The Librarian

Tonight I watched a movie on TV ... The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines ... a rerun of the second in a series of made-for-TV movies, directed by Jonathon Frakes (Commander Riker of Star Trek) about Flynn Carsen (played by Noah Wylie), a very special kind of librarian working for a unique library (which houses items such as the Shroud of Turin :-). Here's some of what Wikipedia says about the first movie, which introduces Flynn as a peraetual college student who still lives with his mom (Olympia Dukakis) ....

Carsen receives a mysterious invitation for an interview at the Metropolitan Public Library. Shortly after Carsen’s odd but successful interview, he is shown the true duties of his new job by a doleful library employee, Charlene (Jane Curtin), and library head Judson, (Bob Newhart) . The position of librarian, Carsen’s new job, has existed for centuries, and its purpose is to protect historical and often magical items in a secret section of the library. Some of the items Carsen is responsible for are The Ark of the Covenant, a unicorn, the goose that laid the golden eggs, Pandora’s Box, Excalibur, the original Mona Lisa (the Louvre's is a copy), and the Spear of Destiny ...



As part of his job as Librarian, Flynn is sent off to exotic places to find and protect priceless historical relics and (ahem) save the world. In this second movie, he, and an archaeologist (played by Gabrielle Anwar) search for a magical book to be found among the treasures of King Solomon's mines in Africa. It's goofy, a kind of poor man's Raiders of the Lost Ark, but fun. As a blurb at Amazon.com says of the movie (selling the DVD) ...

The humble hero (who would rather be known as "Flynn, the rather pleasant at parties"), somewhat cheesy special effects, and corny comedy make The Librarian a fun guilty pleasure. As Carsen proclaims, "Being a librarian is actually a cool job." :-)



PS - if you like this kind of stuff, check out the novel, King Solomon's Mines, by H. Rider Haggard ... I've read both it and another by him - She - and both were great, and both can be found at Project Gutenburg.