PRICE ON ONE'S HEAD) doesn't seem adequately cued by the clue. In my offing, maybe, but then that's not a phrase (whereas "in the offing" is). Trying too hard, that clue is. The range of letters in the grid is depressing. Feels like there are maybe 10 different letters, total. Hardly a Scrabble tile over 4. Look at the east coast—it's all Es and double-Ss. Fifteens were easy to pick up once you sliced through them with a few crosses; sadly, some of those crosses were pretty yuck. IMRE (2D: Hungary's ___ Nagy) and INRI (45D: Sign letters on the cross) (goth gimmes, both ugh) and GERT (!) and a whole lot else. I'll tell you, crossing INRI with -IEST (45A: Follower of blood and guts) is not (Not) the swellest way to end one's Saturday puzzling experience. It's a solid, adequate puzzle that feels like it's from thirty+ years ago and has nothing to distinguish it, though I will say that I liked the clue on CAGER (41D: One engaged in bucket-making), which is a word I've only ever seen in crossword *clues* before; and TOWER OF LONDON (16D: Traitors' Gate locale) running down the center was pretty nifty. Everything else was meh at best.


Bullets:

• 19A: Covent Garden area (WEST END) — nice that it crosses another London-based answer.

• 37A: The Cherokee deemed it good training for war (LACROSSE) — got this off "LA-" and probably would've got it off of nothing.
• 55A: Site of the first British colony in the Caribbean (ST. KITTS) — Not much else starts "STK-"
• 1D: Leap-the-___ (world's oldest operating roller coaster) (DIPS) — well, at least I get a mildly interesting trivia answer out of this thing.
• 4D: Huge-taloned menaces (ROCS) — put this in and then was unsure, given that ROCS are not, you know, real. Fast start on puzzle, and fast time overall, was due at least in part to throwing down IMRE, ONIT, ROCS and DIS in very quick succession. DIS was wrong, but as soon as I looked at what I had, I could see DIORAMA (1A: Many a museum dinosaur display) clearly, so I changed DIS, and off I went.
• 8D: Heroic son of Prince Anchises (AENEAS) — honestly, [Son of Anchises] is enough for a Saturday. I have no memory of anyone's calling Anchises "Prince," however accurate (I've read this poem a Lot)

• 14D: Reds great Roush (EDD) —Baseball! Watched entirety of Tigers' opening day game yesterday. Got invited by random reader on Twitter to come to Detroit for some games this summer. I said "yes" without doing a background check or nothin'. They have a nice park, and I have people I'd like to visit in Ann Arbor, so why not?
• 1930s film dog (TOTO) — it's that or ASTA, as I'm sure you know.
• 50D: Affliction a k a "blue devils" (DTS) — so Duke was founded by hardcore drunks, or ... what?

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld