Orchestra Wives

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Orchestra Wives
Orchestra Wives DVD cover
Directed by	Archie Mayo
Produced by	William LeBaron
Written by	Karl Tunberg (screenplay) Darrell Ware (screenplay) James Prindle (story)
Starring	George Montgomery Ann Rutherford Lynn Bari Cesar Romero Marion Hutton
Distributed by	Twentieth Century Fox
Release date(s)	4 September 1942
Running time	98 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

Orchestra Wives is a 1942 American musical film starring Ann Rutherford and George Montgomery. The film was the second and last film to feature The Glenn Miller Orchestra, and is notable among the many Swing Era musicals because its plot is more serious and realistic than the insubstantial story lines that were typical of the genre.

1 Synopsis
2 Songs
3 Cast listing
- 3.1 Uncredited performances
4 Award nominations
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Connie Ward (Rutherford) is a young woman who marries Bill Abbott (Montgomery), a trumpet player in Gene Morrison's (Miller) swing band (Miller's character was given a name with initials that matched Miller's so that the band could use their monogrammed stainless-steel bandstands). She soon finds herself at odds with the cattiness and petty jealousies of the other band members' spouses. Her discomfort is exacerbated by a flirtation between Abbott and Jaynie (Bari), the band's female vocalist. When Ward eventually walks out on Abbott their split releases so many other tensions among the musicians that leader Morrison is forced to break up the orchestra. Ward and the band's pianist Sinjin (Romero) then work behind the scenes to reunite the band, which also produces a reconciliation between Ward and Abbot. The re-formed band has a series of hit recordings and all ends happily.

[edit] Songs

Orchestra Wives features a treasure-trove of songs by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren, the same team responsible for the hits featured in Miller's first film Sun Valley Serenade (1941).^[1] The main production number is "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo", an analogue of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo", from the first film that features a folksy vocal and some gutsy tenor sax work by Tex Beneke, backup singing by the Modernaires, and a gravity-defying dance sequence by the Nicholas Brothers. Other songs include the period piece "People Like You and Me", a breakneck performance of "Bugle Call Rag" and the still-popular romantic ballads "At Last" and "Serenade in Blue".^[2]

[edit] Cast listing

Actor/Actress	Role
Ann Rutherford	Connie Ward / Connie Abbott
George Montgomery	Bill Abbott
Lynn Bari	Jaynie
Glenn Miller	Gene Morrison
Cesar Romero	Sinjin
Virginia Gilmore	Elsie
The Nicholas Brothers	Themselves
Glenn Miller Orchestra	Gene Morrison Orchestra
The Modernaires	Themselves

[edit] Uncredited performances

Three future stars have uncredited appearances: Jackie Gleason portrays the band's bass player, and in the soda fountain scene, Harry Morgan is the soda-jerk and Dale Evans plays Ann Rutherford's friend.^[3] Pat Friday dubbed Lynn Bari's singing, as she had done in Sun Valley Serenade.^[4]