Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #885 in VHS
• Released on: 1993-04-21
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 86 minutes

Customer Reviews

Watch the most sensational musical number in movies!
I can't believe this movie isn't on DVD. Shame! I'm glad I bought this years ago on Laserdisk (a double with Orchestra Wives, another winner). I've watched it a dozen times at least.

True, the plot is pretty cliched & old. The most recent time I saw that snowed-in-together-in-a-ski-cabin scene was on the Simpsons. But the MUSIC - WOW!! Glenn Miller & his orchestra at their most brilliant (thankfully, since it was to be their last appearance).

The Chattanooga Choo-Choo number is unbelievable. It's breathtaking. I'm paralyzed every time I see it. You watch each section of the band play & bounce off each other with fanastic joy & precision & verve & the number just goes on & on. Tex Beneke puts his sax aside & strolls over to join the Modernaires in their perfect 4-part harmony (which set the bar for vocal groups for decades) & their part is filmed like a Busby Berkeley musical. Then when you think it just can't go on being this good, it gets even better with Fayard & Harold Nicholas, the most exciting dancers who ever lived, leaping into the frame with the incredibly scrumptious & gorgeous & talented teen-aged Dorothy Dandridge in what has to be one of the screen's greatest show-stoppers - & it's still The Chattanooga Choo-Choo!

That number by itself makes the movie worth having (& with the laserdisk, I've watched it many times in a row) but there are other fine numbers as well, & it is a funny movie thanks in great part to a young Milton Berle.

So how about a DVD?

As Wonderful as the Resort Itself!
If you can not find the time or money to find yourself in the secluded town of Ketchum/Sun Valley, Idaho this winter. I say settle down with this classic film and enjoy the view. Sun Valley has never looked so beautiful as what one will find in this movie, astonishing since so little of it was actually filmed in the Grand Dame of Ski Resorts. Sun Valley is truly a magical land and this movie only enhances its glamour with great performances from Sonja Henie, John Payne, and Glenn Miller. Oh did I forget to mention the music composed for this movie? Chatanooga Choo Choo, I Know Why and So Do You, It Happened in Sun Valley-Harry Warrens worked his fingers off writing all of this music. Remember Sun Valley Serenade is in no way movie making at its finest moment. What it does accomplish is similar to what the resort accomplishes; it takes you away to a destination far from the cries of urban life and allows you to relax and remember more simple times.

Want to see the mechanics of the Miller Band?
This review applies EQUALLY to Orchestra Wives and Sun Valley Serenade.

Remember the Elvis movies that were basically a thin plot excuse to have the "star" sing? Well these movies are the 1940's equivalent featuring the pre-war (and so definitive) Glenn Miller Band.

Forget about the plots which are almost identical and don't even stand up today. Boy meets Girl, Falls in love, Another girl is jilted or gets in the way, disharmony in the band, all is sorted out. Big set piece number to finish. (Both movies - honest!). In fact unless you are interested in period movie making and Hollywood fashions you can safely fast forward between the tunes. You can figure the plot as it whizzes by - though how Milton Berle (playing the band's "publicity agent" in Sun Valley Serenade) got his wise crack about the size of a girl's chest past the production code is beyond me! Must have been the war.

BUT - the real reason to own these tapes (when are we going to get the DVD versions?) is watching the mechanics of how the Miller Band produced the sound. Sure - it was shot to be showy - and it is - but it is WELL shot and you can see how the components of the sound were built - even if the "recording studios" are the size of movie studios...... Couple this with the restored soundtrack (some tracks are in early stereo!) and you have a reason to own these movies. If you can only afford one - Orchestra Wives - there are more hits on it!