Category Archives: Class V

It all started with a big list

So if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that it all started with my undergraduate thesis, ”A Glimpse Through the Glasses: Portrayals of Librarians in Film.” Click here for more info on that, finding movies, as well as more about the inspiration behind my personal interest in reel librarians.

I’ve mentioned before about starting out with 47 titles for that undergrad thesis, so maybe I should share those titles with you sometime.

How about now? ;)

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And looking back, that initial list contains a decent cross-section of librarian films, ranging from librarians as major characters (Classes I and II) to bit parts (Classes III and IV) to even a case of mistaken occupation (Class V). Click each title below to find out more info about each movie, its major plot and cast of reel librarian(s).

Enjoy!

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Library of the future?

In Demolition Man (1993), Sylvester Stallone plays John Spartan, a cop who is brought out of cryogenics in order to pursue an old enemy (Wesley Snipes) running rampant in a future, nonviolent society. Sandra Bullock also co-stars as fellow cop Lenina Huxley.

There’s no librarian in the movie, so, alas, it joins the others in Class V. I didn’t plan on having two Class V movies so close to each other (see my previous post about Moscow on the Hudson), but that’s the order I received these movies from my local public library.

But not all is lost. About an hour into the film, Lenina and John mention a library during a conversation in the car. Let’s listen in:

Lenina: I’ve been an enthusiast of your escapades for quite some time now. I have, in fact, perused some newsreels from the Schwarzenegger Library…

John:  Hold it. The Schwarzenegger Library?!

Lenina:  Yes, the Schwarzenegger Presidential Library. Wasn’t he an actor when you…

John:  Stop! He was president?

Lenina:  Yes. Even though he was not born in this country, his popularity caused the 61st amendment…

John:  I don’t want to know. President.

You can enjoy this brief scene — and the variety of amusing facial expressions from Stallone — in this clip below.

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Gimme shelter

Moscow on the Hudson (1984) surprised me. Based on the DVD cover (see left), I was not expecting much — or rather, I guess I was expecting a lot of bad accents and Russian stereotypes. To be sure, there are some bad accents and immigrant stereotypes, but overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by this movie. In truth, I found myself falling a little bit in love with my country again. It’s a typical immigrant plotline, but an intriguing one.

However, I was disappointed not to spot any librarians in the film. I went through the movie twice and called my husband in to make sure I wasn’t going crazy. At first, I couldn’t even spot a library!

So why did I request a copy of this movie from my local public library in the first place? Because in Martin Raish’s Librarians in the Movies online filmography, the line accompanying Moscow on the Hudson states: “Robin Williams has a scene in the library.” But the film is also listed in Category D, films Raish hadn’t seen yet or found adequate descriptive comments about. Perhaps there was a library scene that got deleted at some point?

I did finally find a web site that included a comment that one of the film scenes had been filmed outside a branch of the New York Public Library, the Tompkins Square Branch Library. Here’s how the outside of the library, and side alley way, appear in the movie (see right). You could also just spy a blurry library sign as the group walked past the entrance, in their hurry to get out of the rain.

It seems the library has undergone extensive renovations; click here for the branch library’s website.

So Moscow on the Hudson joins the other films in Class V, the category of films with no identifiable librarians. Below, enjoy a brief clip near the end of the movie.

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Identity crisis in Red Dragon

Red Dragon (2002) has been on my Master List for awhile, but I just hadn’t gotten around to watching it. Maybe it was my high regard for Manhunter (1986), which I found a far superior film to this version. Red Dragon seems to stuff in too many big-name actors, and the pace drags.

If you’re not familiar with either film, the story serves as a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991). FBI Agent Will Graham goes into early retirement because of an encounter with “Hannibal the Cannibal” — sending Hannibal Lecter to prison — but then gets called back in to catch a brutal serial killer. Of course, Graham ends up consulting Hannibal on the case.

About 50 minutes in, Graham (Edward Norton) needs to look up a quotation. He’s shown looking up at a thin white female in her early 20′s (Azura Skye), who’s standing behind a wooden counter and holding a thick book of quotations.

“Ta da! Red breast in a cage!” she says, looking through the book’s index. She then finds the full quotation, “A robin red breast in a cage puts all heaven in a rage,” by poet William Blake. She confirms they have the book the quote’s from, and offers additional resources: “We have some books of Blake’s paintings, too. Wanna see ‘em?”

She seems quite friendly — very smiley and slightly flirty — and quite knowledgeable about resources. The film seems to be set the 1980s (I think), which explains her early-Maddona look:  crimped, dyed blond hair, plastic hair clip, skinny tie over a denim vest and black dress, piled-on makeup, and lots of silver and black jewelry.

The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun

Image via Wikipedia

We also spot her — or rather, her crimped hair — in the background a couple of minutes later, as Graham looks through the book of paintings by William Blake. He comes across a biblical watercolor, “The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun” (right), which provides a clue to the killer’s identity crisis.

Martin Raish described the helpful young lady as “a gum cracking young blonde” on his Librarians in the Movies web site, and she seems to serve the same basic function as an Information Provider. Only problem is, she’s not technically a librarian. She’s working in a bookstore — remember those? — not a library.

What are the clues?

  • First, she seems to be standing above him, like she would if she were behind a shop counter.
  • We see lots of wood shelving, but the books are crammed in everywhere, with little breathing space. Quite unlike a library (hopefully).
  • In the couple of shots, you can glimpse a book display in the lower left-hand corner (see below). Multiple copies of several titles are facing outward, like in displays at a bookstore’s front counter.
  • And finally… the actress is listed as “Bookseller” in the credits.

So why the choice of a bookseller, rather than a librarian? It might have simply been a visual opportunity to solidify the time period, and a librarian at that time might not be as believable if dressed as a Madonna wannabe. Most of the film seems to be set at nighttime (because it’s spookier?), so maybe the public library would have been closed already. But I’m probably overthinking it.

A few minutes after the quotations scene, my ears perked up when a fellow detective (Ken Leung) runs off for another clue and shouts for the others to meet him “at the library.” The resulting short scene shows him at the Library of Congress, but alas, no librarian in sight. There is yet another teaser, with a Museum Secretary (Hillary Straney) and an uncredited Museum Curator (Mary Beth Hurt), who both appear for a few seconds late in the film.

The bookseller in this film serves the same function as an Information Provider librarian, but, technically, this films joins others in the Class V category — films with no identifiable librarians.

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Are you not entertained?!

Entertaining Mr. Sloane (1970) is a film adaptation of Joe Orton’s play of the same name. I didn’t know anything about Joe Orton before I watched Prick Up Your Ears (1987), a biopic of his life and murder (that film includes two reel librarians and has made my Hall of Shame list). Orton was a controversial figure who wrote controversial plays.

I can see how Entertaining Mr. Sloane was a groundbreaking play. It takes a comedy of manners and twists it through a lens of satire, sex, and pitch-black humor. The main plot involves the opportunistic Mr. Sloane (Peter McEnery) who lodges with an eccentric family, consisting of the aging nymphomaniac Kath (Beryl Reid), her uptight brother Ed (Harry Andrews), and their doddery Dadda (Alan Webb).

Entertaining Mr Sloane (film)

Does it have a librarian? No.

But there’s a bit more to the story. So stick with me.

About twenty-one minutes in the film, after Kath has picked up the lodger, her brother Ed returns and demands to know where she picked him up. She lies and says, “In the library.”

Where did she actually pick him up? In the cemetery, where he was lounging on a tombstone with no shirt on (see below).

Ed goes up to talk to the lodger in his bedroom. Sloane — after a run-in with a pitchfork (don’t ask, nothing really makes sense) — is lounging this time on the guest bed, clad only in his undies.

After a bit of chit-chat, Ed muses, “You’re a librarian.”

Sloane’s response. “NO!”

Ed: “No? That’s what she said.”

You're a librarian? NO!

Sloane mumbles something about having worked at a tobacconist, but who knows if that’s the truth. He’s an opportunistic, manipulative liar. But even HE couldn’t see his way through to make believe he was a librarian. ;)

It’s interesting, however, that even in a film like this which has no reel librarian, the profession is used in a lie. The sister uses the location of the library in a desperate attempt at respectability. Alas, in the case of Mr. Sloane, plausability was not an option.

I suspect Orton also included the mention of the library to wink at his own criminal past — he and his lover amused themselves by stealing library books and defacing them. For this guerilla artistic expression, Orton served 6 months in jail in 1962 — an incident included in the biopic Prick Up Your Ears. And in classic pop culture fashion, the book covers have since become a popular collection for the Islington Local History Centre! Check out the online gallery of these infamous book jackets.

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