The Glenn Miller Story (1954)


 This is a very good biopic film on Glenn Miller.

 Jimmy Stewart plays Glenn Miller, an out-of-a-job trombone player, who is always trying to sell his arrangements to bands.


 Glenn and his best friend pianist, Chummy MacGregor (Harry Morgan) try out for Ben Pollack's band, and Glenn decides to not bring his trombone to the try-out, but to try to sell his arrangement to Pollack, but is turned down.

 Pollack changes his mind and hires them, when he hears the arrangement, after Chummy slips it to an auditioning musician.

 When Pollack's band is scheduled to preform in Denver, Colorado, Glenn calls up Helen Burger (June Allyson) (a girl he last saw two years ago) and asks for a date.
 
 Helen barely remembers him, but agrees to go on a date.. and waits up till midnight waiting for him to come.

 Glenn does come... in the middle of the night; Helen is at first furious, but not for long.

 Glenn tells Helen of his dream to have his own band with his own "sound" one day.

 Two years later Glenn calls up Helen and proposes to her and wants to get married right away.


 The rest of the movie is about Glenn and Helen's life together;

Glenn forming his own band,
and discovering his "sound,"
Glenn's rise to fame;
Helen and Glenn adopting a son and daughter;
and Glenn joining the Army to lead an Air force band during WWII.
 The Glenn Miller Story is a very good movie, and the music is really good.

 I don't know how accurate this movie is on all the aspects of Glenn Miller's life, but the main focus of the movie is on the love and relationship of Glenn and Helen, and I think this movie is more meant as a tribute, than an accurate biopic film.

 

 I wrote this post for The Biopic Blogathon hosted by Hometown's to Hollywood.

Comments

  1. joel65913October 7, 2021 at 12:24 PM

    I LOVE The Glenn Miller Story!!!! Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson have such a real chemistry together it's no problem at all believing she would put up with all his obtuse assumptions at the beginning. Love Harry Morgan as Chummy and George Tobias as Si.

    But the real star is Miller's music and it's just sensational from start to finish. It never feels shoehorned into the narrative since his music was such a vital part of who he was, it added a nice touch of realism that both Louis Armstrong and Frances Langford played themselves in the film since both were close to the real Glenn Miller.

    I'm sure the story of their romance and marriage was sweeten for the film but from what I've read while they had all the usual bumps and problems that any couple had they were happily married until his death.

    This is one of those films that if I run across it no matter where it's at I'll stop and watch until the end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JohannaOctober 8, 2021 at 7:45 AM

      The Glenn Miller Story is a classic. :) I saw it for the first time the other day, and I loved it.

      Delete

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