The Glenn Miller Story (1953)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Anthony Mann

Writers:

Valentine Davies (writer) and
Oscar Brodney (writer)

Release Date:

8 January 1954 (Japan)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Music | Romance

Tagline:

See it and Hear it as Never Before [1980 re-release]

Plot:

The biography of the Bandleader Glenn Miller from his beginnings to his death over the English Channel in December 1944...

Plot Keywords:

Bandleader | Plane | Husband Wife Relationship | Pawnshop | Dancing

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 5 nominations

Cast

James Stewart	...	Glenn Miller
June Allyson	...	Helen Berger Miller
Harry Morgan	...	Chummy MacGregor (as Henry Morgan)
Charles Drake	...	Don Haynes
George Tobias	...	Si Schribman
Barton MacLane	...	Gen. Hap Arnold, USAAF
Sig Ruman	...	W. Kranz (pawnshop owner)
Irving Bacon	...	Mr. Miller
James Bell	...	Mr. Burger
Kathleen Lockhart	...	Mrs. Miller
Katherine Warren	...	Mrs. Burger (as Katharine Warren)
Frances Langford	...	Herself
Louis Armstrong	...	Himself
Ben Pollack	...	Himself
Gene Krupa	...	Himself

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

3 Channel Stereo (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Iceland:L | West Germany:6 (f) | USA:Approved (PCA #16668) | South Korea:All | Australia:G (alternate rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

3rd Street Tunnel Stairway, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Trivia:

One of the three films June Allyson considered her personal favorites of her films.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Helen's fashions in the thirties and forties were straight out of the early fifties, when the movie was made.

Quotes:

Helen Berger Miller: Honestly!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Drive-in Movie Memories (2001)

Soundtrack:

National Emblem March

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 …).