Glenn Miller Story, The (1954)

The Glenn Miller Story (1954), directed by Anthony Mann.

Reverential bio-pic made ten years after the bandleader's plane vanished over the English Channel during WW2. Much on his struggles and on the romance between Miller and his wife, tending toward the syrupy. Even if you are a fan of big-band music and the people involved I think it is a once-only sort of film.

Nonetheless it was a huge hit at the time. I suspect people had an intense nostalgia for the music that provided much of the real-life background score for the late 1930s and the War years. It is still intensely evocative of those times.

Plus the cinematography is a cut above thanks to William H. Daniels. Some Colorado locations. Technicolor.

Cameos from many musicians, playing themselves. See Louis Armstrong and Gene Krupa together in the thumbnails below.

http://watershade.net/public/glenn-miller-story.jpg