So much average

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

After the unexpected success of Sun Valley Serenade in 1941, 20th Century Fox tried the next year with the same formula, a romantic comedy with Glenn Miller's music and the great jazz man himself in a speaking part as the leader of a traveling jazz band touring small town America. The film is less fluffy, we have no Sonja Henie here, and a more serious script, yet the film is not as successful, in my opinion. The best part, naturally, are the musical numbers. I've got a gal in Kalamazoo closes the film but there are many others (At Last, People like you and me).The story of the trumpet player (George Montgomery) marrying an ingénue (the sweet Ann Rutherford) he met as his fan in some small town and the reactions and jealousy this causes in other members of the band is interesting up to a point. Amusingly, the scene of the seduction of the ingénue, with the trumpet guy basically forcing a kiss from her, would never be shown today in a contemporary film, unless the guy was a clear villain. Archie Mayo directed. Also with Cesar Romero, Tex Beneke, the luminous Marion Hutton and Lynn Bari.

Orchestra Wives (1942)Archie Mayo is a functional director remembered a couple of first rate movies, "Petrified Forest" and "A Night in Casablanca." Now Hollywood has slews of great movies by directors like this, getting just the right mixture of elements to succeed, but their other movies still usually have elements, moments, or qualities that rise above and make them worthwhile.This is a war time big band lightweight romance. But it has such great music and some polished great acting (some), the contrived plot is easy to swallow. It's a fun, excellent ride, not at all shabby. Ann Rutherford is really first rate, sweet and smart when she needs to be, and touching at others.The music? Completely Glenn Miller. The real Glenn Miller, even though he takes on the name of Gene Morrison for the role. And it's great to see them playing (or pretending to play--it's a pretty good match, but not live recording and filming). It's the great film introduction for "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo," which is enough to enshrine the movie (including a second version with a pair of African-American singers and dancers leading the way). This is Miller's second film, and is part of the home front cheerleading (in the best sense) a worried public as the U.S. entered the war. Miller of course formed a whole new band for the war effort, and died when his plane disappeared in Europe. It's part of his lore, and it adds some pathos to how we see the movie now, in retrospect.The male lead, across from Rutherford, is the band's trumpet player, meant to be the incomparable Harry James, but played not by the real James (which would have been fun) but by George Montgomery. Cesar Romaro plays a clichéd role, and makes the most of it, endlessly cheerful. And look for a young Jackie Gleason a couple of times (he's a bass player). The fairy tale ending is perfectly unbelievable, and a great feel-good cherry on a feel-good movie. Like many Astaire-Rogers movies, this musical drama is far far better than it should have been!

Delightful movie but dated. The music of Glen Miller is the main star of this interesting and entertaining period piece. The cast of this movie include three performers who were to become superstars, Dale Evans, Jackie Gleason and Harry Morgan. Interesting to watch them when they were relative unknowns. I wonder what Harry Morgan would have said if he was told that 35 years later he would be a nationally known star in a television sitcom. The cast was wonderful. Ann Rutherford and George Montgomery had that special chemistry and the ladies, Mary Beth Hughes, Virginia Gilmore, Carole Landis and the beautiful Lynn Bari were beautiful, charming ... and naughty. Hey, what's a girl supposed to do when her husband musician is on the road and playing before ... women? And let's not forget the incomparable and always classy Cesar Romero and the incredible dance number performed by the Nicholas Brothers. Their act alone makes this movie worth watching. So if you are looking for some light entertainment featuring 1940s jazz numbers and snappy dialog, then this is the movie for you. Bravo to Archie Mayo.

This movie combines the excellent Big Band music of Glenn Miller and his Orchestra with a plot straight out of "Desperate Housewives." One hopes that Glenn Miller and the members of his orchestra didn't have these kinds of problems with their wives in real life when they went on tour.The story: Connie Ward (Ann Rutherford) a naive, small-town girl, falls in love with Bill Abbott (George Montgomery), a trumpet player with The Gene Morrison Band, after hearing his trumpet-playing on a jukebox record. When the band plays a dance at a local park, Connie goes to see them, and is entranced by Bill Abbott's trumpet playing.After the dance, Connie meets Abbott behind the bandstand. Abbott is a self-described "big bad trumpet player." Without bothering to even read her the Miranda Rights, he instantly drags Connie into a nearby car and tries to make out with her. Never mind that it's *not even his car!* It belongs to somebody else! When the car's real owner shows up and says, "Hey, what are you doing in my car?", Abbott nearly punches him out! He's such a world-class a--hole you wonder why Connie doesn't kick him in the groin and leave.But the very next night, they are married. Abbott proposes to Connie, mostly out of lust, when she is about to get on a bus to go home. He doesn't even know her name when he proposes to her. It's a mystery why Connie accepts.Connie joins the band's coast-to-coast tour, traveling from town to town on trains with Abbott and Gene Morrison's orchestra. But she soon discovers that the wives of the band members, who are traveling with the band, are a catty bunch who are constantly chasing each others' husbands and gossiping behind each others' backs. The band's female singer, Jaynie Stevens (Lynn Bari), still has a jones for Bill Abbott, and tries to seduce him away from Connie.The whole plot is ridiculous. And it becomes even more ridiculous when the intrigues of the orchestra wives threaten to break up the band. Connie has to pull a few tricks to get the band back together again.The movie is worth having on DVD for several reasons. First, there are the extraordinary Big Band numbers by Glenn Miller's Orchestra, which was *the* greatest Big Band of all time! Backed up by some great camera work by Lucien Ballard, the band blows its way through those big brash brassy numbers that rock the house! The band members don't just "play" the music. They "perform" like seasoned veterans, with precision and panache. The Big Band numbers are almost like highly-choreographed Busby Berkeley dance numbers. Miller and his trombone players use their bowler hats as trombone mutes, and flip them on and off their heads with Chaplin-like finesse. The trumpet players stand at attention and, like buglers in the King's Court, raise their horns and play their hearts out. The sax players swing their saxes together as they play, like dancers in a chorus line. And master drummer Moe Purtill gives a brilliant staccato drum solo that is as good as anything Buddy Rich or Keith Moon ever did.There are some great songs, including short versions of Miller classics like "In the Mood" and "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," and new songs like "I Got A Gal In Kalamazoo," "Serenade In Blue," and the perennial favorite, "At Last," which was introduced in this movie. (Miller, by the way, is no Jimmy Stewart, but does a fairly good acting turn as band leader Gene Morrison.) There are some good early-career performances. Cesar Romero appears as the band's piano player, who can't walk past a girl without propositioning her. Jackie Gleason appears as the band's bass player, whose wife insists on bringing her new vacuum cleaner with them on the tour. (Amazingly, Gleason and his wife seem to have the sanest marriage in the movie.) And Harry Morgan, later of "M*A*S*H" appears as a jerk of a soda jerk.The movie closes with an amazing dance number by the slip-sliding, high-flying Nicholas Brothers. And there's a funny scene between the orchestra wives, where Connie turns the tables and exposes their secrets to each other (i.e. who is running around with whose husband behind whose back). This leads to a hilarious "Crystal vs. Alexis"-style free-for-all between two of the wives.But mostly, this movie belongs to the band. The great musical numbers by Glenn Miller's band still have their power and sweet sound after sixty years. And it is a joy to see the band in action, recorded for all time, in "Orchestra Wives." P.S. The DVD includes a commentary track by Ann Rutherford and Fayard Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers, in which they reminisce together about making the movie, and about their days in vaudeville, radio, and the Golden Age of Hollywood. It's such a wonderful and intimate commentary track. You can almost picture the two of them sitting together in the screening room, holding hands as they recorded it.