It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

"Music for Millions" is a very frustrating film to watch. There is so much to like about it that it's a shame the plot takes a very dark and uncomfortable twist...one that practically ruins the picture. Fortunately, the excellent acting and music manage to salvage it...a bit.When the film begins, poor little Mike (Margaret O'Brien) has arrived unexpectedly in order to live with her sister, Barbara (June Allyson). Barbara plays in an orchestra...an orchestra consisting mostly of women due to the war. In the orchestra, Barbara has a lot of friends and life is grand. During this part of the film, the only real concerns are how to get the nosy landlord to accept having Mike live with Barbara as well as how lonely the pregnant Barbara is with her husband off in the war.About midway through the film, the screenwriter took an insane choice. A telegram arrives saying that Barbara's husband is dead...and they decide to NOT tell her because they were concerned about Barbara's unborn child. So, for months they keep it from her...even when Barbara assumes he MUST be dead because she has heard nothing from him. She's practically hysterical with worry...and yet her friends KEEP up the pretense...which seems cruel and stupid. How does the film manage to handle it...I know...toss in a happily ever after Hollywood ending!!! Huh?!?As I said, the plot was a problem and it's a darn shame. It's probably June Allyson's best performance and yet it's overshadowed by a dopey plot. It's a shame...a real shame.

Music that covers every genre of the time and a wonderful performance by June Allyson as the expectant war bride who works playing a bass fiddle for Jose Iturbi's orchestra are the main hallmarks of Music For Millions. Of course the big name in the cast for the time is little Margaret O'Brien who was winning hearts all over the USA during the World War II years.There were numerous films during those years that covered women doing all kinds of work in occupations for men. Why would playing in a symphony orchestra be different. Jose Iturbi is hemorrhaging male musicians in his orchestra to the draft and his ensemble was starting to look like Phil Spitalny's band.One fine evening Allyson's little sister Margaret O'Brien comes to town and interrupts a concert at Carnegie Hall. Iturbi and orchestra manager Jimmy Durante are put out, but the women in the orchestra really take to O'Brien the way America did. Even Iturbi and Durante come around and Margaret becomes a kind of mascot.A real crisis erupts when a War Department letter arrives for Allyson, but she doesn't get it courtesy of her fellow musicians. June is pregnant now and the women figure no news is good news until she has the baby. One of June Allyson's best acted scenes is with Iturbi where she confesses how frightened she is not knowing and hoping for the best for her husband out in the Pacific.Iturbi does some classical music and appropriately the film ends with Handel's Hallelujah Chorus and why appropriate you watch the film for. And Jimmy Durante is his own comic self and his rendition of Umbriago is a film highlight.Women certainly play in orchestras now. I live around the corner from the Kleinhans Symphony in Buffalo and I see many a female musician parking their cars and carrying their instruments to the hall. And we have a female conductor named Joann Falletta. This review is dedicated to her.

This is a wonderful movie, where the trauma from a war, which invades all countries during all wars, is seen through the eyes of a child. A brilliant actress, Margaret O'Brien, takes viewers through the torment of WWII, praying for the safe return of her sister's husband. I taped this movie when it played on TCM, and I've watched it many times, because it sends multiple hidden messages to those who watch with wisdom. The movie exposes a woman's fear of losing the father of the fetus in her womb. That fear is something that people continue to experience in today's world. Adults in the movie learn from the wisdom of the little girl, Mike, who helps her sister during this struggle. During WWII the music in this movie was marvelous for millions; it's quite inspiring to viewers today, as well.

This little movie is a warm, loving, funny movie full of hope and faith from a 7 year old child in a time of World War. They don't make them like this any more, plain acting NO special effects. You can't find it on any type of video, though I can't imagine why, with all the trash being brought out today. If you can catch it on one of the movie channels DO NOT MISS IT; grab something warm to drink and some tissues.