Either I hadn't seen the entire The Gold Rush (1925) or my memory is really bad; I only remembered the starvation scene of eating a stewed shoe, the teetering cabin on the edge of a cliff, and Chaplin's dancing dinner rolls routine. I didn't remember the girl at all.

Inherit the Wind (1960). This play was a favorite of mine when I was a teenager.

One notable difference between the play and the movie was that in the play, Drummond, the lawyer defending Bert, the schoolteacher on trial for teaching evolution, says of his client

Can you buy back his respectability by making him a coward? I understand what Bert's going through. It's the loneliest feeling in the world--to find yourself standing up when everyone else is sitting down. To have everybody look at you and say, 'What's the matter with him?' I know. I know what it feels like. Walking down an empty street, listening to the sound of your own footsteps. Shutters closed, blinds drawn, doors locked against you. And you aren't sure whether you're walking towards something, or if you're just walking away.

(This simply reinforced lessons my eccentric parents taught me.) In the movie, Drummond shows a way out, but continues in the same vein, condemning those who give in:

But all you have to do is knock on any door and say, "If you let me in, I'll live the way you want me to live, and I'll think the way you want me to think," and all the blinds'll go up and all the windows will open, and you'll never be lonely, ever again. If that's the case, I'll change the plea - that is, if you know the law's right and you're wrong.

Spencer Tracy played Drummond, Fredric March his opponent, and Gene Kelly the cynical reporter. I didn't realize that Gene Kelly was so young in 1960. Because of their later TV roles, Dick York as the schoolteacher and Harry Morgan as the judge were both a little distracting. I realize that if Dick York was going to teach "evilution," I guess it wasn't so surprising that he ended up marrying a witch. Also Norman Fell had a very brief appearance as a radio technician.

Back when I read the play, I liked the attacks on religion, and was a little annoyed when the cynic got his comeuppance and Drummond showed he wasn't entirely opposed to religion. But now I feel that was a good lesson to teach. It wasn't until I saw the movie that I realized it could be about McCarthyism, but I still don't see that as the main point.

Mandingo (1975). I'm not sure what this is doing in our library collection. Jonathan Rosenbaum at the Chicago Reader liked it, calling it

One of the most neglected and underrated Hollywood films of its era....doubtful whether many more insightful and penetrating movies about American slavery exist.

Even though he concedes it was widely ridiculed as camp when it came out. Yes, it shows how badly slave-owners treated their slaves, but there's something prurient in the way the movie shows the sex. The accents and the language the characters use is pretty false-sounding, especially James Mason's. Perry King acts well, even though the idea of a sensitive white guy who likes his black slave is a little silly. Brenda Sykes manages the lingo, but completely fails to render the accent, sounding like a college girl.

Alan & Naomi (1992) Lukas Haas, Michael Gross, and Amy Aquino all did a good job. I didn't like Vanessa Zaoui so much, maybe because of her character. I hadn't realized it's really a kid's book.