In the Good Old Summertime (1949)

Like Love Affair/An Affair to Remember, In the Good Old Summertime is also one of those romances that’s proved very popular across time and space. This is a cheery little love story, of a man and a woman who begin corresponding with each other, fall in love through their correspondence (all without even knowing the name of the other person), and when they eventually meet, become instant enemies. Sounds familiar? Yes, that’s The Shop Around the Corner. Also You’ve Got Mail. And Sirf Tum. It’s also this film, a sweet musical remake of the original The Shop Around the Corner.

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Judgement at Nuremberg (1961)

My mother was brought up in a family ruled by a very orthodox old curmudgeon—sorry, gentleman—who believed cinema was inherently evil. This was my great-grandfather, and thanks to his restrictions, the only films my mother and her siblings were allowed to watch were The Ten Commandments and Quo Vadis. After his death, though, the family let themselves go to seed. No, they didn’t start watching all the porn they could lay their hands on (I doubt there was much floating around in the Calcutta of the 60’s, anyway), but they certainly began seeing some films that, while not evil by any stretch of imagination, would probably not have won great-granddad’s approval. The Innocents. The Three Faces of Eve. And this one, a thought-provoking, disturbing film that raises a lot of questions.

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