Steven Rea's picks of the week

Jewish Humor Goes to the Movies Irv Slifkin The Fox Chase Library, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. From Eddie Cantor to the Three Stooges, Molly Picon to the Marx Brothers, Jewish entertainers have made audiences of every stripe hunch over in fits of laughter. Irv Slifkin, a.k.a. "Movie Irv" and author of Filmadelphia: A Celebration of a City's Movies and Groovy Moves: Far-Out Films of the Psychedelic Era, brings plenty of film clips, and plenty of expertise, to the evening. He will also bring copies of his books, which he will happily sign. As Groucho Marx has famously said, "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." Admission is free.

Info: 215-685-0547, www.facebook.com/FoxChaseLibrary

The Golden Year Collection Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, $69.96 No, it's not a boxed set of movies about retirees up to no good. It's five essential releases from what is quite reasonably deemed one of the greatest years in moviedom: 1939, when Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, and The Wizard of Oz all rolled into theaters. Those titles aren't included in this new Blu-ray collection from Warners, but these are: Dark Victory (Bette Davis, her dog, her brain tumor), Dodge City (Errol Flynn in the Michael Curtiz-directed western), Gone With the Wind (frankly, give a damn), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Charles Laughton as Quasimodo), and Ninotchka (Greta Garbo seduces and spies, Melvyn Douglas is the improbable leading man). Not a bad way to spend a weekend and revisit another time - or times.