Search - The Glenn Miller Story on DVD

MPAA Rating: G Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1954 DVD Release: 03/04/2003 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV - Closed Captioned Edition: Dual Layered Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 53 mins Studio: Universal Studios Members Wishing: 9 Genres: Drama, Period Film, Musical Drama, Biopic [feature]

The Glenn Miller Story traces Miller's rise from pit-orchestra trombone player to leader of the most successful big band of his era. June Allyson is on hand as Miller's wife, Helen, who learns the value of patience when Glenn spends his wedding night jamming with Gene Krupa and Louis Armstrong. Given an officer's commission during World War II, Miller helms the swingin'est military band ever heard. In December of 1944, a plane carrying Miller disappears while flying over the English Channel. In memoriam, radio stations all over the world suspend their regular broadcasts to play such Miller standards as "Moonlight Serenade," "Chattanooga Choo Choo," and "Little Brown Jug." Many of Miller's contemporaries, including his first big-time boss, Ben Pollack, appear as themselves. The success of The Glenn Miller Story inspired Universal to give the go-ahead for another musical biopic, 1956's The Benny Goodman Story, with Steve Allen in the title role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Stewart - Glenn Miller
June Allyson - Helen Burger Miller
Charles Drake - Don Haynes
George Tobias - Si Schribman
Henry Morgan - Chummy MacGregor

Anthony Mann's The Glenn Miller Story, starring James Stewart, was one of Universal's big "money" pictures of the 1950s, right up there with Joseph Pevney's Away All Boats and Tammy, and it has been well preserved in general and well presented on this DVD. The film has been transferred in the correct non-anamorphic aspect ratio of 1.85:1, in about as sharp an image and bright colors as any Universal title of the era. There's a little instability at 16 minutes into the movie, in the close-up shots of June Allyson, but otherwise the disc is quite beautiful, and the audio is excellent, the band sequences having a full, rich sound. The film has been given a reasonably generous 20 chapters, accessible through an easy-to-use menu and adequate for the nearly two-hour running time, but there are no extras or bonus features, which is a disappointment. One would have hoped, perhaps, that Universal and Fox could have come up with a cross-promotion, using this DVD to promote the two movies that Miller made at Fox (which aren't even out as of 2005), and vice versa, for Fox's promotion of this disc; and newsreel footage of and concerning Miller does exist. Due to all of that -- in addition to the fact that The Glenn Miller Story is another collaboration between Stewart and Mann, who made a brace of notable movies together in the Western genre -- a commentary track is not only called for, but practically begged for. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide