Reliable craftsman Henry Koster directed Music for Million, a musical film (or rather drama with music), starring Margaret O’Brien, and real life musicians Jose Iturbi and Jimmy Durante.
Margaret O’Brien, child star, plays “Mike,” a girl who arrives in N.Y. to stay with her pregnant older sister Barbara Ainsworth (June Allyson), who lives with her co-players in a symphony orchestra.
The orchestra plans to go on a tour of army camps, when a telegram informing them of the death of Barbara’s soldier husband in the Pacific war theater.
The girls keep the tragic news from Barbara until her baby is born.
The orchestra plays classical standards before military audiences. Iturbi conducts the group and plays piano pieces, while Durante sings, while functioning as Mike’s surrogate grandfather.
Just after giving birth, Barbara receives a letter from her husband that he’s recuperating in military hospital.
Running time: 115 minutes
Commercial appeal:
A Christmas release, the movie hit theaters on December 18, 1944.
Many women, whose husbands served in the army during WWII, could relate emotionally to June Allyson’s perpetually anxious wife, waiting to get news about her husband.
The movie, made at the height of Margaret O’Brien as a popular, who received top billing–it followed Minnelli’s musical masterpiece, Meet Me in St. Louis–was successful at the American and international box-office, due to its timely subject and great music (both classic and more modern).
Made on a budget of $1.7 million, Music for Millions generated a profit of close to $1 million for the studio.
Oscar Nominations: 1
Cast:
Margaret O’Brien as Mike
Jose Iturbi as Himself
Jimmy Durante as as Andrew
June Allyson as Barbara Ainswort
Marsha Hunt as Rosalin
Hugh Herbert as Uncle Ferdinan
Harry Davenport as Docto
Marie Wilson as Mari
Larry Adler as Larry
Ben Lessy as Kickebus
Connie Gilchrist as Travelers Aid Woma
Katharine Balfour as Elsa
Helen Gilbert as Hele
Mary Parker as Anit
Ethel Griffies as Mrs. McGuff
Eddie Jackson as Singer
Jack Roth as Drummer
Soundtrack
Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy
Performed by Larry Adler on harmonica, and Jose Iturbi on piano
Dvorak, Symphone N. 9 in E Minor, 4th Movement, conducted by Iturbi
Piano Concerto in A Minor, music by Edvard Grieg, performed by Iturbi
The March of the Toys from Babes in Toyland, music by Victor Herber
Waltz in E Minor, music by Fredric Chopin, performed by Iturbi
Hallelujah Chorus, from The Messiah, music by Handel
Toscanini, Iturbi and Me, written by Harold Spina, Walter Bullock and Jimmy Durante
At Sundown, written by Walter Donaldson
Umbriago, written by Jimmy Durante and Irving Caesar
Jam Session, music by Calvin Jackson
