SUN VALLEY SERENADE

US, 1941, 86 minutes, Black and white.
Sonja Henie, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, John Payne, Milton Berle, Lynn Bari, Joan Davis, The Nicholas
Brothers, Dorothy Dandridge.
Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone.

Sun Valley Serenade is old-fashioned 20th. Century Fox musical comedy. However, allowing for the period, it is still quite lively entertainment.

It is a star vehicle for Sonja Henie who is a lively comedienne and, of course, noted for her skating routines - which, in the way that Esther Williams was popular with swimming sequences, are very enjoyable and visually impressive. John Payne, a regular hero at 20th. Century Fox in those days, is John Payne as usual. However, his sidekick is played by Milton Berle in a humorous self-mocking way. Glenn Miller and his Orchestra appear as a band - and have the opportunity to play their music. (They were to appear at the same time in Fox's Orchestra Wives.) There is a small comedy routine by Joan Davis. Dorothy Dandridge appears briefly as a singer and the Nicholas Brothers (also in Orchestra Wives) are excellent in their dance routines.

The film was directed by H. Bruce Humberstone, a veteran of this kind of musical. Songs, including 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' (by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon) are part of the musical score by Emil Newman which was Oscar-nominated as was the photography by Edward Cronjager. Lynn Bari has the role of 'the other woman'.

The film has the usual themes of the show business group trying to get on, innocent romance with the immigrant falling for the bandleader at the expense of the other woman.