Elizabeth Taylor as Velvet

Elizabeth Taylor, famous for her luminous eyes and scandalous marriages, had her first starring role at the age of twelve in National Velvet. Based on the 1935 novel by Enid Bagnold, this 1944 film tells the story of Velvet Brown, a 12-year-old girl who won a horse in a raffle. National Velvet is December’s Literary Flick. It will be shown on Tuesday, December 8 at 6:30 p.m.

Velvet decides to train her horse for the Grand National Steeplechase, and wants to be the jockey, although female jockeys are banned from the race. Mickey Rooney stars as Mi, a former jockey who is drawn into helping Velvet train her horse. Angela Lansbury has a supporting role as Edwina Brown, Velvet’s older sister.

Taylor called it "the most exciting film" of her career. MGM wanted an actress with a British accent and the ability to ride horses. Taylor was cast, but as she was deemed too short, filming was pushed back several months to allow her to grow.  She used that time to practice riding.

National Velvet became a box office success upon its release on Christmas 1944. Of Elizabeth Taylor, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times stated "her whole manner in this picture is one of refreshing grace," while James Agee of The Nation wrote that she "is rapturously beautiful ... I hardly know or care whether she can act or not."  

Musical Misery Tour

No, this isn't about the Beatles, though Sir Paul and Ringo would have been great in cameo roles. This is about Les Misérables, a film in which police inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) sings as he taunts and torments former convict Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman).  



We'll be showing Les Mis on Tuesday, November 10 at 6:30 p.m. as our monthly Literary Flick.  Based on Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, the film tells the story of Valjean, who is released after spending 19 years in prison. Unable to find shelter or work because of his status as an ex-convict, Valjean violates his parole, and assumes a new identity as Monsieur Madeleine. (He cleans up well!) In time he becomes a wealthy factory owner and mayor of a small town in France. He is always alert to the risk of being captured again by Javert, who is ruthless in hunting down law-breakers, believing they cannot change for the better. 

One of Valjean's factory workers, Fantine (Anne Hathaway), is fired by her foreman because she resisted his advances. Desperate to support her daughter, Cosette, she falls into prostitution. Valjean finds out what happened, and agrees to take care of Cosette when Fantine dies. When Cosette is grown, they are swept up in the political turmoil in Paris, which culminates in the Paris Uprising of 1832. 

The movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and won three: Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway), Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Achievement in Sound Mixing. It also won three Golden Globe Awards, for Best Picture, Best Actor (Hugh Jackman), and Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway).

Be sure to bring a hanky or two. It isn't called Les Misérables for nothing.

Now you see him, now you don't!

Get a head-start on Halloween by coming to this month's Literary Flick, The Invisible Man.  The movie will be shown on Tuesday, October 13, at 6:30 p.m.

Filmed in 1933, the movie is based on H. G. Wells' novel of the same name, published in 1897. Claude Rains stars as Dr. Jack Griffin, a chemist who discovered the secret of invisibility while conducting a series of tests involving an obscure drug called monocane.

 
With his face swathed in bandages and his eyes obscured by dark goggles, he takes a room at The Lion's Head Inn in an English village. He is evicted because of his behavior, and flees from the police. The drug has driven him mad, and he devises a plot to dominate the world through a reign of terror.

 

The film was named by the New York Times as one of the Ten Best Films of 1933, and is best known for its clever and groundbreaking visual effects.  The original New York Times movie review can be read here.

Literary Flicks are free and open to the public.

"City of Joy"

This month's Literary Flick, City of Joy, will be shown on Tuesday, September 8 at 6:30 p.m.

The film is based on Dominique Lapierre's novel, City of Joy, which explores life for the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India.  Living with starvation, disease, and bone-breaking work, the people hold on to their belief that life is precious, so much so that they named their slum "Anand Nagar," which means "City of Joy".

The film tells the stories of three people whose lives intersect in this community.  Hasari Pal (Om Puri) moves his family from his village in search of work in the city to pay off money-lenders and save for his daughter's dowry. Max Lowe (Patrick Swayze) is a disillusioned surgeon who travels to India to run away from his past. When Max is beat up by thugs, Hasari finds him and takes him to a clinic run by a British nurse, Joan Bethel (Pauline Collins). Friendships between Max, Hasari, and Joan have life-changing effects on them all.

 For more information about this program, call us at 541-265-2153 or go to our website, www.newportlibrary.org.

Hello, Mr. Chips

British author James Hilton based his best-selling novel, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, on his own father, who was the headmaster of Chapel End School in Walthamstow.  Hilton first sent his story to The Atlantic where it appeared as an article in April, 1934, and it subsequently was published as a novel.
 
Made into a movie in 1939, Goodbye, Mr. Chips is this month's Literary Flick.  It will screen on Tuesday, August 11, 2015, at 6:30 p.m. in the library's McEntee Meeting Room.

Nearing the end of his long life, Charles Edward Chipping looks back on his career as teacher, first unpopular, and eventually beloved, teaching three generations of British boys. After he retires, he is called back to service due to the shortage of men during World War I. 
 

Robert Donat and Greer Garson

Robert Donat stars as Mr. Chipping and Greer Garson is Kathy Ellis, a feisty English suffragette who becomes his wife. Terry Kilburn stars as John Colley, Peter Colley I, II and III, several generations of pupils from the same family taught by Mr. Chips.

Terry Kilburn and Robert Donat

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards: Outstanding Production; Best Director; Best Actor; Best Actress; Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Film Editing; and Best Sound. 

Robert Donat won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1939 (his sole Oscar win), becoming one of the few non-Gone With the Wind victors - he defeated some of the most famous nominated performances in film history - Clark Gable's performance as Rhett Butler, James Stewart as Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights.. 

This program is free and open to the public. 

Istanbul or Bust! A Double Dose of "Travels With My Aunt."

What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?  Graham Greene's only comedic novel, Travels with My Aunt, addresses this paradox delightfully.

Both the book and the movie based on the book will be featured on Tuesday, June 9, as the Reading Circle selection (at noon) and the Literary Flick film (at 6:30 p.m.)

The book, written in 1969, tells the story of Henry Pulling, a rather dull, retired bank clerk whose mother just died. His one passion in life is his garden of dahlias.  He meets his flamboyant Aunt Augusta at his mother’s funeral, and is drawn into a whirl-wind adventure of a lifetime.

In the 1972 film, Maggie Smith takes center stage as Aunt Augusta, the indomitable 70-year-old (although the actress was 33 at the time), simultaneously shocking and intriguing her oh-so-proper nephew, Henry (played superbly by Alec McCowen).  She embroils him in a plan to raise ransom money to rescue her former lover, taking Henry on a mad dash across Europe to Turkey aboard the Orient Express. Directed by George Cuckor, the movie won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design. It also received three nominations: for Best Cinematography; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; and Maggie Smith for Best Actress.

Both programs are free and open to the public. For more information, call the library at 541-265-2153 or go to its website, www.newportlibrary.org
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Sailing aboard the HMS Bounty

Our May Literary Flick takes us on a high seas adventure to Tahiti, on board the HMS Bounty. Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1935 film based on the novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Set in 1787, it follows the ship and crew on a two-year voyage to the Pacific. Its captain, William Bligh (Charles Laughton), is a brutal tyrant who punishes those who lack discipline, cause any infraction on board the ship, or defy his authority. Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable), the ship's lieutenant, disapproves of Bligh's treatment of the crew. 

The film was one of the biggest hits of its time, and film critics consider this adaptation to be the best cinematic work inspired by the mutiny. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, including three for Best Actor, it won the award for Best Picture. 

We will be showing Mutiny on the Bounty on Tuesday, May 12 at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, as is the popcorn!

Elmer Gantry - saint or sinner?

Rated 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film Elmer Gantry is based on Sinclair Lewis’s novel of the same name. Gantry (Burt Lancaster) is a con-artist street preacher who is coarse, ambitious, loud, and often drunk. He joins Sister Sharon Falconer’s (Jean Simmons) traveling tent ministry, and builds up a following with his fire-and-brimstone sermons. When Lulu Bains (Shirley Jones) re-enters his life, his past catches up with him.

Also appearing in the movie are Arthur Kennedy as an H.L. Mencken-style atheistic journalist, Patti Page as Sister Rachel, and Edward Andrews as George Babbitt, a character borrowed from another Sinclair Lewis novel.

The film won three Academy Awards: Best Actor (Burt Lancaster), Best Supporting Actress (Shirley Jones), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Richard Brooks).

We'll show Elmer Gantry in the McEntee Meeting Room on Tuesday, March 10, at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, and so is the popcorn!  For more information, call the library at 265-2153 or check its website at www.newportlibrary.org.

The secret garden within

Imagine a sickly, foul-tempered little girl who loves no one and whom no one loves. She lives in India with her parents, who abandon her to the care of servants. When a cholera outbreak ravages her household, the orphaned Mary Lennox is sent to England to live in Misselthwaite Manor with her reclusive uncle, Archibald Craven.

Thus begins The Secret Garden, a 1993 film based on the 1910 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Mary’s life turns around when she learns of a secret garden on the estate, which belonged to the late Mistress Craven. She also discovers a young cousin, Colin, hidden away in a wing of the manor, and confined to a wheelchair. As the children work to restore the garden, the garden returns the favor, nurturing the latent hope and love in their hearts.

The Secret Garden will be shown at the library on Tuesday, December 9 at 6:30 p.m. All ages are welcome, and popcorn will be served.

Such stuff as dreams are made on

We'll be screening the 2010 version of The Tempest on Wednesday, November 12 at 6:30 p.m.

Helen Mirren stars in the principal role of Prospera, the duchess of Milan, who is usurped by her brother, Antonio (Chris Cooper), and cast off on a raft to die with her three-year-old daughter, Miranda (Felicity Jones). Twelve years later, Prospera has her opportunity for revenge; she conjures up a storm, the eponymous tempest, to lure her usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to the island.
 
Ben Whishaw plays Ariel, a spirit who aids Prospera; Djimon Hounsou is Caliban, Prospera’s slave; David Strathairn is Alonso, the King of Naples; and Reeve Carney is Ferdinand, Alonso’s son, who falls in love with Miranda.

“The Great Gatsby” will play at the Newport Public Library

Robert Redford and Mia Farrow take us back to the excesses of the “Roaring Twenties” in Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The film will screen on Tuesday, October 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the library’s McEntee Meeting Room.

Redford stars as Jay Gatsby, who had a romance with Daisy (Mia Farrow) before World War I. She promised to wait for him, but instead married Tom Buchanan (Bruce Dern), a wealthy Long Islander who came from “old money.” Tom is an arrogant, hypocritical bully, who has no moral qualms about his affair with Myrtle Wilson (Karen Black).

After the war, Gatsby became a self-made millionaire through criminal dealings. Still in love with Daisy, he uses his vast fortune to buy his way into Long Island society, and throws lavish parties in an attempt to woo her back. Calmly observing the passing parade is Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston), Gatsby's best friend, who narrates the film.

Admission is free, and open to the public.
~~~Sheryl

Smoke Signals on the Big Screen

Smoke Signals, September's Literary Flicks selection, will be shown at the library on Tuesday, September 9 at 6:30 p.m. 

This 1998 film is based on Sherman Alexie's book, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.  Skinny, nerdy Thomas Builds-the-Fire and stoic, athletic Victor Joseph are Coeur d'Alene Indians who leave their reservation for the first time to retrieve the ashes of Victor's father, Albert Joseph.

Thomas and Victor's fates were linked by a calamity from the cradle. Thomas was an infant when his parents were killed in a fire; it was Victor's father who saved him. Victor has not seen his father since Albert walked out on his family in an inebriated fury 10 years before. As the movie settles into the rhythms of a road picture, the two characters converse, and the dialogue becomes the heart of the movie.   The movie won both the coveted Audience Award and the Filmmakers’ Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival. 

Admission is free, as is the popcorn!

Joy Luck Club

We'll provide the popcorn; you bring the hankies. Tuesday, August 12 at 6:30 p.m. we'll be showing the 1993 film, The Joy Luck Club.

Based on Amy Tan's 1989 novel, the movie tells the story of four Chinese mothers and their American born daughters, and the chasm between generations. Flashbacks of the mothers as young women reveal the startling events and conditions that shaped their lives -- and how these experiences affected the dreams they each hold for their children.



The late Roger Ebert gave the film a five star review.   He said "These stories are about Chinese and Chinese-American characters, but they are universal stories. Anyone with parents or children, which is to say, everyone, will identify with the way that the hopes of one generation can become both the restraints and the inspirations of the next....The Joy Luck Club is like a flowering of talent that has been waiting so long to be celebrated. It is also one of the most touching and moving of the year's films."

The Joy Luck Club will be shown at no charge in the McEntee Meeting Room.

"The Human Factor" has been rescheduled

The Newport Public Library has rescheduled the film The Human Factor, which will be shown on Tuesday, July 29 at 6:30 p.m.

The Human Factor is a 1979 film based on Graham Greene's 1978 novel of the same name. Adapted for the screen by Tom Stoppard, the film is set during the Cold War. High ranking members of the British foreign intelligence service (Richard Attenborough, Robert Morley, and John Gielgud) suspect desk clerk Castle (Nicol Williamson) of leaking information to the Russians because his wife (Iman) was smuggled out of Apartheid-era South African by a Communist friend.

Suspicion also falls on Castle’s playboy office partner, Davis (Derek Jacobi). Whoever the mole is must be quietly killed. Directed by Otto Preminger, this was his 38th and final film.

This movie will be shown at no charge in the McEntee Meeting Room.

Kipling's Kim

The Newport Public Library will show the film Kim at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10.

Based on Rudyard Kipling’s novel set in 1880’s India, the film tells the story of an orphaned son of British parents, Kim (Dean Stockwell), who poses as a native. He uses his wits to live on the streets by begging, stealing, and running errands. His main benefactor is the horse trader Mahbub Ali, the Red Beard (Errol Flynn), who is actually a spy for the British Empire and uses Kim as a courier.

While on his way to deliver a vital message, Kim meets and joins a holy man from Tibet (Paul Lukas). He's a Buddhist searching for a mythical holy river that will cleanse sins and pave the way for enlightenment. When Kim’s true identity as the son of a British officer is uncovered, he is sent to a private school, from which he escapes. Reunited with the Red Beard, he gives crucial aid to the British in the battles along the Afghanistan border.

This movie will be shown at no charge in the McEntee Meeting Room of the library. For more information, call the library at 265-2153 or check its website at www.newportlibrary.org.

Ordinary People

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” -  Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

The Newport Public Library will be showing the film Ordinary People on Tuesday, May 13 at 6:30 p.m. This 1980 film is based on the 1976 novel by Judith Guest.

Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore star as Calvin and Beth Jarrett, the upper-middle class parents of Conrad, played by Timothy Hutton.  Beneath their manicured, perfect veneer, the family disintegrates in the wake of tragedy.  Their eldest son has died in a boating accident, and Conrad, who blames himself for his brother's death, attempts suicide.

Mary Tyler Moore excels as the outwardly cheerful and charitable, but inwardly cold and sterile mother.  Donald Sutherland's character is awkward and confused, doing his best to hold his damaged family together.  Timothy Hutton's Conrad is tortured, full of doubt and low self-esteem, but does find hope with the support of his father, his psychiatrist (Judd Hirsch), and two girls he befriends.

The film marked the directorial debut of Robert Redford, who won an Academy Award for Best Director. Other Academy Award wins include Best Supporting Actor (Timothy Hutton), Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

This movie will be shown at no charge in the McEntee Meeting Room of the library.  As always, free popcorn will be available!

For Whom the Bell Tolls

The Newport Public Library will show the film For Whom the Bell Tolls at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 8.

This 1943 film is based on Ernest Hemingway's 1940 novel set during the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway handpicked Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman to play Robert Jordan, an idealistic American teacher who joins the Republicans, and María, a woman abused by Nationalist soldiers.

The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Katina Paxinou won the Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

This movie will be shown at no charge in the McEntee Meeting Room of the library.

Through David Copperfield's Eyes

The March Literary Flick selection is the 1935 version of the Charles Dickens classic, David Copperfield. I’m embarrassed to say that until now, I had never read it, but I recently downloaded the audiobook from Library2Go and am enjoying it immensely.

What struck me from the beginning was the rich detail Dickens brings to each character through the eyes of the titular David Copperfield. He’s a young innocent, sent into the world of work by his stepfather after his mother dies. Arrangements are made for him to board with Mr. Micawber.

I went in, and found there a stoutish, middle-aged person, in a brown surtout and black tights and shoes, with no more hair upon his head (which was a large one, and very shining) than there is upon an egg, and with a very extensive face, which he turned full upon me. His clothes were shabby, but he had an imposing shirt-collar on. He carried a jaunty sort of a stick, with a large pair of rusty tassels to it; and a quizzing-glass hung outside his coat,—for ornament, I afterwards found, as he very seldom looked through it, and couldn't see anything when he did.

While David strives to see the good in Mr. Micawber, his description of the man hints at character flaws that are revealed throughout the story.

Another colorfully described character is Uriah Heap, a clerk who works for an attorney.

… I saw a cadaverous face appear at a small window on the ground floor … It belonged to a red-haired person—a youth of fifteen, as I take it now, but looking much older—whose hair was cropped as close as the closest stubble; who had hardly any eyebrows, and no eyelashes, and eyes of a red-brown, so unsheltered and unshaded, that I remember wondering how he went to sleep. He was high-shouldered and bony; dressed in decent black, with a white wisp of a neckcloth; buttoned up to the throat; and had a long, lank, skeleton hand, which particularly attracted my attention, as he stood at the pony's head, rubbing his chin with it, and looking up at us in the chaise. 

Uriah is portrayed as a writhing, slimy, shifty-eyed person, whom David mistrusts from first meeting.

David O. Selznick and George Cuckor directed and produced the 1935 version of the film. They selected a cast of stellar actors to bring Charles Dickens’ characters to life. Stars include W.C. Fields as Mr. Micawber, Roland Young as Uriah Heap, Basil Rathbone as Mr. Murdstone, Lionel Barrymore as Dan’l Peggoty, Jessie Ralph as Peggoty, Maureen O’Sullivan as Dora, and Edna May Oliver as Aunt Betsy. The role of David Copperfield went to Freddie Bartholomew after an extensive talent search in Canada and Great Britain by Selznick and Cuckor.

David Copperfield will be shown in the McEntee Meeting Room on Tuesday, March 11, at 6:30 p.m. I look forward to seeing how the story matches my imagination. I hope you can join me!

"I never drink...wine"

Bela Lugosi gave the performance of his life in the 1931 screen version of Bram Stoker's Dracula. His hypnotic eyes, slow, deliberate speech, and commanding presence drew his victims to him as moths to a flame. Movie audiences in 1931 were terrified of his persona, and many fainted in shock when they watched the film. 

Do Lugosi’s charm and menace translate on the screen 82 years later?  Join us at the Newport Public Library on Tuesday, October 8 at 6:30 p.m. as we venture into the scary season with a showing of this classic horror movie. 

Other characters include Dwight Frye as the ill-fated Renfield; Edward Von Sloan as Professor Van Helsing, a vampire hunter; and Helen Chandler and Frances Dade as Mina and Lucy, two of Count Dracula’s beautiful victims.

Literary Flicks are shown the 2nd Tuesday of each month, and are free and open to the public.  Popcorn will be served.

W. Somerset Maugham--Through a Veil Darkly

August's Literary Flick is The Painted Veil, starring Naomi Watts, Ed Norton, and Liev Schreiber. Filmed in 2006, the movie is based on W. Somerset Maugham's 1925 novel.

British socialite Kitty (Watts) marries Walter Fane (Norton), a bacteriologist. They move to Shanghai where they soon learn they have nothing in common; Kitty is vain, vivacious, and fond of parties, while Walter is shy and studious. Kitty begins an affair with Charles Townsend (Schreiber), a married British vice consul.

Learning of his wife’s infidelity, Walter volunteers to work in a Chinese village stricken with a major cholera epidemic. As a backdrop to the story, revolution is brewing in China. While Walter's actions are meant to punish Kitty rather than reflect his own benevolence, the daily trials of living in a community in crisis have a striking impact on the couple, giving them a new and deeper perspective on their relationship.

The Painted Veil moves slowly, lyrically, luxuriantly along, its breathtaking scenery juxtaposing vividly with the misery of illness and war.



The movie will be shown on Tuesday, August 13, at 6:30 p.m.  For more information, call the library at 541-265-2153 or go to the Literary Flicks website.