The second of two films featuring Glenn Miller and his orchestra isn’t as well known as Sun Valley Serenade but is still pretty fun. Ann Rutherford plays a small town girl obsessed with Miller’s band who falls for trumpeter George Montgomery when he’s on tour. They decide to get married very quickly – we see pretty much their entire courtship and it doesn’t last longer than five minutes. I think such things made more sense when there was a war on.
Rutherford never became a star despite her success as Polly Benedict in the Andy Hardy films and she doesn’t really have much charisma. She is nice but is a bit too sweet in the wrong way – she comes across as someone’s grandmother when they were young, if that makes sense. Her character is a bit of a ninny – surely she’s got to expect some troubles marrying a musician she barely knows? Is it so bad to learn that your husband went out with the singer once, is that really mean of the girls to tell her?
The other orchestra wives are a lot of fun – wisecracking, playing cards – but not as much fun as Lyn Bari, in her upteenth role as man stealer. (As in Sun Valley Serenade I found my sympathy going to Bari rather than the star – Montgomery should go off with her). Montgomery is an excellent male lead, handsome with a terrific Clarke Gable-ish voice – I was always surprised he never became a bigger star (his career never regained it’s momentum after he went off to war service). There’s also a strong support casting, including Cesar Romero (who I kept waiting to chase after Rutherford and/or Bari but it never happens), a very young Henry Morgan and Jackie Gleason, plus the Nicholas Brothers, who do an amazing dance number at the end (which presumably made it easier for southern exhibitors to snip off). Some great Glen Miller tunes (Miller himself has a lot more lines than in Sun Valley Serenade – he’s still a bit stiff but is getting better), and the classic song ‘At Last’.
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