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Simply Perfect

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Accidentally erased my review again. Have to be succinct. Mesmerizing footage of the Glenn Miller orchestra. I watched this movie for the great Cesar Romero--didn't know I'd stumbled upon treasure beyond wildest dreams. Horn sections, drummer, the sax and trumpet solos, a French horn! Danced to Glenn Miller records in the junior high gym, but i wasn't hip to what i was listening to. So, taking the corny plot and script for what they are, I live for Cesar Romero delivering his lines, and then whoa! It's young Jackie Gleason and Harry Morgan--two more smart, cool actors. (George Montgomery not so bad either--given the silly plot.) And the music keeps coming--until, when I can hardly stand any more heat, The Nicholas Brothers!!!! Where did these guys come from? Where have I been all my life? So I said "8 stars" instead of 7. Just for these two gentlemen who get pulled out at the end--like magic.

An innocent young bride (Ann Rutherford) gets even with the catty wives of Glenn Miller's band members when they use her naiveté to cause trouble in her marriage to handsome George Montgomery. "It it's one thing I hate, it's a leaky dame", one of the other wives says about her blubbering bride. "Hello, Room Service? Come on up, I've got a lot of dirty dishes", Rutherford retorts after pulling a Norma Shearer (in "The Women") and causing a cat fight among two of the women who have just destroyed a service cart. All this and the best music Glenn Miller didn't play in "Sun Valley Serenade".That recent Beyonce hit ("At Last", also recorded by Etta James) was introduced here, which makes this a historical must for modern music lovers. "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo" was the other big song. Fresh from the Andy Hardy series and her most famous role (as Scarlett O'Hara's younger sister in "Gone With the Wind"), Rutherford is excellent, going from that leaky dame to fellow cat, joining Lynn Bari, Carole Landis and Virginia Gilmore in the art of classic movie bitchery. Grant Mitchell (as Rutherford's father), Cesar Romero, Jackie Gleason and Harry Morgan are among the familiar faces who round out the supporting cast. Morgan (playing a soda jerk) has a memorable sequence where he escorts Rutherford to a concert but is aghast when he finds her with Montgomery and threatens to beat up the much larger man.There is an amusing moment between Mitchell and George Montgomery where Montgomery, not realizing that Mitchell is his father-in-law, calls him "older than Metheselah". (I always wondered where that quote originated!) Usually, the plots in musicals are rather flaccid, but this one is much better than normal. The music simply enhances it, and when the Nicholas Brothers come on to dance, it explodes into red-hot rhythm with the war a quiet backdrop for the moving of the band on the road. Life must go on, it is observed, even in wartime. This makes for perhaps one of the best big band musicals filled with sizzling music, wonderful wisecracks, plenty of female bickering and tons of fun!

Lively mix of mellow sounds and backstage back-biting. I could have used more of the band, but the signature I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo fills a lot of musical space. Wow, the title really means it. The wives and girl friends are a catty lot, scheming and conniving, especially a brunette Carol Landis (Natalie). She and her two cohorts Gilmore and Hughes should wear big black hats and stir a steaming black kettle as they plague poor, sweet Connie (Rutherford). Then there's the jealous Janie (Bari) in her drop-dead revealing gowns. No wonder Bill is having trouble with wife Connie.It's a fine cast. Note how well Rutherford acts with her big, expressive eyes-- hard not to put a protective arm around her. Surprisingly, it's a sleek and lively George Montgomery a few years before he made a sober-sided career of the six-gun and horse. Landis also scores well showing what a fine, versatile actress she was before her untimely death. And catch future TV stars Jackie Gleason and Harry Morgan in bit parts, along with a bobbie-soxer Dale Evans before her frontier team-up with Roy and Trigger.Credit director Mayo with blending things together in pleasing fashion, something of a challenge given the sometimes salty wrinkles in the plot. It's a good look at Miller the man and a sampling of his celebrated band, along with the swinging Modernaires. And, despite a conventional happy ending, the narrative appears a more revealing look at traveling bands than I, for one, expected from a big studio production.

"Roses are red, violets are blue, we're not going on a tour with you!" But this is exactly what takes place in the exciting motion picture "Orchestra Wives," directed by Archie Mayo and starring the wonderful Glenn Miller Orchestra during the heyday of the Big Band Era! Glenn Miller's character name is Gene Morrison, presumably to maintain the G.M. initials. As Gene's band reluctantly embarks on its thirty-day tour, trumpet star Bill Abbott (George Montgomery) instantly falls in love with one of the band's most ardent admirers, the beautiful Connie Ward (Ann Rutherford), and after a WHIRLWIND courtship, they get married! Over the course of the tour, the naive & innocent Connie inadvertently ends up dissolving the entire band, forcing her to devise a clever scheme in order to bring the band back together again.The cast of "Orchestra Wives" is a great one indeed. I have a feeling that George Montgomery was not a musician, since his trumpet playing is obviously faked, but never mind; he fits the role of Bill Abbott quite well. The pretty Ann Rutherford was a fine choice for the sad-faced, naive Connie Ward. Glenn Miller might not have been the greatest actor or trombonist, but his was a tightly-swinging big band, with one of its star performers being saxophonist/vocalist Tex Beneke as Phil. Watch also for the handsome Cesar Romero as pianist/skirt chaser St. John "Sinjin" Smith, Jackie Gleason as the happily-married bassist Ben Beck, and Henry Morgan as Connie's jilted soda-jerk boyfriend Cully. Not to mention Lynn Bari as vocalist Jaynie Stevens, the scheming former girlfriend of Bill Abbott. And don't forget the Modernaires and the Nicholas Brothers.Highlights: The film opens with Gene & his orchestra recording a fine arrangement of "People Like You and Me," featuring some great harmonizing by the Modernaires; the band then learns about the tour, and when everyone shares his/her disgust, Gene calms them down by explaining why the tour is happening. The film closes with a nice arrangement of "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo," featuring some fine singing & acrobatic dancing by the Nicholas Brothers. When Connie weeps and tells her father (Grant Mitchell) that she has made a mess out of things, he reassures her in his own way that she is not alone and that everything will work out fine. Connie arrives in Elgin to see Gene's band perform, but because she has no escort, she is forced to watch the band from a window outside while they play a really driving swing arrangement with great choreography. After the gossiping wives fight, Connie calls room service and asks the attendant to pick up some "dirty dishes"; Phil and Buddy (the drummer) soon afterward pull out of the band, and when Gene tells Bill to congratulate his wife for unintentionally breaking up the band, Bill responds, "Well, you got MY two weeks notice." With wonderful songs by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren, "Orchestra Wives" is a real treat for those who love the music of all the famous big bands, like I do. As Glenn Miller/Gene Morrison says at the beginning of the recording session, "Okay, let's hit it, boys!"