David from the Library

I had just finished spending the day walking around the State Legislative Building in Raleigh advocating for Habitat for Humanity (basically I was a lobbyist for a day--kind of cool!) so I went to the library to find some movies. I was thrilled that no one else was in the movie section so that I could take my time and browse. Well that lasted about 5 minutes. "Are you looking for a good old [time] movie?" My response to this question led to a 20 minute "conversation" between this very quirky 50+ year old man. His name was David and he knew everything about basically every movie between 1920 and 1980. He could tell me the actors, director, producer, and basically when it was filmed. He also gave me some requested and unsolicited bio's on the actors. He just kept piling movies in my hands. We talked about Gene Kelley, Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock, Paul Newman (because I mentioned my housemate Emily's obsession) and more.

He could have talked to me ALL day I'm sure of it! Part of me wanted to bail and just pick my 21st century romantic comedies but part of me was happy to see how excited he was about talking to me. Not to mention he was saving me about 2 hours worth of reading online movie synopsis. He kept saying how annoying he must be...yet he kept going on and on. It made me laugh. I was literally putting the movies back on the shelf as he continued to hand me more. "Oh you're so good you put them back in order. Some people just lay them down in a stack." I thought to myself if you'd stop pulling them off the shelf and just talk to me about them I wouldn't have to put them back!

I told David I would try and remember all the films so that next time I could take more of them. He offered to write them down for me. Just more indication of what kind of man I was talking to. Here is his list:

• Invasion of the Box Snatchers
• Bringing up Baby
• Court Jester
• Defending your Life
• Adam's Rib
• African Queen
• All the President's Men
• Apartment
• Sunset Boulevard
• Sugar
• Shop Around the Corner
• Notorious
• On the Water Front
• My Man Godfrey
• Maltese Falcon
• Kind Hearts and Coronets
• In Cold Blood
• Anatomy of a Murder
• Arsenic and Old Lace
• Awful Truth
• Big Clock
• Path's of Glory (David's all time personal favorite)
• Hustler
• Verdict

I think he got so excited by our chat he went over board. David wrote down his phone number and said, "If you watch these movies and find out that I'm right, give me a call."

What have I got to lose! So I walked out of the library with two of my own picks: "Fame" (the new version) and "When in Rome" and two of David's picks: "All the President's Men" and "The Philadelphia Story".

I'll keep you posted on how I feel about his list. Who knows I might end up owing David a phone call.

The best is yet to come,
~Adwoa