“MUSIC FOR MILLIONS”

Dominion, Volume 39, Issue 27, 26 October 1945, Page 5

“MUSIC FOR MILLIONS”

■- M hen I wrote the paragraph about this it picture last week I had not actually seen 11 it on the screen. This has been remedied, n It is a fascinating film based on an ort ehestra, and a baby (which does hot ape I pear till the final live seconds of footage). s ( ‘ ny “Mike" Ainsworth (Margaret o O Brien) arrives In New York on a visit.' ■ •Ito iter sister, there is no one to meet her ', lat tile station. A letter has miscarried. 1 "Mike” does not know where her sister lives; all she knows, is that she is a mem- »’ her of a. symphony orchestra, so she is 1 I escorted to the City Hall, where the orJ ehestra is rehearsing, under Jose Iturbi, J and there she iinds Barbara (June Allyson) playing a "dog-box." June “digs” 1 with half-a-dozen other girl members of > the orchestra, and "Mike” has to be • smuggled in. What happens after that 1 mostly concerns Barbara's health, as it ! is divulged that she is an expectant 1 mother.- (with a husband serving some- , where, in the Pacific.)- “Mike’s” reaction to this tremendous discovery is atomic. - Intensely religious, the child prays to her ' beloved St. Christopher, anil she acts with practical alacrity, even braving the ire of the conductor to take a stool for Barbara’s use. No word for months from Hie husband so depresses Barbara that the other girls arrange with a dear old boozer (Hugh Herbert) to forge a letter for Barbara as though it were from the Pacific, to buoy up the girl during her travail. Next comes the birth. "IT’S a boy,” is tlie whisper that steals through the ranks of the orchestra at rehearsal, till Anally Iturbi himself, baton in hand, finds himself whispering, "IT’S a Boy,” as he trifles with Beethoven's “Fifth.” This eminent conductor and pianist (lie plays and conducts the Grieg ’Concerto with magnetic effect), has an ingratiating personality and a nice sense of humour. Jimmy Durante never begins to look like the manager of a symphony orchestra, but has his rough comedy moments, and is a good foil to Margaret O’Brien in the intimate scenes. "Music for Millions” concludes on a high note—Handel's “Messiah,”' with full chorus jnd orchestra, which is gloriously appropriate if one remembers the great chorale, “For Unto Us a Son is Born,” It is a picture not to be missed.