Movies for the man and woman of letters

Lots of good books get made into bad- even awful- movies.

A new feature from The Library of America reminds of the stories that survived the transition to film. Meet The Moviegoer:

You can stream thousands of movies with a tap on your smartphone, but how do you choose what to watch? “The Moviegoer” is here to help. In this biweekly column, top writers champion memorable films to watch or watch again, all inspired by or related to classic works from Library of America. The hero of Walker Percy’s novel The Moviegoer writes that he’s “quite happy in a movie, even a bad movie.” But his favorite moments usually come from great entertainments like The Third Man and Stagecoach. “The Moviegoer” salutes movies of that caliber. We hope these choices make you, too, quite happy.