Made in 1954, when Hollywood had a thing for biographies of famous musicians, The Glenn Miller Story stars James Stewart as the band leader who invented a new kind of popular music in the 1940s but who tragically died in a wartime plane crash. June Allyson plays his long-suffering wife but, like many musical biographies of this period, Miller’s personal story is mostly invented for the film. What matters here is the music, and most of Miller’s most famous hits are represented: In the Mood, Little Brown Jug, Pennsylvania 6500, Chattanooga Choo Choo and all the rest. Stewart, who bears a remarkable resemblance to the real Glenn Miller, is in excellent form.
