Sun Valley Serenade (1941)

 

 This is a very fun movie. The plot is rather silly, but the music is marvelous.

 Phil Corey (Glenn Miller) and his band The Dartmouth Troubadours (The Glenn Miller Orchestra), audition and are hired to play at Sun Valley with singer Vivian Dawn (Lynn Bari) after she walks out on the band she was singing with when they refused to play the way she wanted them to.

 At the audition Glenn and his band play "Moonlight Serenade,"

and Vivian Dawn sings "I Know Why (and So Do You)" with them.

  The bands pianist,Ted Scott (John Payne) makes a date with Vivian.

 Due to a publicity stunt that the band's manager/publicity agent, Jerome K. 'Nifty' Allen (Milton Berle) cooked up, Ted is responsible for a war refugee.

 The band arrive at Ellis Island to pick up what they think is going to be a small child...

and it turns out to be an adult, Norway refugee Karen Benson (Sonja Henie).

 Glenn and his band play "In the Mood."

 Much to his chagrin Karin tells Ted that she is going to marry him to repay him for sponsoring her, and she says she loves him.

 When Karen learns that she is going to be sent to stay with Nifty's aunt when the band goes to Sun Valley, she convinces Nifty to sneak her on the train to Sun Valley.

 The rest of the movie is about Karen chasing after Ted...and Ted not doing much to discourage her.

  Of course Ted's girlfriend, Vivian, is not too happy about it.

 The cast sings one of my favorite songs in the movie "It Happened in Sun Valley."

 Glenn and his band play "Chattanooga Choo Choo."

 

 Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers preform a fun song and dance routine to "Chattanooga Choo Choo,"

and then the Nicholas Brothers preform a really fun athletic dance routine.

 Sonja Henie preforms a lovely skating routine to "I Know Why (and So Do You)."

 Sun Valley Serenade is a pretty fun movie. Though Sonja Henie acts like too much of a brat for you to want her to get together with John Payne, and the only thing wrong with Lynn Bari, is that, she is hardly in the movie. I thought the movie was still pretty fun though, and it was worth watching just for the music, the skating routine, and the song and dance routine with the Nicholas Brothers and Dorothy Dandridge.