Here it is, the post no one’s been waiting for, and it’s mostly just photos: four months of (movie-only) library borrows. There were two or three weeks when I forgot to take photos, but it was more of the same: pre-Code, noir, screwball, Warner Archives. I was going to do write-ups for each batch until today went spectacularly off the rails for reasons beyond my (or Crankenstein’s) control, so it was either this or nothing at all.
March
Katharine Hepburn is an acquired taste, but my fondness for ice queens, goofballs and abrasive women precedes me. You might be unsurprised to learn that if I had a daughter, I wanted to name her Katharine — Katharine Elizabeth — and call her Kate. I’d seen Christopher Strong before but was taking a second look at Dorothy Arzner films.
Bigger Than Life continued my trend of picking up Nicholas Ray titles I haven’t seen in a while. Twin Peaks was a holdover from February and as I explained back then, I was on the fence about whether to watch it since the original series reminds me quite a bit about something I’d rather forget. Ultimately, I returned it without watching it.
You Hurt My Feelings was lesser Nicole Holofcener, which still makes it better than most of what’s released these days. If you’ve noticed a theme with Warner Archive releases, the primary reason is that I prefer older movies. I also write about these borrows and even have a domain name reserved for those ramblings, but can’t get past some of my reservations (including YouTube/podcast/TikTok content thieves and the proliferation of AI). Maybe that’ll change in the future.
April
April wasn’t a great month due to neck misery, and it appears I neglected to take photos of the two stacks of DVDs I borrowed. Off the top of my head I can only remember Grace Quigley (1985), a Katharine Hepburn/Nick Nolte film that’s currently on Tubi, and Arzner’s Dance, Girl, Dance. Oh, and I introduced Crankenstein to Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion.
May
Murders in the Zoo (1933) was quite an experience and one of the oddest pre-Codes I’ve encountered. The Holdovers was returned without having been watched because I wanted to read more about the plagiarism accusations first. Roland-Garros and Wimbledon made May and June light movie months.
June
It had been quite some time since I’d last seen Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, and the DVD audio commentary by Diane Lane and Laura Dern is as classic as the movie — but it should be re-recorded in a post-#MeToo era that will find them more freewheeling. A Gathering of Old Men will be reviewed on Cranky eventually as part of a Holly Hunter series, and the Richard Widmark films are part of the revival I kicked off a few weeks ago by showing Crankenstein Kiss of Death.