Strike Up the Band (1940) on Netflix
Jimmy Connors drums in the Riverwood High School band but wants to lead a dance orchestra. Mr. Judd gives him three weeks to stage a dance, and Mary Holden agrees to sing.
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Trailer
Plot summary
Jimmy Connors plays drums in the Riverwood High School brass band, but his ambition is to lead a dance orchestra. He asks his friend Mary Holden to sing with him and persuades Mr. Judd, the school principal, to let him form one. Because the school is in debt and cannot pay for instruments, Mr. Judd gives Jimmy three weeks to stage a dance and raise the money. At home, Jimmy has not told his mother about his plans, and she had hoped he would become a doctor. Jimmy learns that a bandleader is sponsoring a contest in Chicago for high school musical groups. The band wants to compete, but Mr. Judd turns the offer down, and the trip will cost two hundred dollars.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Strike Up the Band (1940)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film's "fruit orchestra" sequence, in which stop-motion puppets with fruit, nut and vegetable heads play orchestral music, was based on a series of photographs by Henry Rox published in LIFE on December 11, 1939; Vincente Minnelli shot it and George Pal animated it, under director Busby Berkeley.
- Following MGM practice of the time, the film's soundtrack was recorded in stereophonic sound but released in conventional monaural; some of the original stereo recording survived and turned up in home video releases, including the Mickey Rooney - Judy Garland Collection.
