Dear reader, I have reached that point in my manga reading where I’ve finished one beloved series while also waiting for the latest English-language volumes of other series to be released. So I went to Google and searched for other series similar to ones I’m reading now, to tide me over! That is how I found the three manga series I’ll be talking about today.
Of course, if you’ve been reading my blog posts for any length of time you’ll know that I love cats! So what better to write about than cat-themed manga? Name a better duo, I’ll wait!
Return to the adorable world of PANDANIA in the newest cat comic. A box, a sunbeam, or a comfy lap: there’s plenty of places to find a napping cat!
Necchi is a big, long cat who enjoys napping, lazing around, and finding new ways to get attention from his human. Stretched out in a sunbeam or curled up in a box, Necchi is never picky about where he lounges! This sweet boy never scratches or knocks things over if he’s displeased–he simply extends a paw in refusal. And he always knows when his human needs cuddling.
Enjoy the daily life of Necchi and his human from the master of cat manga, PANDANIA!
Dear reader, I feel like I wasn’t fair to this manga series the first time I read it. I kept expecting it to be like one of my most favorite manga series, Nights With a Cat, where both the cat and humans are very expressive and very realistic both in looks and in actions. While Necchi the cat is realistically drawn and behaves like a normal cat, his human is not realistic in appearance. My main problem could just be I didn’t like the art style of Catnaps. I think it kept me from fully immersing in the story.
But that aside, I still enjoyed reading this volume! The dynamic between Necchi and his human was fun to read. Necchi got into things he shouldn’t, behaved in ways that his human found bizarre, and made him worry as well! The seemingly trivial things he worried over where Necchi was concerned made him very relatable. Which one of us that has pets hasn’t fretted over the smallest thing?
Also, having grown up with a 20+ lb. cat I found Necchi’s big size relatable as well! Every time I see “normal-sized cats” I’m always shocked how small they seem! What do you mean your cat isn’t the size of a small dog? How strange!
In June I decided to try and watch one movie a day for an entire year. The idea is, I will end up spending less time looking at the little handheld screen, and more time looking at the bigger, vertical screen. I’ve mostly been watching films featured in the Library of Congress Nation Film Registry, and more recently Sight and Sound’s Greatest Movies of all Time list. They’re great lists. I hope you take a look.
Below, I listed the films I watched over the last month in order of least to most enjoyed. I only actively disliked two pictures that I finished watching, so things get quite hair-splitty in the middle. All films are available in the Monarch catalog on DVD or BluRay. I also watched a handful of these films on Kanopy, which you can access with an active Mead Public Library account.
Experiment commenced June 30, 2026 Batch timeframe: Aug. 11- Sept. 13, 2026 Movies watched in that timeframe: 30 Total days elapsed: 76 Total movies watched: 59
Did Not Finish/Rewatch: Hester Street (1975) DNF Early on in the film, a man meets his family at immigration in New York City. He hasn’t seen his wife in several years, and maybe has never met his young son. He is short tempered and cruel to his wife and hits his son within 30 seconds of coming into contact with him. I could not go on.
Flower Drum Song (1961) DNF While the cinematography is stunning to look at, everyone gets five guesses why I only made it halfway through this film.
The Black Stallion (1979) rewatch This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It was on Kanopy and I had credits left, so I spent an evening steeped in nostalgia.
The watchlist: How Green Was My Valley (1941) I love John Ford, but I hated this movie and its sentimentality borne out via working class suffering. It had already fallen out of favor by the time I was old enough to be aware of film, so I never even heard of this movie until my adulthood. The big claim to fame for modern movie-lovers is that it won the Academy Award for Best Picture over not just The Maltese Falcon and The Little Foxes, but goddamn Citizen Kane.
Sergeant York(1941) Gary Cooper, I hated your dumb pumpkin pie haircut and convenient moralizing that gave you permission to kill Germans as long as it’s for God and country. I consider this military recruitment propaganda of the lowest order. Cooper’s awe-shucks side-of-beef lunkhead country boy countenance annoyed me more than any other movie character I’ve encountered lately. Sergeant York was nominated for Best Picture alongside How Green Was My Valley so what do I even know.
VelociPastor (2019) B is for “budget” movie, and fellas we’ve got a good one here. Physical copies are hard to come by, so I regret to inform you that at the time of this blog’s publication you’ve got to pay to stream. Here’s hoping that changes when the highly anticipated VelociPastor 2 debuts later in 2026.
The Night of the Iguana (1964) This felt like John Huston trying to recreate the circumstances that made The Treasure of the Sierra Madre such a singular accomplishment. We’re in Mexico again, but instead of wily prospectors and murderous bandits we have jealous lesbian aunts, aging poets, and a very oily Richard Burton. It’s based on a Tennessee Williams play after all, so of course it’s sordid as heck. Ava Gardner is incredible.
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941) Jack Warner didn’t want to cast Monty Woolley in the starring role (which he originated on Broadway) because he was afraid the actor’s homosexuality would be obvious on-screen. This is the kind of thing I think about when I start to get a bit too rhapsodic about the golden age of Hollywood.
The Exiles(1961) Great experimental doc about young Native Americans who choose life in the Bunker Hill neighborhood of Los Angeles instead of the reservation. Lots of moody, grainy, melancholy black and white footage of Angel’s Flight and the surrounding dilapidated bars and haunts.
The Pawnbroker (1964) Watch this to feel empty and horrified!!!! This is the first film produced entirely in the US that dealt with the holocaust from a Jewish survivor point-of-view. It’s also the first Hays Code film to contain nudity, and helped catalyze studio movement away from the code completely.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf(1966) Haha these people are a bunch of jerks, huh? I didn’t understand this picture.
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Marriage Italian Style (1965) Sophia Loren is sensational, but o! This movie was so mean-spirited!
Parking Lot Movie (2010) This itches that Clerks-shaped spot many of my cohort had pressed into them in 1994. Most of my friends (and I) were over-educated and under-employed at the turn of the century, so there was a lot of pattern-recognition here.
Hud (1963) Hud is the evil side of the Long Hot Summer coin. Hud, played by the ever-beautiful Paul Newman, is such a piece of shit I could hardly make it through this thing. Patricia Neal is the best she’s ever been, and she’s never been bad.
Becky Sharp (1935) Aesthetically notable for being the first feature film to use the newly developed three- strip Technicolor technology. Indeed, it’s gorgeous to look at, and I loved the rapid-fire dialogue of the sharp-tongued Becky Sharp.
Little Fugitive (1957) Shot in the style we would now call cinéma vérité, François Truffaut claims the French New Wave couldn’t have happened the way it did without this movie and that it inspired him directly when filming The 400 Blows.
Atlantic City(1980) I was waiting for the worst character in this film to get murdered because I hated him so much and then he got murdered and I could really start to enjoy myself.
The Watermelon Woman (1996) This film is unusual to the point that defies my description. It’s funny and sweet and romantic and even a bit edifying. It made me think about representation in film in a whole new way. Please watch this movie.
Five Easy Pieces(1970) I didn’t know anything about this movie prior to watching, and was charmed with what I saw. The central dysfunction driving the plot made more sense to me than whatever was happening in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Everyone was flawed, but so much more sympathetic than an Edward Albee character. Karen Black delivers the performance of her career.
Key Largo (1948) That’s right, it’s another fabulous John Huston/Humphrey Bogart collaboration. Add in Lauren Bacall and Edward G. Robinson and you’ve got a highly watchable and troubling top-of-the-line film noir picture.
The Informer(1935) The thing about John Ford is that he tends to work in at least one crazy bar fight in each of his films. The Informer is no different, and also features my other favorite Ford trope of incomprehensible drunken Irishmen. This morality play was filled with complex and hopeless people pushed to their limits by the circumstances they were born into.
Wanda (1970) This movie is unique unto itself. Wanda is passive in her own life and has very few resources or prospects. She is totally apathetic in a world that doesn’t care about her. I understood Wanda and saw pieces of myself in her, so I loathed her and rooted for her and forgave her in a really personal way. Filmmaker Barbara Loden would die of breast cancer ten years later and I think that’s a really cruel thing for the universe to do.
Notorious (1946) Good lord does Ingrid Bergman ever go through it in this Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece. How can Claude Rains be that charming AND a hidden Nazi?
Treasure of the Sierra Madre(1948) John Huston’s dad, Walter Huston, originated the archetypal wise, grizzled prospector we all know and love with his role here. He’s astounding in a film packed full of towering performances, including Bogart’s finest turn as the loathsome Fred C. Dobbs.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir(1947) Gene Tierney is easy to watch whether she’s the femme fatale or the meek country wife and she seems to be having the time of her life here in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. This short and sweet romance hit all of the expected beats and it didn’t matter that I knew how things would end. This is as cozy as it gets, folks.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance(1962) When Lee Marvin gets to go full-sneer as the villain I feel so happy. He’s mean and evil as Liberty Vallance and we are all actively rooting for his death in no time. I have a bigbrain and knew the title was trying to impart some subtext to the audience, so I had an inkling at what we were working up to. Anyone devoted to the western genre would love this film.
The Band Wagon(1953) I struggle with musicals. The first musical I saw in my life was Singing’ in the Rain and it’s pretty hard to go anywhere but down from there. The Band Wagon was written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green who also wrote Singin’ in the Rain and this is right up there in quality. I was astonished to find myself welling up when Cyd Charisse and Bing Crosby finally danced together. They are my symbol for everything that goes right in Hollywood.
Lifeboat (1944) This movie has everything! The horrors of war! A drowned infant! Madness! Amputation at sea! Nazis on amphetamines! Mob justice! Starvation! Suicide! Romance! Filming took extra long because cast members kept coming down with colds from being soaked and shivering all day.
Gun Crazy(1950) Don’t look this up. It’s better to go in blind. Get yourself a copy from your local library, or stream it on Kanopy as soon as you can. Why isn’t this movie more well-known? I was breathless the entire back half of the film.
Red River(1948) Another western? Oh yes, but this one is something else. It’s a story of found family, grit, and fortitude. It’s also kinda about being gay, but that’s mostly us thirsting after a very handsome Montgomery Clift comparing pistols with a very handsome John Cherry. I literally hooted and hollered. It scared the cats. One million out of five stars.
There are nearly 10,000 DVD and BluRay discs currently in circulation at Mead Library alone. With access to Kanopy and the rest of the Monarch system, we have a pretty healthy array of visual material at hand. I am happy to take suggestions. In fact, I LOVE being the only library in the system to own weirdo indy titles no one has heard of. Use the “Recommend a Purchase” tool to indicate what you’re after and selectors (me) will work to get that title out for circulation. We also have this handy Your Next Five Movies tool to use when it’s hard to choose from the 10,000 discs on the shelf.
I’d like to take a moment to brag about the condition of Mead’s DVD collection. Of the sixty or so movies I watched since June, only one skipped out of the whole bunch. The clerks who shelve and maintain our collections do an incredible job of keeping these materials useful for literal decades. Thank a library clerk that next time you’re in the building.
Believe it or not, it’s almost October, and if you’re a horror fan, that means you’re probably already thinking about all the scary movies you’re going to watch. Today, I thought I’d take the opportunity to explore an underappreciated niche of the horror genre: the truly great sequel. If horror movies have been unfairly maligned until quite recently, horror sequels have had it even worse. I thought it would be fun to take a stand against the stereotype by showcasing some films that were later followed up by sequels that are, in my opinion, just as good or better than the originals. Interestingly, both of these stellar sequels happen to work as standalones – it’s not necessary to watch the original in order to follow the plot or to appreciate the movie as a whole. Maybe that says something about the importance of creating something that can stand on its own, even when making a sequel. That being said, seeing the original of course always helps. As such, I’ve presented both sequels alongside the originals that inspired them. Enjoy!
Definitely dating myself here, but I remember the mystery surrounding Cloverfield’s release. Nobody knew what the movie was about, or even what the title meant – and of course, that only made everyone eager to find out. I didn’t have the opportunity to see Cloverfield in theaters, but I got it on DVD not long after, and I think I was just as surprised as everyone else by the movie we got – a fusion of found footage horror and alien invasion disaster film, in which a group of friends’ scramble to survive an extraterrestrial attack on New York City is captured on a personal camera. Those two genres might not sound like they go together on paper, but think again. Alien invasions are an old trope, but Cloverfield makes that idea scary again by narrowing the focus. By placing the audience alongside a single group of characters and limiting what we can see to what their camera can capture, Cloverfield makes us feel the terror of their helplessness in the face of the unknown. Cloverfield took audiences by surprise and revitalized two genres everyone thought they knew backward and forward, and even now, there’s still not really any other film like it.
Lately I have found myself watching more old movies. To be honest, dear readers, I am becoming weary of all the CGI and special effects that these new movies produce with wild abandon. I long for the days when artists designed amazing physical props that would ignite the imagination and contribute to a story. There is something enrapturing about suspending your disbelief and appreciating a well told story. When I speak of old movies I am talking about ones that were either from the days of black and white film and up to the 1960s. I do greatly enjoy movies from the 80’s (1980’s for those of you born in this century), but I wish to go back farther than that as many classic and well known hits came to the screen in the 80’s. I would like to introduce you to some older films that I believe deserve greater appreciation. Dear readers, prepare to be transported in time as I introduce some old movies that deserve more love.
Surprisingly, my husband brought this movie to my attention. He had read an article that it was this movie that began many of the modern tropes that we see in horror movies today. Because we are very spoiled with being library card holders with access to thousands of movies and books, I was able to request this movie from another library in our system (you can as well with the link, dear reader.)
I must say, this movie impressed me. If you are looking for gothic horror-this is for you. An adult sister and brother (Pamela and Roderick) are vacationing on the moody coast of Cornwall when they come across a sprawling gothic mansion. Pamela immediately falls in love with the place and convinces Roderick that they can afford it if they go in on it together (they get a good deal on it, in fact). Moving in they soon discover that their new home, Windward House, is considered haunted by the locals. At first they brush off these stories, but soon the sibling duo encounter strange happenings in the house: drafts, cold spots, and the sound of sobbing in the night. The dog even refuses to enter the second floor.
Pamela and Roderick are likeable people and quickly make friends with the neighbors, especially Stella Fitzgerald whose mother died in Windward House. Stella now lives with her grandfather and is mysteriously forbidden from entering Pamela and Roderick’s new abode. Why? Could Stella be the key to the haunting? What secrets lurk within the walls of Windward House? You cannot go wrong with this movie. The acting is great, the atmosphere is spooky and gothic, the special effects in terms of the ghost were phenomenal for the period. I highly recommend The Uninvited (1944).
Dear reader, I am here today to talk about something I’ve never talked about in a blog post before, magazines! Thanks to the kind and very helpful librarians at our reference desk here at Mead I was able to learn about a new feature in the Libby app! Do you use Libby at all? I hope you do, it’s a great resource available to all cardholders!
Earlier this year my sister-in-law’s mom mentioned to me how she was gifted a subscription to a magazine called TeaTime. After looking it up I was intrigued! Of course I went straight to the Monarch catalog to see if I could find it, but alas, it wasn’t there! I remembered that Mead has several resources available where you can read magazines online, but I didn’t have any luck finding it there either. So I did what any respectable library patron does when they need help…I asked the librarians! They showed me how to access the Magazine Rack feature in Libby where you can search for and subscribe to magazines! I was set! There is even a feature where you can read back issues, which, believe you me, really held me over during those two month stretches between issues!
If you’re worried about the magazines not translating well to a tablet, phone, or computer, have no fear! Although admittedly, the bigger the screen you can view them on, the better. At the beginning of each story there is a button that says article that you can click on. Not only do the pictures come up full screen, but the orientation of the text changes too so it’s easier to read.
Another bonus is that, since you’re reading the magazine online, if there are product links you can simply click on them and they will take you straight to the website! Let me tell you, this has been a most dangerous feature whenever I’m reading TeaTime. Many a new and exciting tea has been ordered each issue!
TeaTime is designed to appeal to the growing market of tea lovers. This bimonthly publication highlights tearooms and their owners, providing tea party ideas and sharing enhancements to the enjoyment of tea. TeaTime is a source book for all who love tea and who want to enrich life with the serenity of teatime. The magazine proclaims the pleasures of tea as a gourmet beverage, and offers informative articles that range from food features to tearoom profiles. TeaTime goes beyond the history and science of the beverage and celebrates the art and passion that make drinking tea a memorable occasion.
Dear reader, I have only ever attended one tea party in my life, and I cannot bake anything, even if I was facing imminent death, but even still, I thoroughly enjoy each TeaTime issue bestowed in my Libby app! That is one of the greatest powers of reading, is it not? Living vicariously through others, whether they be real or imagined! Each delicately made, miniscule finger sandwich, tart, scone, etc., that graces an elegantly designed table almost makes me want to take up baking, just to experience some of the pure magic for myself! Emphasis on the almost! Each table setting is thoroughly thought out, from the design of the dishes and cups, the flatware, and even to which desserts will be paired with which teas, and the order the teas arrive in! At the end of each article it will always list each tea and where to find it.
TeaTime also features elegantly appointed tearooms throughout the United States, as well as outside of it. It also features tea cruises! Who even knew those were a thing? Amazing! What I find most tantalizing, though, are the train rides featuring tea! Dear reader, when it comes to train rides, I am a hopeless romantic. It’s a direct byproduct of my obsession with steam trains. Imagine sitting on a plush velvet chair looking out at the mountains and small towns gliding by while you sip delicious tea. Pure heaven!
Of course the magazine also talks about the history of tea, which is equally fascinating. I don’t know about you, dear reader, but when I read historical accounts from other countries that are centuries old, I’m always struck with a sense of awe. Compared to most other countries, the United States is truly a young country. It’s hard for me to imagine such ancient history! But that doesn’t get in the way of my enjoyment of such stories.
How the tea is grown, how it’s harvested, the different drying methods to achieve different strengths and types of tea, it’s always intriguing! Learning about such things can make you appreciate that hot cup of tea all the more
Coincidences are weird, but sometimes you just have to roll with them. That is how this blog post idea came about. It was not my intention, but it seemed many of the books I had been reading contained the theme of the main character being a psychiatrist. Buckle in and prepare to question reality in the following mind bending recommendations! The Doctor will see you now. . . .
This is one of C.J. Cooke’s early novels (she used to write as Carolyn Jess Cooke). For being an early novel, I immensely enjoyed it. Alex (our boy who sees demons) was an absolute delight and a well written, slightly awkward young boy. I loved his character so much. But the question is: can Alex really see demons or is he suffering from a mental health disorder? This is what Anya, our main character psychiatrist, has been tasked with finding out. Alex has come under her care after his mother attempted suicide.
Alex claims that his best friend is a demon named Ruen. Ruen is thousands of years old, knows a lot of history, and is the rank of Harrower. Ruen is not what you would expect of a demon (for which I was pleasantly surprised). Yes, he can appear terrifying, but instead of being a creature out of The Conjuring or Insidious, he is witty and interesting. He has a depth of character that pulls you in. He claims that he is studying Alex as Alex is the only human who can see the demons. According to Ruen, everyone has a demon assigned to them. Alex can see them all.
What is Anya to make of all this? She is dealing with her own trauma. She could not save her daughter that was suffering from a mental illness even with her psychiatric background. Her daughter jumped out of a window at twelve years old. Anya believes that Alex shows the same symptoms that her daughter did. She is desperate to make sure this tragedy never happens again. The stakes mount as Alex’s behavior gets worse and worse. He claims he is just doing what Ruen tells him to do. The more time she spends with Alex, the more troubled Anya becomes. Alex knows things-things he could not possibly know. Is Alex suffering from a mental health disorder or is Ruen a real and frightening danger?
At times this books felt like a love letter to The Skrewtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. He and that novel are referenced quite a bit. This was something I delighted in. If you have not read The Skrewtape Letters, I will also include a link below to access from our catalogue. I was pulled into The Boy Who Could See Demons and spent many a late night reading this one.
Book selectors in public libraries often rely on tools known as core collection databases. These resources provide lists of material that will, under ideal circumstances, always be on the shelf. Think books like James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, or Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. There isn’t really a resource of this nature for maintaining library DVD collections. Instead of relying on publisher-provided collection lists, I compare which DVDs Mead owns against lists of films from around the internet. I look at the New York Times 1000 Essential Films, lists provided by the American Film Institute, as well as lists on Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd, IMDB, you name it. Basically, any list of movies I encounter gets compared against the catalog and I purchase what we’re missing and what might need replacing.
Lately, one of the best and most interesting lists I’ve been referring to is the Library of Congress National Film Registry. Each year since 1989, 15 films deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant are inducted into the registry. The films must be at least 10 years old at the time of their nomination. The registry was formed at the behest of filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Frank Capra in response to practices like pan & scan for television or videocassette release, and colorization of black and white film without creator input or approval.
Film has always been a particular area of interest for me, but the rate at which I watch has decreased significantly since about 2015. I blame my lapse mostly on the twin attention destroyers that are smart phones and COVID-19. The National Film Registry (NFR) was filled with dozens of movies I haven’t seen, and many that I had never even heard of. While comparing the list against our collection, I made a separate list of all those unseen (to me) films, and started checking them out based on which hadn’t circulated for the longest time. I’ve been enjoying myself a great deal and decided to record my progression through the watchlist, and challenge myself to watch one movie a day for an entire year. Below, I listed the films I’ve been watching starting on June 30, 2026. I hope to have watched roughly 365 movies by the time June 29, 2027 rolls around.
Gentle reader, please understand that I am going to spoil the shit out of some of these movies, so proceed at your own peril. Also please notice that not all films on this list have been inducted into the NFR. The National Film Registry list is merely my cata-list for this post, you know what I mean?
Date range I watched these movies in: June 29-August 11, 2026 Days elapsed: 42 Total movies watched: 30
Action: The Equalizer 2 (2018) starring DENZEL The Equalizer 3 (2023) starring DENZEL Medium Cool (1969) starring Robert Forster and Verna Bloom One Battle After Another (2025) starring Leonardi DiCaprio and Sean Penn Tokyo Drifter (1966) starring Tetsuya Watari
While Glory (1989) and Philadelphia (1993) ARE in the NFR, none of Denzel’s three Equalizer films have been inducted, yet. Man, that guy hates it when things are not equal! He’ll equalize at night, or during a hurricane, or on a train. Man, you name it, and Denzel has equalized in and around it.
Medium Cool and One Battle were directed by the big-timers. Legendary cinematographer Haskal Wexler filmed the astonishing Medium Cool partially during the Chicago Democratic National Convention riots in 1968, blurring the line between storytelling and the 6 o’clock news. One Battle won Best Picture in 2025, and it’s worth a watch just to see Sean Penn’s face go through every facial expression known to man.
Tokyo Drifter is slick, stylish, and fascinated Quentin Tarantino. I don’t think Reservoir Dogs would exist without Tokyo Drifter.
Did Not Finish: Lassie Come-Home (1943) starring Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor Love Affair (1939) starring Irene Dunn and Charles Boyer The Painted Veil (1934) starring Greta Garbo This is Cinerama (1952) dir. Mike Todd Jr.
Give yourself permission to not finish what you started when it comes to leisure reading or viewing. It’s good to push through some discomfort, but it’s also good to give yourself grace. I DNFed the above movies all for various reasons.
Lassie Come-Home was filmed in the 1940s, so I was feeling a lot of distress for the wellbeing of the on-screen animals and once they killed off a fictional dog, I tapped out. Read the book and get the idea without the added animal cruelty. Elsa Lanchester spotted.
When Irene Dunn gets hit by a car and decides not to tell her love interest Charles Boyer in Love Affair, I practically threw the remote across the room and performed what I believe the kids call a “rage quit”. Fun fact: it is widely believed that Chuck Jones based Looney Tunes character Pepe Le Pew on the mannerisms of Charles Boyer.
Greta Garbo is so good and I love to watch her in most anything, but the depiction of Asian people in The Painted Veil and at this time in general is appalling and completely wrung out any possible enjoyment of the narrative. Racist depictions of non-white people is a big, greasy stain on the shimmer of Hollywood.
This is Cinerama was just sorta boring and very very very long. Don’t believe me? This film is available for checkout ONLY from Mead Public Library. Put it on hold and feast your eyes.
Gangster: Little Caesar (1931) starring Edward G. Robinson and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The Public Enemy (1931) starring James Cagney and Jean Harlow Scarface (1932) starring Paul Muni and George Raft
Little Caesar and Scarface were both on Kanopy at the same time so I watched them back-to-back. I loved Little Caesar with my whole heart. Edward G. Robinson really DID have that sneer and really DID say things like “Yeah, see? I’m gonna beat you up, ya mutt, see?” His 5’5” frame could not contain the charisma he bubbled over with.
By contrast, the Howard Hawks-directed Scarface landed a little flat for me. Lead actor Paul Muni, while physically intimidating in his portrayal, relied on silent film-style over-emoting and predictably negative Italian stereotypes.
1930s Chaos: Footlight Parade (1933) starring James Cagney and Joan Blondell Naughty Marietta (1935) starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddie She Done Him Wrong (1933) starring Mae West and Cary Grant The Emperor Jones (1933) starring Paul Robeson and Frank H. Wilson
James Cagney was well-known as a song and dance man until starring in The Public Enemy, which he was very good at, too. Modern audiences remember him more for being the little tough guy than Yankee Doodle Dandy, so it was a pleasure to watch his turn as an ambitious mile-a-minute stage musical producer in Footlight Parade. He delivered his dialogue in sharp staccato bursts and never stopped moving.
By contrast, I didn’t think much of Mae West or She Done Him Wrong. West’s character in the film, Lady Lou, was based on her vaudeville persona Diamond Lil. I love a bawdy lady, but I don’t think it translated well to the screen due to Hays Code interference. Also notable as having the shortest run time of any Best Picture nominated film at a brisk 66 minutes.
Nelson Eddie and Jeannette MacDonald teamed up for a bunch of romantic comedy musicals in the 1930s for a reason. These two corny charmers are so gorgeous on screen and together. They practically glowed in Naughty Marietta. Elsa Lanchester spotted.
I wish Paul Robeson had been in more pictures and I wish actors of color weren’t relegated to supporting or worse roles throughout much of the 20th century. I have no idea what to make of a movie based on a Eugene O’Neill play whose reliance on the n-word even managed to raise the eyebrows of contemporaneous audiences.
Noir: The Lady From Shanghai (1947) starring Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth The Long, Hot Summer (1958) starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward The Maltese Falcon (1941) starring Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet
The Long, Hot Summer is actually considered a southern gothic as opposed to noir, but eh. This film has got it all. Paul Newman gleams like a prize in the southern heat and is unbelievably beautiful. Orson Welles plays a Big Daddy-type southern patriarch complete with absurd accent and community theater white hair. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was released the same year to wider acclaim, which may account for why this movie is largely unknown to modern audiences. The Long, Hot Summer takes cues from Faulkner short stories as well as Tennessee Williams, and both star the incandescent Newman, so there is some connective tissue between the two films.
Welles showed up in The Lady From Shanghai, too, which he also wrote, directed, and starred in. The film is sort of a mess, but I loved how messy & most of the mess was studio-interference-adjacent to begin with. Instead of a southern patriarch, here Welles portrays an Irish sailor. He might be a towering genius of the 20th century, but man that accent sure came and went. He was married to Hayworth at the time and insisted that she cut off her iconic long red hair into a shorter blonde bob for the role, which incensed audiences.
We’ve been discussing three Bogie films at my movie club over the summer and we started with The Maltese Falcon in June. It’s based on the Dashiel Hammett novel of the same name, so I gave it a re-read. Hammett was cranking out some of the greatest noir fiction in the 1940s and this might be his best. The film was of course subject to Hays Code restrictions, so reading the novel provides us with a much queerer Joel Cairo and a much seedier Brigid O’Shaughnessy. Book and movie five out of five stars.
Political: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) starring Peter O’Toole and William Holden The Day of the Jackal (1973) starring Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) starring Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster The Manchurian Candidate (1962) starring Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh
War movies tend to fall outside my comfort zone, so I was pleased to find my everloving mind blown apart by The Bridge on the River Kwai. It’s not a surprise that it cleaned up during awards season including but not limited to the Academy Award for Best Picture. The ending was so good I forgot to breathe.
The Day of the Jackal: serviceable spycraft movie, but would you believe the Book Was Better? Forsyth wrote the book over a feverish 35-day period in 1970, and I think the urgency is present in the prose in a way that can’t be translated to film.
Americans were aware of Jewish persecution by the Third Reich long before the liberation of death camps, but nothing could have prepared the world for the film and photos coming out of those camps. Judgement at Nuremberg was the first American film to incorporate actual Allied footage of camp liberations into the movie plot. I had to pause and walk away after that segment of the movie. It’s important to bear witness to the atrocities of the holocaust, but it’s hard work to not look away. This is a challenging, thought-provoking, complex film. Prestige cast before that was a thing. Just go watch it already.
Frank Sinatra is a better actor than a singer. Fight me. While The Manchurian Candidate is bleak as hell, it’s filled with towering performances. Angela Lansbury delivered the greatest role of her career depicting one of the all-time worst villains I have ever seen, and was nominated for a Supporting Actress Academy Award for it. I loved watching the plot unravel and feeling as uncertain as some of the brainwashed characters. Reminder: super bleak.
Romance: Ball of Fire (1941) starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck Casablanca (1942) starring Humphrey Bogart and Claude Raines The Quiet Man (1952) starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara The Worst Person in the World (2021) starring Renata Reinsve and Herbert Nordrum
Barbara Stanwyck is best known for her icy femme fatale role in Double Indemnity. But in Ball of Fire, she is the heat to Gary Cooper’s academic coolness (and cluelessness). It’s a bit screwball, and a bit Snow White. Who doesn’t dream of rooming with a household of tweedy bachelors single-mindedly focused on writing an encyclopedia? It’s every girl’s dream. Stanwyck is so funny and beautiful. I don’t understand why this movie isn’t more well-known.
Casablanca was the July pick at my movie club. There are a few films I still haven’t seen that most people have seen, and this was one of them. I knew the dialogue by heart just from living in the world, but how fun to see it in context. Has anyone ever looked as beautiful on-screen as Ingrid Bergman in this film? Not only is this a romance, it’s a war protest picture and could be viewed through a queer lense, as well. Also, what the everloving hell does “Here’s looking at you, kid” mean????
John Ford and The Duke team up again for The Quiet Man. It’s a funny, charming, and affecting romance set in the Irish countryside. In my favorite scene John Wayne finds Maureen O’Hara in the abandoned farmhouse he just purchased. She’s getting things tidy, like a good neighbor. The door flies open from the wind, blowing her skirts and red hair around violently. She makes to leave, and John Wayne catches her around the waist and pulls her close for their first kiss. I never found John Wayne to be terribly compelling as a romantic lead, but MAN DID I SWOON. Plus ten points for nigh-indecipherable drunken Irish patois.
The Worst Person in the World is a gorgeous meditation on intimacy, milestones, work, and rest. Renata Reinsve is a STAR.
Westerns: High Noon (1952) starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly Stagecoach (1939) starring John Wayne Westward the Women (1951) starring Robert Taylor and Denise Darcel
High Noon was so FRUSTRATING. Poor ol’ Gary Cooper is out there grinding away to raise a posse to face the no-goodnicks he and the local judge sent up on murder charges years earlier. The townspeople are reluctant to risk their lives, his underling is a drunk manchild, and his Quaker bride is leaving town because violence is against her principles. The film takes place in real time, and that ticking clock is never far from our minds. This is one tense film.
Did you know John Ford was Orson Welles’ favorite director and that he watched Stagecoach 40 times in preparation of filming Citizen Kane? Watch the film that made John Wayne a star to see why.
I wrote a little about Westward the Women in an earlier blog post, but it overlapped with my big ol’ watchlist and I don’t mind mentioning it again. This is an unconventional and gritty film that any western fan will love.
All of the above movies are available in the Monarch catalog on DVD, BluRay, or streaming on Kanopy. People living in the City of Sheboygan with an active Mead Library card have access to this streaming service. If you’re unfamiliar, take a look HERE and get an account set up. The platform is filled with a staggering array of film from home and abroad.
If none of the films I mentioned above seem compelling, consider using Mead’s Your Next Five Movies tool. Tell us your favorite movies, actors, or directors, and we’ll send you a list of five movies you might love.
In the meantime, I’ll be at home doing my best to look at the bigger screen instead of the tiny screen. Know of a great film list I might like to look at? Please write to me at publicservices@meadpl.org. And stop saying “lists” in there!
I have always found myself drawn to history. My interest ranges from more recent history all the way back to ancient histories of Egypt, Greece, and beyond. One of my favorite genres to read is historical fiction, usually I find myself with more questions at the end of a historical fiction book than I had prior to starting. Some stories really just stand out to me more than others. When that happens to me, I go searching for either books, documentaries, or movies about the actual event, or the actual person I have just finished reading about.
I find myself frequently visiting the WWII era. My journey started like most, learning in school of Anne Frank, and although I was young when the movie Schlinder’s List, I remember watching it. So much from that time period is hard to fathom, that I believe, that is what keeps bringing me back to it. Whether it be through books, movies, or documentaries if something that I have not read or seen comes to my attention, I usually dive right in.
I found that happening a lot in the past year. I feel like when the big box office shines light on this era, it brings attention back to a pivotal point in our history. With big office movies like Nuremberg and Truth & Treason hitting the screens last fall and available for streaming or DVD this past winter, I have spent the good part of this year in that era specifically on one story.
The story that stuck with me the most this past year has been Truth & Treason.
August means another summer reading program is coming to an end; remember that August 8th is your last day to enter your reading time and use those prize tickets to be entered into the drawings! But just because the summer reading program is finishing for the year doesn’t mean that your summer reading has to end. The new month also brings with it another LibraryReads list. You’ll find the books library staff voted on around the country in this post and a blurb from one of the people who voted for that book. After you read today’s blog post, make sure to check out the other books on this month’s list.
Dr. Blaque just wants to live somewhere quiet, and his wife Josephine—wary of the suburbs—agrees to move on a one-year trial basis. At first, their predominantly white neighbors seem like the picture-perfect, friendly community, but after an awful crime, prejudice starts showing up in full force. As the year deadline creeps closer, the couple wonders: can they make it, or is their marriage—and safety—about to blow up? – Magan Szwarek, LibraryReads Ambassador, IL
NoveList read-alike: Missing Sam by Thrity Umrigar
Sometimes, I feel silly that I took so long to join a book club. I think since I have a somewhat idiosyncratic taste in books, I was afraid that joining a book club would entail reading a lot of books I disliked. Not only was I wrong, I was missing the entire point of being in a book club. In a book club, even if you end up disliking the selection, you still get the satisfaction of venting about why you disliked it. This is just one of the ways book clubs turn the normally solitary activity of reading into a social one, and I think the value of that really can’t be overstated. I’m also happy to report that since I started attending the Sheboygan County LGBTQ Alliance book club, I’ve liked or loved far more of the selections than I’ve disliked, and many of the ones I’ve loved the most were books I probably wouldn’t have picked up otherwise. Unfortunately, there are too few hours in the day and too few days in the week for me to get involved in all of the amazing book clubs you can participate in through Mead Public Library. We have book clubs for readers interested in mysteries, nonfiction, readers who want to make art based on what they read, and so much more. Consider this blog post a snapshot of the amazing experiences I’ve had with a book club, and an invitation to try one that matches your interests and see what you might discover.
Sarah Waters is famous for two things: her beloved trilogy of historical novels portraying the experiences of lesbian women in the Victorian era, and her mastery of the art of the plot twist. Affinity delivers in both departments. The story follows Margaret Prior, a woman struggling with a stifling family environment and severe depression, and her relationship with Selina Dawes, who is serving time in prison for conducting fraudulent seances, one of which led to the death of one of the participants. Since Margaret is, as far as anyone knows, a law-abiding gentlewoman, her visits are intended to aid in Selina’s moral rehabilitation. However, as the pair become closer, Margaret becomes captivated by Selina’s magnetic presence and convinced that her abilities as a medium are entirely real. Affinity is probably the most underdiscussed of the Victorian Trilogy, possibly because it’s easily the bleakest and most pessimistic in tone. At times, it reads like a descent into the psychological underworld – and I devoured every page of it. If you’re craving a merciless historical thriller that never lets up for a moment, complete with a tragic gut-punch of an ending, Affinity is your book.
