Judy Garland remains one of the most exhilarating—and heartbreaking—performers in history, and virtually all her work is on view, allowing you to marvel or cringe, this week at Lincoln Center (films) and the Paley Center (TV). Beyond her roles in Ziegfeld Follies, The Wizard of Oz (there's a singalong screening), and Meet Me in St. Louis, you get the delightful rapport in all eight Garland–Mickey Rooney films. (My fave: Girl Crazy.) Best with Gene Kelly: For Me and My Gal. Best romantic drama: Vincente Minnelli's The Clock, if you can get past Robert Walker's stalker vibe. After 1950, she enters the phase when, as Michael O'Donoghue put it, she "always looked like she was two seconds from jumping off a high ledge." But those TV specials—many directed by a young Norman Jewison—are electric, with guest performers to die for.
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