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Chicago – She was born Frances Gumm on June 10th, 1922, but the world knew her as megastar Judy Garland. To celebrate her birth centennial, the Gene Siskel Film Center presents nine of her films from June 1 – July 30. For ticket info and details, click JUDY100.

The nine films will be “Meet Me in St. Louis” (June 1 & 4), “The Clock” (June 8 & 11), “Easter Parade” (June 15 & 18), “In the Good Old Summertime” (June 22 & 26), “Summer Stock” (June 29 & July 2), A Star is Born” (July 6 & 9), The Pirate” (July 13 & 16), Judgement At Nuremberg (July 20 & 23) and of course “The Wizard of Oz” (July 27 & 30). All will screen at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Judy Garland Summer Centennial

Photo credit: SiskelFilmCenter.org

Arguably, Judy Garland is one of the greatest movie stars of her era. She signed a movie contract in 1935 with Metro Goldwyn Mayer at the tender age of 15, and then starred in a series of iconic musical/dramatic films during her time there,...

Sometimes it’s like they read your mind—or just notice upcoming releases as you do. Whatever the case, I’m thrilled that the release of Terence Davies’ Benediction played (I assume!) some part in a full retro on the Criterion Channel this June, sad as I know that package will make me and anybody else who comes within ten feet of it. It’s among a handful of career retrospectives: they’ve also set a 12-film Judy Garland series populated by Berkeley and Minnelli, ten from Ulrike Ottinger, and four by Billy Wilder. But maybe their most adventurous idea in some time is a huge microbudget collection ranging from Ulmer’s Detour to Joel Potrykus’ Buzzard, fellow success stories—Nolan, Linklater, Jarmusch, Jia Zhangke—spread about.

Criterion Editions continue with Bertrand Tavernier’s Round Midnight, Double Indemnity, and Seconds, while Chameleon Street, Karen Dalton: In My Own Time,...

Could we be more excited if we tried? Witch, please! The cast of Sabrina the Teenage Witch—including Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina), Nate Richert (Harvey) and Caroline Rhea (Aunt Hilda) —reunited on TikTok April 5 and we are living for it. The video featured the cast participating in a viral trend: listening to songs and revealing whether they've heard them before. Caroline posted the clip with the caption, "is this what mortals do for fun?" Yes, yes it is. Some of the songs in the video included: I Don't Care by Ed Sheeran, Señorita by Shawn Mendes, Truth Hurts by Lizzo, Old Town Road by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray...

Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Charli Xcx: Alone Together, a documentary that follows international pop star Charli Xcx as she records an album during the pandemic with online input from her fans.

Bradley Bell and Pablo Jones-Soler directed the film, which Greenwich plans to release in January. The documentary premiered in March at SXSW.

“Charli Xcx… was riding high after an electric headline global tour in 2019. However, everything changes when the Covid-19 pandemic turns the world upside down,” Greenwich wrote in a release describing the documentary project. “Lost in the early days of quarantine Charli turns to music and announces she will make an album at home in 40 days by enlisting the help of her fans online. The boundaries take Charli on a unique creative and emotional journey as she confronts mental health issues, rekindles her relationship with her boyfriend, connects with her fans, and ultimately...

Ten Minutes to Live / The Girl from ChicagoThere was a period, less than a lifetime ago, when the filmgoer was met with a laidback prolificacy. In this stretch, from silents to the sixties, it would be common for a habitual spectator to see multiple films by, say, Raoul Walsh or Michael Curtiz in a given calendar year. For a director, the two-(or more)-films-a-year was a frequency in the studio system, whose mechanisms were set up to move personnel from one production to another seamlessly. The regularity of this occurrence likely allowed it to pass under the viewer’s gaze without notice.Even the critic, in the fledgling era of auteurism, was unlikely to look at more than the resonances and dissonances of theme and style across two (or more) films of a director in a particular year. So, the phenomenon took on the selfsame approach to what...

We’re just one week away from The Chi episode that showrunner Justin Hillian said will catch us up to the huge events we saw at the start of the season. And Sunday’s episode moves into place many of the pieces necessary for that flash-forward to happen.

Kiesha chooses an adoptive parent for her baby. Jake and Jemma kiss. Mayor Perry starts getting jazzed for the gala. (Little does he know!)

More from TVLineThe Chi Recap: Citizens on PatrolDexter Set to Make a Killing in Small Town America -- Watch Revival TeaserTVLine Items: Greer Joins White House Series, Snooki's...

Meryl Streep and Mamie Gummer, “Ricki and the Flash”

The mother-daughter duo starred in this 2015 film directed by Jonathan Demme.

Demi Moore and Rumer Willis, “Striptease

Actually, this mother-daughter team is a frequent on-screen collaborator. They first appeared together in 1995’s “Now and Then, as well as 1996’s “Striptease.”

Carrie Fisher and Billie Lourd, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”

Billie Lourd starred alongside her late mother Carrie Fisher in “The Last Jedi,” Fisher’s last role before she died. Of course, Fisher reprised her famous role of Princess Leia.

Maureen O’Sullivan and Mia Farrow, “Hannah and Her Sisters”

O’Sullivan and Farrow starred together in the 1986 film, written and directed by Woody Allen, with whom Farrow was in a relationship.

Susan Sarandon and Eva Amurri Martino, “That’s My Boy” and “The Banger Sisters”

Another mother-daughter pair that’s in more than one film together, Susan Sarandon and her daughter Eva...

Liza Minnelli was born into show business royalty on March 12, 1946, and pressed into service onstage at the tender age of 14 months by her singer mother Judy Garland and director father Vincente Minnelli.

According to a short 1947 mention in Variety titled “In Ma’s Footsteps,” “Liza Minnelli, 14-month-old daughter of Judy Garland, makes her acting bow in Metro’s ‘The Pirate,’ which her father is directing.” It didn’t take long for her to move up to a film credit. Her first credited film role was at 3 years old, appearing briefly in “In the Good Old Summertime” alongside her mother.

And though her biggest wish when she was young was to be a dancer, Minnelli ended up doing back-to-back serious dramatic roles before winning her Oscar for her irrepressible performance as nightclub singer Sally Bowles in “Cabaret.”

“I always wanted to be a dancer. I remember going to dancing school because I asked my dad.

by Nathaniel R

- Tell me who you are!

- I'm the worst mistake you'll ever mistake.

Watching I Don't Care (reviewed by Christopher) was a whiplash experience. I was absolutely loving it until I suddenly wasn't. Thirty-six minutes into the movie Dean (Chris Messina) arrives into Marla's (Rosamund Pike) office, to start what is essentially act two of a three act. Two sharks begin speaking in human voices, their teeth gleaming imagining fleshy bites and blood in the water. It's a superb scene. A few minutes later another violent verbal duet with Dianne Wiest.  All three actors are on absolute fire with impeccably judged reaction shots, expressive body language, and nastily imaginative line-readings. I Care A Lot felt, in that ten minute stretch, like it was taking off into the stratosphere. This is an "A" grade pitch-black comedy! The movie throws everything at you thereafter -- incidents, twists, more verbal duels,...

Steve Earle and the Dukes performed a lively cover of his son Justin Townes Earle’s “Harlem River Blues” on Thursday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. The recorded version appears on the newly released album J.T., a tribute to the late singer-songwriter, who died in August.

Strumming an octave mandolin, Earle leads his full band through a rollicking, pedal-steel drenched interpretation of the tune, which had traces of gospel harmony in its original incarnation. It’s all in stark contrast to the younger Earle’s lyrics, which...

Steve Earle has announced details for his album of songs dedicated to his late son, the singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle, who died this past August at the age of 38.

Following in the traditions of tribute albums Earle has recorded to honor close friends like his son’s namesake, Townes Van Zandt, with 2009’s Townes, and Guy Clark with 2019’s Guy, Earle will release J.T. on January 4th — what would have been his son’s 39th birthday.

“The record is called J.T. because Justin was never called anything else until he was nearly grown,...

The 2020 Billboard Music Awards will be held tonight, October 14, but who will win? Hundreds of Gold Derby users have placed their bets in 15 top categories here in our predictions center. Their forecasts have been combined to generate our official racetrack odds. Scroll down to see who we’re betting on, listed in order of their odds with projected winners highlighted in gold.

Post Malone goes into this event with the most nominations (16), so it’s probably not surprising that we’re betting on him to take home plenty of hardware. Out of the categories we’re predicting, he’s tipped to win Top Artist, Top Male Artist, Top Rap Artist and Top Billboard 200 Album (“Hollywood’s Bleeding“). And that may just be scratching the surface of his ultimate haul given the chart success of “Bleeding” and its single “Circles.”

SEEBillboard Music Awards performers 2020: Who is performing at the BBMAs?...

After much delay, the 2020 Billboard Music Awards will finally happen on October 14, 2020. Despite taking place in October instead of the usual April or May, the 2020 BBMAs kept their usual eligibility period: March 23, 2019 through March 14, 2020. This means that only the chart performance of songs, albums, tours, and artists during that period of time will be taken into account. When making predictions, it’s also helpful to know that, unlike other award shows like the Grammys and the BET Awards, the BBMAs are solely based on performance on the Billboard charts.

Since the eligibility period doesn’t line up exactly with the January-through-December calendar year, the winners can sometimes be harder to predict than just looking at the Billboard year-end charts. Here are the three closest award battles this year.

SEEAre the Jonas Brothers more popular than BTS? We may find out at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards

Top Billboard 200 Album

Perhaps the...

Shure, the iconic audio company responsible for supplying microphones for famous musicians since the 1920s and every president since Lyndon B. Johnson, has just debuted its first-ever pair of consumer-focused Bluetooth headphones: the Aonic 50. It may be late to the game, but Shure has nevertheless delivered the best sounding pair of wireless headphones I’ve ever heard.

Comfort and Connectivity

Shure’s wait and see approach has allowed it to sidestep many of the problems that plagued Bluetooth headphones in the past. It supports Bluetooth 5.0, the latest version of the...

Park Hye Jin’s 2018 debut Ep, If U Want It, knit together sleek, understated house and brusque hip-hop to great effect. She sang and rapped in both English and her native Korean, throwing out jabbing, chanted phrases in blasé monotone over stubby keyboard loops and no-frills drum programming. Songs like “ABC” and “I Don’t Care” served to demonstrate how much a gifted producer can accomplish with very few ingredients.

Hye Jin was a previously unknown, YouTube-tutorial-taught artist releasing music independently. But her hip-house merger — a combination that has also...

The Grammys might have come and gone, but fear not, the 2020 Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards are around the corner!  And it's safe to bet that Justin Bieber might get slimed at some point during the night. But first, the Grammy Award-winning global superstar will be performing his latest single, "Intentions," with Quavo. Beliebers, rejoice!  The "Yummy" singer is slated to have a big night later this month at the award show. He's currently nominated for three orange blimps: two in the category of "Favorite Music Collaboration" for his song "10,000 Hours" with Dan + Shay and "I Don't Care" with Ed Sheeran, and one...

Justin Bieber joined James Corden for a new edition of “Carpool Karaoke,” where the duo sang along to a few of Bieber’s recent songs and discussed his marriage to Hailey Bieber.

In the clip, the pair kicks things off by singing along to “I Don’t Care,” Bieber’s joint track with Ed Sheeran. Corden claims the song needs some choreography and suggests a few moves. “I was like, instantly, ‘No,'” Bieber replies. “No. That’s not what the kids want to see.” This leads them to creating a “definitive” TikTok dance for “Yummy,...

The 40th Brit Awards took place at London's O2 Arena on Feb. 18, with world-class artists coming together to celebrate the best British talent in the music industry. The lineup was incredible, with a powerful performance by Dave, plus international acts Lizzo and Billie Eilish taking to the stage along with some of the UK's best exports: Harry Styles, Stormzy, and more. But, of course, the entire reason for the concert is the actual award ceremony. Leading the charge with four nominations each were Dave and Lewis Capaldi, followed closely by Mabel and Stormzy, but ultimately, it was Dave who took out the award for album of the year.

In 2020, a new award has been added to the fold - the rising star award - and Celeste was announced as the winner for the inaugural award prior to the show on Tuesday. Keep on reading to find out all the artists...

To really understand the popularity of the K-pop group Monsta X, you just have to listen.

Friday, you heard it in the screams of hundreds of sleep-deprived fans who packed the legendary Roxy Nightclub in Hollywood for a private Monsta X performance, and then snaked a line down four blocks of Sunset Boulevard for a chance to meet Shownu, Minhyuk, Kihyun, Hyungwon, and I.M. at a Monsta X pop-up shop in the former Tower Records building (the sixth member, Joohoney, was out sick).

After a brief Q&a at the Roxy — key takeaways: I.

by Nathaniel R

Some people's talents are so supersized that they're destined for fame. Others are born right into it. In the delicious nutty case of Liza Minnelli it was both. She was famous at birth, being the first child of a superstar couple (Movie star Judy Garland and celebrated director Vincente Minnelli) but later her talents proved that she would have become Liza even if she'd been born to a phone operator and a brick-layer.

Liza is currently back in select movie theaters as herself in the documentary Halston (2019). But we're here to look back today. You can actually catch baby Liza (uncredited) at the end of the Judy Garland musical In the Good Old Summertime (1949) but her film debut proper came in 1968 in the Albert Finney comedy Charlie Bubbles. 

How many of her movies have you seen? Every poster is after the jump but since she's an all...

Next month, Netflix has a wide variety of films — modern to classic, animated to horror, Oscar winners to new indies — and we’ve picked seven that you should watch once they’re made available on the streaming service, either for the first time or as part of a nostalgic binge. Enjoy.

Read More: Kristen Stewart And Juliette Binoche Dig Into Their Complex ‘Clouds of Sils Maria’ Relationship – Watch

1. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (available February 1)

The 1993 stop-motion classic directed by Henry Slick and produced by Tim Burton tells the story of Jack Skellington, a resident from Halloween Town who stumbles through a portal to Christmas Town and decides to celebrate the holiday.

2. “The Blair Witch Project” (available February 1)

Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, the 1999 found footage horror film became one of the most successful indie films of all time when it was released. The movie follows three film students...

In 'Judy by the Numbers' Anne Marie looks back at Garland's career through key songs

By the time Judy Garland turned 28, her entire adult life and her entire star persona had been a product of MGM. In 1950, Judy Garland's image - as cultivated by MGM and the Freed Unit - was of an exuberant talent, small in stature but big in heart and voice; a buoyant box office sensation. However, the reality was different. In the 13 months between the release of In The Good Old Summertime and Summer Stock, Judy Garland fought drug addiction, rehab, an increasingly strained marriage, an unsympathetic studio, and a suicide attempt that made headlines worldwide. Filmed before her attempt but released two months after it, Summer Stock is a record of the conflict between the image of Judy Garland and the reality of Frances Gumm.

The Movie: Summer Stock (1950)

The Songwriters: Harold Arlen (music...

Though nobody foresaw it at the time, 1948 was a major turning point in what would be Judy Garland’s last few years at MGM. After the one-two Freed Unit punch of Easter Parade and Words and Music at the beginning of 1948, Judy was supposed to head straight into her third Arthur Freed film,The Barkleys of Broadway. With Fred Astaire coaxed out of retirement, the duo of Astaire and Garland looked to be a new box office guarantee. Unfortunately, what wasn’t a guarantee was Judy’s health. After two months of rehearsal, Judy backed out of The Barkleys of Broadway, to be replaced by Ginger Rogers. This decision sounded the death knell for her partnership with Arthur Freed, the producer who had created the Judy Garland formula. Judy was too tired, too thin, and too weak to go on filming, until another producer from her past swooped back into the picture: Joe Pasternak.

Overheard whilst exiting Broadway's She Loves Me this weekend:

[surprised] That was just like 'You've Got Mail'!

Bingo, tourist ladies, bingo. She Loves Me, the 1963 musical, currently in the middle of its second Broadway revival, is adapted from the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László. It's inspired so many riffs so often you'd think it was a Shakespeare comedy. The play has already resulted in three well-known movies in the form of the touching Jimmy Stewart clasic (The Shop Around the Corner, 1940), an undervalued Judy Garland romance (In the Good Old Summertime, 1949), and the Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks rom-com You've Got Mail (1998). The shop changes as does the mode by which the anonymous lovers correspond without realizing they know and hate each other in real life. Expect an internet catfishing riff on the story in 3...2...1... Anyway, in 1963 the play was adapted into She Loves Me for the musical stage.

Honorary Award: Gloria Swanson, Rita Hayworth among dozens of women bypassed by the Academy (photo: Honorary Award non-winner Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Blvd.') (See previous post: "Honorary Oscars: Doris Day, Danielle Darrieux Snubbed.") Part three of this four-part article about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Honorary Award bypassing women basically consists of a long, long — and for the most part quite prestigious — list of deceased women who, some way or other, left their mark on the film world. Some of the names found below are still well known; others were huge in their day, but are now all but forgotten. Yet, just because most people (and the media) suffer from long-term — and even medium-term — memory loss, that doesn't mean these women were any less deserving of an Honorary Oscar. So, among the distinguished female film professionals in Hollywood and elsewhere who have passed away without...

Kids, you may not believe this, but some of us are old enough to remember when you used to have to connect to the Internet via 56k dial-up modems. Or that AOL was once the most popular Internet service provider, so popular that everyone recognized the cheerful "You've Got Mail" alert that sounded when you signed on. Or that the "You've Got Mail" greeting was a promise that there was something exciting waiting for you in your e-mail inbox, not just spam ads for Canadian Viagra. Don't believe us? There's a historical document you should check out, aptly titled, "You've Got Mail."

It's been just 15 years since Nora Ephron's romantic comedy opened (December 18, 1998), but it seems like eons ago, not just because the Internet has evolved so much since then, but because we've all watched the unwitting romance between Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) and Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) -- business rivals by day,...

Happy Birthday, Liza Minnelli Minnelli was born in Los Angeles into show business royalty. With her mother Judy Garland and her father the Award winning director Vincent Minnelli, her's is the only family where both parents and child have won an Oscar. Her god parents were Ira Gershwin and Kay Thompson. Liza made her screen debut in 1949 as a toddler with her mother in the MGM movie musical In the Good Old Summertime.

Welcome to Holiday Favorites, a series in which Slackerwood contributors and our friends talk about the movies we watch during the holiday season, holiday-related or otherwise.

I wrote about a few of my favorite holiday classics last year, but neglected to include Meet Me in St. Louis! The 1944 film can be paired with 1949's In the Good Old Summertime for a Judy Garland turn-of-the-century Christmas double feature. These are two of my favorite Garland roles, but Meet Me in St. Louis has an edge because it contains her splendid performance of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (as well as "The Trolley Song," yay).

The year is 1903, and the multi-generational Smith family is upper-middle-class, living in their Victorian home and eager for the World's Fair in St. Louis. Esther (a 22-year-old Garland) is in her late teens, pining for her pipe-smoking young neighbor ("The Boy Next Door"). Oldest sister Rose...

One good thing about working for AfterElton is I know a big chunk of our readership likes, enjoys, and spends a lot of its extra time thinking about stars of the past. You have to keep those names bouncing around in your head since they're little replenishable vitamins, surges of endorphins when brought up correctly. That brings me to today's topic: Judy Garland's onscreen paramours. Garland would've been 90 yesterday, and I didn't get to properly commemorate this. But here's for compensation: I'm bringing you the definitive list of Judy's five hottest costars. Come on, boys, get happy!

5. James Mason

A Star is Born is one of the great films of the '50s, a heartbreaking and unforgettable journey. The heroine's story gets nearly as tragic as Judy's own, particularly in '54 when she lost the Best Actress statuette to Grace Kelly in a year when she was the expected shoo-in.

The Lincoln Center and the Paley Center here in NYC have joined forces to celebrate the all-singing all-dancing legend that is Judy Garland! 

Shout 'Hallelujah', c'mon get happy!"

Once upon a time she was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer." Few celebrities have ever earned their PR self-mythologizing titles the way Judy G did. There's just no beating her for musical pleasure and cathartic heartbreak. And as if her sensational singing and dancing weren't enough, she was a fine actress, too!

I missed the first week of the celebration being in Michigan but I'll see what I can catch for the remainder of the summer program which ends August 9th. If you're not in New York City, you can always follow along at home as best you can with an impromptu DVD festival.

 

Still to come in the festival are...

Young Judy:

Everybody Sing (1938), For Me and My Gal (1942), Presenting Lily Mars...

Described as the "high-priestess of the music hall" and as the "contemporary incarnation of 'all-purpose' in the American style," Academy Award winner Liza Minnelli was announced as the latest Officer in France's Order of the Legion of Honor at a ceremony held today at the French Ministry of Culture in Paris. Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand declared that Minnelli, "for more than five decades [...] has ensured that the show must go on." A visibly moved Minnelli, for her part, said she was "honored to have become a part of France, a part of Paris." She also recalled that her father, director Vincente Minnelli, had promised her that one day "she would learn to dance, would wear a nice dress, and would go to Paris … This moment is marvelous. It's today!" Additionally, Minnelli thanked French icon Charles Aznavour, whom she reportedly considers her mentor. Liza Minnelli's first film appearance was...

Impressive retrospective of Judy Garland.s films will feature 31 titles including a presentation of seldom seen short films and rarities as well as a special .sing-along. screening of The Wizard Of Oz.

On the occasion of what would have been Judy Garland.s 89th birthday, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Paley Center have announced the details today for Fslc.s comprehensive retrospective of the peerless film icon.s work, All Singin., All Dancin., All Judy! which will screen at the Walter Reade Theater July 26 . August 9 and The Paley Center.s comprehensive retrospective of Garland.s television work,Judy Garland: The Television Years which will be presented July 20 . August 18.

With autumn marking the 75th anniversary of Judy Garland’s feature film debut (Pigskin Parade, 1936), the Film Society of Lincoln Center will screen 31 titles from July 26 . August 9, including each of her big-screen acting performances, to pay tribute to...

After the presents are opened, the halls are decked and the roast beast is carved, a lot of folks are looking to hit the movie theater or settle in front of their favorite holiday movies or TV show marathons. Zap2it's got you covered for all your Christmas weekend TV programming.

Friday, Dec. 24

A&E: "Criminal Minds" marathon

ABC Family: 25 Days of Christmas ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys," "Mickey's Christmas Special," "Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too," "Jack Frost," "Frosty's Winter Wonderland," "'Tas the Night Before Christmas," "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town," "The Year Without Santa Claus" and "Rudolph's Shiny New Year.")

 

AMC: "Miracle on 34th Street," "White Christmas" marathon

Animal Planet: "Planet Earth" marathon

BBC America: "Doctor Who" marathon

Cartoon Network: Various cartoon holiday episodes

Cmt: "A Smoky Mountain Christmas," "Larry the Cable Guy's Star-studded Christmas Extravaganza," "Larry the Cable Guy...

Bette Davis, at 3 a.m. in Vincent Sherman's Mr. Skeffington Forget Judy Garland and Van Johnson (and Spring Byington and three-year-old Liza Minnelli) in Robert Z. Leonard's In the Good Old Summertime. Forget Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum in Don Hartman's Holiday Affair. Forget June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rossano Brazzi in Mervyn LeRoy's Little Women. It's too late to watch any of those Turner Classic Movies Christmas presentations, anyhow. My first TCM Christmas recommendation kicks off at 11 p.m. Pt: Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet), Margot Kidder (Superman), and Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey) star in Black Christmas (1974), in which "a deranged killer terrorizes the women staying in a sorority house over Christmas." Bob Clark, best known for Porky's and the Jack Lemmon drama Tribute, directed. At 12:45 a.m., TCM offers another Christmas flick for the whole family: Nicholas Webster's Santa Claus Conquers the Martians...

Twice remade (as the Judy Garland musical In the Good Old Summertime, then as the Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan vehicle You've Got Mail), Lubitsch's 1940 original, set in Budapest, is the real thing. One of the greatest romantic comedies, it centres on two reserved people (James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, delightfully awkward together), working in the same smart Budapest boutique, who become anonymous pen friends. It's funny, touching and beautifully paced with numerous examples of the celebrated "Lubitsch touch". It anticipates (in its Christmas setting, painful revelation of adultery, attempted suicide, shy secret lover and a cast sharing the same workplace) a much darker comedy by a Lubitsch admirer, Billy Wilder's The Apartment. A very welcome revival.

James StewartComedyRomancePhilip French

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Composer of a string of Broadway musicals, he was best known for Fiddler On the Roof

Days after speaking at a memorial service for his Fiddler On the Roof collaborator Joseph Stein, the composer Jerry Bock has died, aged 81. With Stein and the lyricist Sheldon Harnick, Bock wrote some of the most loved and admired Broadway songs of the last century. Fiddler On the Roof, set in Tsarist Russia and starring Zero Mostel as Tevye the milkman, opened on Broadway in 1964 and broke all box-office records, running for more than 3,200 performances.

The show made Bock world-famous for his lilting, instantly familiar Jewish melodies and catchy rhythms. There was consummate artistry in the way he could set to music even so banal an exchange as "Do you love me?" "Do I what?" "Do you love me?" "Do I love you...?" with its tender, affirmative swerve in the last phrase.

Between 1956 and...