The Glenn Miller Story

Rating:
Summary: Swinging Classic
Review: Jimmy Stewart stars as Glenn Miller, the famed band leader from the Thirties and Forties, in a film that charts his rise from his beginnings as trombone player in various bands and orchestras, the various setbacks on his way to the top, to his eventual success as an innovative band leader before and during the War. June Allyson plays his incredibly supportive and understanding wife, and Harry Morgan is his lifelong best friend (and piano player). I don't know enough about Miller's real life to say how accurate this film is, but it seems to hit the highlights. Stewart is very good (as usual), and he has a nice, comfortable chemistry with Allyson. Of course, Miller's music is the prominent feature in the film, and even for me - someone not from that generation - it's great to hear and enjoyable. In fact, I just purchased a CD of Miller's greatest hits to add to my CD collection. Maybe the movie is inspirational!

Rating:
Summary: Horrible Tribute to the Great Miller!
Review: Leave it to Hollywood in the 50s to make a hysterical "tribute" to a musical legend. James Stewart tries hard to enact the rather bland looking Glenn Miller but he also has to share screen time with perky, understanding, boring June Allyson. Since I've been obsessed with the two Miller movies he made: "Sun Valley Serenade" and "Orchestra Wives" I was hoping there's be at least a fairly realistic segment of Glenn Miller's Hollywood experience. There's nothing. You see the Miller Orchestra playing along to an African native dance! The real-life Miller musicals are routine in story line but they have a fabulous, electrifying quality in the big show-stopping numbers like "Chatanooga Choo-Choo" and "Kalamazoo", as sung by the Modernaires. The hair styles and fashions are all transformed into quasi-40s and 50s. You do see a few of the real-life Modernaires and Francis Langford perform "Chatanooga Choo-Choo" but it sounds horrible. I was hoping they could use more real-life personalities than the obviously Hollywood types you see. I was hoping especially to see the incredible blonde bombshell, Marion Hutton, do her "Kalamazoo" singing but she was nowhere to be found. After watching this botched nightmare, I went straight back to watch my thread-bare VHS copies of "Sun Valley Serenade" and "Orchestra Wives" and felt like there really is a God. But certainly not in "The Glenn Miller Story."

Rating:
Summary: Another mistreatment of a classic
Review: Let's clarify a couple of things.

First, this movie IS INDEED anamorphic, despite the claim of another writer that the package was wrong in claiming such.

Secondly, to expect any biographical picture out of Hollywood to NOT play loosely with the facts is expecting a bit much. After all, from "The Babe Ruth Story" to "JFK", Hollywood has always subscribed to the theory of "fictional biographies".

Frankly, I found this movie to be quite enjoyable. First, ANY movie with Jimmy Stewart has something going for it. Throw in some FANTASTIC music, and a great...albeit way to short...cameo by Louis Armstrong, and this movie is a real piece of cinematic history.

Unfortunately, Universal Pictures seems to have a different opinion, as they have given this picture a very bare-bones AND shabby release.

The picture, while widescreen AND anamorphic, has a VHS quality to it. Some portions had an "out of focus" appearance. But most distracting was a frequent pulsating color...going from bright to dull to bright...ad infinitum. In some instances, this REALLY distracted from the enjoyment of...and the concentration on...the movie.

Having seen other pictures from this era with wonderfully clear transfers, I can but only believe that this was merely the result of laziness, cheapness, or carelessness on the part of Universal.

As this is not considered a classic in most film circles, I doubt this movie will ever see a second release. So sad, as it could be so enjoyable with a good picture. As it is, I hate to say it, but I'd recommend against a purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Great music, enjoy watching the movie over and over.
Review: My parents grew up in the Glenn Miller era. I grew up in the 70's, but have grown very fond of the music my parents enjoyed. After the death of Jimmy Stewart a local television station aired his movies all weekend honoring such a fine actor. One of the movies I watched was the Glenn Miller Story. Not only did I love the story, but thoroughly enjoyed the music. I am now hooked on the Big-Band music and have been keeping an eye out for this particular movie. This is one I would like to add to my movie library. Glad to find it here. Do rent or purchase the movie-- you'll really enjoy. I've even ordered a Glenn Miller cd. I think my parents would be very surprised!

Rating:
Summary: A Family Movie Clean Enough For The Whole Family To Watch!
Review: Romantic enough for couples, yet clean enough to let the children watch and gain an appreciation for some good music. Sure to bring a smile (and a tear) to your eye.

Rating:
Summary: Heart Warming
Review: The Glenn Miller story is a heart warming tribute to one of the greatest band leaders of all time.
It tells the story of his rise from poverty to riches, and includes alot of his best songs.
The romance between Glenn (James Stewart), and Helen (June Allyson) is adorable and will bring a smile to your face.
This is a very fun and moving movie.

Rating:
Summary: 1.85:1?
Review: The original aspect ratio for this movie is 1.37:1. Has it been cut to adapt it to widescreen TV?

Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for the music.....as for the story.....well.......
Review: This film is a typical Hollywood b.s. story. A lot of incidents were made up for the film, for example, the Chummy McGregor-Glenn Miller friendship going back to the Ben Pollock Orchestra days, which was years before they even met! And it's too bad Miller didn't come up with his "sound" so easily!!! About the parts of the movie that are true-to-life is the relationship between Glenn and Helen, as performed by two of my favorite actors, James Stewart and June Allyson.

However, the music in this film (orchestrated by Universal Pictures staff composer, Henry Mancini) more than makes up for the deficiencies in the story. The orchestra assembled does a excellent job re-creating Miller's hits (far better than some of the ghost bands later organized by the Miller Estate).

You'll enjoy the music, especially in stereo, just don't take the story seriously.

Also, the VHS version has a couple of scenes clipped to make the movie time out to 120 minutes. Hopefully, these scenes will be restored when the movie is released on DVD (in March, 2003, as a double feature with The Benny Goodman Story, another Hollywood b.s. bio-pic).

Here's a interesting factoid: Harry (Henry) Morgan ("Chummy MacGregor") actually appeared in a film with the real Glenn Miller, "Orchestra Wives". Unfortunately, they did not appear in any scenes together.

Rating:
Summary: No-frills Glenn is Better Than None
Review: This low-budget DVD issue of one of 1954's biggest commercial successes is welcome, if a bit chintzy. Although the real Miller's movies were made for a rival studio, surely Universal could have found some newsreel footage of the civilian or AAF bands to liven things up with some extras. Oh well. It's nice to see the film letterboxed in its original widescreen ratio - NOT anamorphic, as the box claims! (sloppy) - but the real reason to shell out ten bucks here is the soundtrack, with its gloriously-recorded (in true stereo), impeccable recreations of the original, beloved Miller charts (played by many members of Miller's original band, if memory serves). The film elements don't fare as well; color fading and spottiness is evident throughout, sometimes distractingly so, and after all the money Universal has milked out of this title through the years, you'd think they could afford some restoration work. Too bad Turner/TW doesn't own this one or it would have been restored already and issued with cool extras. If you have the last VHS incarnation, which featured the same soundtrack, you really don't need this DVD unless you're annoyed by the slight cropping that the video version endured. Oh yeah, there's a totally fictionalized, ultra-sentimental storyline, beautifully underplayed by both Allyson and Stewart, without whom this might have been... "The Benny Goodman Story."

Rating:
Summary: That Sound
Review: This was the highest grossing American film of 1954; had he wanted to, James Stewart could probably have ended up owning Universal Studios, so vastly indebted were they to him at this stage for the string of hits he'd produced for them. Director Anthony Mann too. It's a pretty easygoing look at the not-so easygoing bandleader Glenn Miller from his earliest days as a sideman trombonist and arranger to his becoming the top pop musician in the United States. Very interesting and enlightening about the way Miller searched for his own distinctive sound to set him apart from the hundreds of other jazz bands of the day. It also pretty much set the tone for the mysterioso treatment that has ever since surrounded Miller's disappearance in the European theater during WW2 in 1944. The theories are that his plane crashed in England and has yet to be found, or that returning bombers from an unsuccessful mission accidentally dumped their loads on his plane over the Channel. Neither gets any exploration here; Miller just ascends into band heaven. Pretty good performances all around, especially the wonderful and always reliable George Tobias as the theater owner/agent.