This very agreeable romantic musical comedy from 1941 links two seemingly incompatible elements, both very popular at the time it was filmed: Sonja Henie's ice skating and Glenn Miller's big band jazz. It's admittedly fluffy, but is also very hard to dislike.
The slim plot of sorts: Ted (John Payne), a pianist in a struggling jazz big band headed by Glenn Miller (though he is given another name here), has volunteered for publicity reasons to take a refugee from war torn Norway. He expects to get a small child, but she gets the grown, beautiful Karen Benson (Sonja Henie). Karen is too eager to get involved romantically with Ted, the problem is he already has a girlfriend, the temperamental Viv (played by Lynn Bari), who is also a singer with the band. Henie's character is just short of grating - we are supposed to find her a sympathetic character, and mostly we do, even as she tries to steal a man from other woman. When Ted and Viv goes to the ski resort of Sun Valley for a performance there in the middle of the winter, Karen decides to join them hiding in the train with the help of the band manager (Milton Berle).
Of course more than the plot, the important thing here is the music (In the Mood and Chattanooga Choo Choo are some of the pieces included) and Henie's skating. There is also a nifty prolonged scene of Henie pursuing Payne in skis (even if the close ups were obviously filmed in studios, and doubles were used in distant shots).
The slim plot of sorts: Ted (John Payne), a pianist in a struggling jazz big band headed by Glenn Miller (though he is given another name here), has volunteered for publicity reasons to take a refugee from war torn Norway. He expects to get a small child, but she gets the grown, beautiful Karen Benson (Sonja Henie). Karen is too eager to get involved romantically with Ted, the problem is he already has a girlfriend, the temperamental Viv (played by Lynn Bari), who is also a singer with the band. Henie's character is just short of grating - we are supposed to find her a sympathetic character, and mostly we do, even as she tries to steal a man from other woman. When Ted and Viv goes to the ski resort of Sun Valley for a performance there in the middle of the winter, Karen decides to join them hiding in the train with the help of the band manager (Milton Berle).
Of course more than the plot, the important thing here is the music (In the Mood and Chattanooga Choo Choo are some of the pieces included) and Henie's skating. There is also a nifty prolonged scene of Henie pursuing Payne in skis (even if the close ups were obviously filmed in studios, and doubles were used in distant shots).