Hindsight is okay but we should keep an eye on it. For example hindsight allows us to speculate that Fox, having signed Glenn Miller and his orchestra to a two-picture deal and despite the fact that the band was arguably the best-known and most popular in the country, decided that for their first At Bat the band needed the support of a 'speciality' act, cue Sonja Henie, ex-Olympic swimmer and already a veteran of such Fox musicals as Second Fiddle. Hindsight then tells us that this first movie, Sun Valley Serenade, let the Fox moguls know that the Miller outfit was a top draw in itself thus this second movie relies only on a Redbook magazine storyline, the Miller ork and some great numbers by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon. So it is that Ann Rutherford, late of the Andy Hardy movies and Gone With The Wind, marries trumpeter George Montgomery on the strength of two brief meetings and thus becomes the newest 'orchestra wife' learning about life - and love - on the road. It's more predictable than Old Moore's Almanac but the nostalgia quotient - Jackie Gleason, Marion Hutton, Ray Eberle plus THAT band - is almost off the chart, add such dazzling numbers as At Last, Serenade In Blue, People Like You And Me and I Got A Gal In Kalamazoo and we're looking at an unbeatable parlay. One to savour.
Review of Orchestra Wives
