Genre Country Director Actor

Sun Valley Serenade

H. Bruce Humberstone, 1941

Star Review

Glenn Miller is more familiar on screen in the guise of James Stewart in
Anthony Mann's 1954 biopic than for his own appearances in Sun Valley
Serenade (1941) and Orchestra Wives (1942). But so little footage survives
of the legendary band leader that these films provide invaluable visual
records of his swinging style. Miller is essentially a secondary character
in H. Bruce Humberstone's snow resort romp, as the emphasis falls on the
relationship between pianist John Payne and Sonja Henie, as the Norwegian
refugee he's agreed to sponsor in the belief she's a child. However, the
band is well served by Joe Garland's `In the Mood' and a splendid Harry
Warren-Mack Gordon score that includes `Chattanooga-Choo-Choo', which is exhilaratingly interpreted by Dorothy Dandridge and the peerless Nicholas Brothers. However, they're upstaged by Henie's fabulous figure-skating routine on blackened ice. Archie Mayo’s backstager centres on the triangle between singer Lynn Bari, trumpeter George Montgomery and his new wife, Ann Rutherford. But the highlights are Miller's renditions of the Warren-Gordon hits, `At Last' and `I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo'.

David Parkinson on 1st February 2007

View all 92 of David Parkinson’s reviews

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