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Sure, Sunday tends to be overcrowded with high-end TV (like "Downton Abbey," returning to PBS this week), but what to watch the rest of the time? Every Monday, we bring you five noteworthy highlights from the other six days of the week. "In Memoriam" Monday, December 30th at 8pm on TCM Turner Classic Movies' year-end "In Memoriam" tribute is a salute to those who passed who weren't already honored during the year. The night begins with the 1941 Deanna Durbin musical "It Started with Eve" at 8pm, followed by Annette Funicello's 1964 "Bikini Beach" at 9:45pm. Eileen Brennan stars in Neil Simon's 1978 "The Cheap Detective" at 11:30pm, while Jonathan Winters plays a pair of brothers in 1965 black comedy "The Loved One" at 1:15am. Karen Black received an Oscar nomination for her performance in 1970's "Five Easy Pieces" at 3:30am, while Julie Harris is terrific in 1955's...

Deanna Durbin: Ephemeral fame (photo: Deanna Durbin in 1981) [See previous post: "Deanna Durbin: 'Sweet Monster.'"] Unlike Greta Garbo, whose mystique remained basically intact following her retirement in 1941, Deanna Durbin’s popularity faded away much like that of the vast majority of celebrities who were removed — or who chose to remove themselves — from public view. Despite the advent of home video and classic-movie cable channels, Durbin remains virtually unknown to the vast majority of those who weren’t around in her heyday in the ’30s and ’40s. Yet, although relatively few in number, she continues to have her ardent fans. There are a handful of websites devoted to Deanna Durbin and her film and recording careers, chiefly among them the appropriately titled "Deanna Durbin Devotees." Fade Out Charles David, Deanna Durbin’s husband of 48 years, died in March 1999, at the age of 92; Institut Pasteur medical researcher Peter H. David is their only son. Durbin also had a daughter,...

‘The Deanna Durbin Unit’ (photo: Robert Cummings, Deanna Durbin, and Charles Laughton in It Started with Eve) [See previous post: "Deanna Durbin Movies Save Universal."] Deanna Durbin and Henry Koster, who has been credited with helping to mold Durbin’s screen persona, collaborated on five movies. Besides Three Smart Girls, there was the inevitable sequel, Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), in addition to One Hundred Men and a Girl, after which Durbin’s salary was reportedly doubled to $3,000 per week, plus a $10,000 bonus per film; the Cinderella-like First Love (1939), in which, following worldwide publicity, Durbin gets kissed on screen for the first time (Robert Stack was the kisser); Spring Parade (1940), with a Viennese setting and Robert Cummings as her leading man; and It Started with Eve (1941), a light, well-received romantic comedy co-starring Cummings and Charles Laughton. (Universal would also release the 1964 remake, I’d Rather Be Rich, starring Sandra Dee in the Robert Cummings role, Robert Goulet in the Deanna Durbin part,...

Deanna Durbin has died, aged 91.

The musical actress was one of the most popular and highest-paid young stars in the 1930s.

Her son Peter H. David told the Deanna Durbin Society newsletter that his mother had died several days ago, but did not give further details and thanked her fans for respecting her privacy.

By the end of the 1930s, Durbin had become one of the biggest box-office stars, appearing in several musical comedies and presented with a special Academy Award with Mickey Rooney, marking their "significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth".

She was said to have saved Universal from bankruptcy during the period, while she was also Sir Winston Churchill's favourite star. The Prime Minister would have access to her films before anyone else in the UK, and would allegedly celebrate military victories by watching her 1937 film One Hundred Men and a Girl.

Johnny Depp and Jennifer Love Hewitt are teaming up for the re-make of the 1940s comedy It Started With Eve. The $40 million flick is based around a son - played by Depp - who gets a girl to pose as his fiancee to please his dying father. But his plans are turned upside down when his father makes an unexpected recovery. Movie legend Albert Finney is being sought to play Depp's screen dad. The film is due to go into production in the fall.