The Glenn Miller Story (1954)

Biography of bandleader Glenn Miller from his beginnings to his death over the English Channel in December 1944.

Director:

Anthony Mann

Writers:

Valentine Davies, Oscar Brodney

Stars:

James Stewart, June Allyson, Harry Morgan

Won 1 Oscar. Another 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
James Stewart	...	Glenn Miller
June Allyson	...	Helen Burger
Harry Morgan	...	Chummy (as Henry Morgan)
Charles Drake	...	Don Haynes
George Tobias	...	Si Schribman
Barton MacLane	...	General Arnold
Sig Ruman	...	Kranz
Irving Bacon	...	Mr. Miller
James Bell	...	Mr. Burger
Kathleen Lockhart	...	Mrs. Miller
Katherine Warren	...	Mrs. Burger (as Katharine Warren)
Frances Langford	...	Frances Langford
Louis Armstrong	...	Louis Armstrong
Ben Pollack	...	Ben Pollack
Gene Krupa	...	Gene Krupa

Storyline

The unemployed trombone player Glenn Miller is always broken, chasing his sound to form his band and hocking his instrument in the pawn house to survive. When his friend Chummy MacGregor is hired to play in the band of Ben Pollack, the band-leader listens to one Glenn's composition and invites him to join his band. While traveling to New York, Glenn visits his former girlfriend Helen Berger, in Boulder, Colorado, and asks her to wait for him. Two years later he quits the band and proposes Helen that moves to New York to marry him. After the success of "Moonlight Serenade", Glenn Miller's band becomes worldwide known and Glenn and Helen and their two children have a very comfortable life. Duting the World War II, Glenn enlists in the army and travels to Europe to increase the moral of the allied troops. In the Christmas of 1944, he travels from London to Paris for a concert to be broadcast; however his plane is never found in the tragic flight.

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Plot Keywords:

band | based on real events | music band | u.s. air force | swing band | 

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Taglines:

It was a time that changed the world. And one man put it to music.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Music | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 January 1954 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Música y lágrimas

Filming Locations:

Colonial Mansion, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording) Stereo (1985 re-release)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Decca's ten-inch, eight-track soundtrack LP, ascending to #1 on the "Billboard" album chart in March 1954, omitted the teaming of Frances Langford (in her last film) with The Modernaires (in their last picture) on the classic train song, "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon). The audio has been restored on an import CD of the soundtrack, courtesy of the Pid label. In connection with the film's release, Coral Records, a Decca subsidiary, had The Modernaires record two medleys of Glenn Miller hits, released on both sides of a 45-rpm single, which charted up to #29 in "Billboard" during 1954. The quintet's Miller tribute can be enjoyed on a 1998 Modernaires CD from Varese Sarabande called "Singin' and Swingin'." In 1956 the Decca soundtrack album was expanded into a 12-inch LP, adding two studio cuts by Louis Armstrong and The All Stars, "Basin Street Blues" (music and lyrics by Spencer Williams) and "Otchi-Tchor-Ni-Ya" (music by Florian Herrmanns, improvised lyrics by Louis Armstrong). The second Armstrong ditty had not been performed by him in the movie. Towards the end of 1958 Decca reissued the soundtrack LP in true stereo.

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Goofs

At a performance at a British airfield, engine nacelles housing the B-29's Wright R-3350 Duplex Cyclone engines can be seen in the hangar behind a B-17. No aircraft using these engines were in the Eastern Theater of Operations in WWII.

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Quotes

Glenn Miller: Bought you a present for your birthday.
Helen Burger: My birthday? That isn't until next November.
Glenn Miller: This is for your last birthday...

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Alternate Versions

Most current prints in circulation are the slightly shortened 113-minute 1959 re-release version.

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Connections

Referenced in A Soldier's Story (1984)

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Soundtracks

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly
(uncredited)
Traditional tune, lyrics by Thomas Oliphant
Played during the Christmas scene

User Reviews

excellent biopic

James Stewart in one of his best roles of the 1950s playing the late bandleader in the embellished story of his life; June Allyson plays his wife – one of her best roles and I believe one of her personal favourites.

Watching the real Miller in ‘Orchestra Wives' and then watching this, Stewart is really a revelation in this role. All the hits of the band are represented – Moonlight Serenade, In The Mood, Tuxedo Junction, Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Pennsylvania 65000. Some artistic licence has been taken but the whole is funny, celebratory, and at the end fairly touching. One of the best Hollywood biopics, right in the middle of a glut of them (Love Me or Leave Me, With a Song In My Heart, The Eddy Duchin Story, Night and Day, Words and Music, Three Little Words …).