AllMovie

The best reason to watch Orchestra Wives today -- in fact, the only reason to do so -- is the music, especially "I've Got a Girl in Kalamazoo," performed to the hilt here by Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton (Betty's sister), and the Modernaires. 20th Century Fox, who had Glenn Miller and band under contract, knew what they were doing -- no reason to spend money on such niceties as script and good actors when the kids came only to listen to Miller and his crew. The bandleader had been supporting the likes of Sonja Henie and Tyrone Power in earlier songfests but Orchestra Wives was popular music stripped down to the essentials, and instead of wasting prestigious stars, featured the likes of Lynn Bari, George Montgomery, and Carole Landis, in other words, the Fox B-unit players. But the music -- which also includes Moonlight Serenade, "People Like You and Me" and At Last -- remains the saving grace and what a saving grace it proves to be.