Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

kidboots I always used to wish Ann Miller had found herself at MGM earlier in her career but after viewing a few of these Columbia gems I don't think MGM could have used her more advantageously. Sure the story lines were juvenile and she usually only got to dance at the end of the movie but my, what dances!!! They were always spectacular and used her quick, rhythmic tapping to great advantage - And the movies themselves were filled with the top bands and singers performing their latest hits!!!The film starts off with a bang - the fabulous Louis Armstrong and his rendition of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love", obviously slotted in at the beginning so it could be discreetly removed for some Southern audiences. The story, such as it was, involved a dancing contest winner, Terry (a vibrant Ann Miller) storming Hollywood then realising she is just a small fish in a big pond. The eight musical numbers, to be fair, are incorporated into the plot ie a taxi driver turns on his radio and suddenly there is the Jan Garber Orchestra performing "I Lost My Sugar in Salt Lake City"!! With a passing nod to the wartime housing shortage, Terry wangles herself into a secretarial job with George Haven (Jess Barker), an up and coming script writer for "Superba Pictures", even though she doesn't know the first thing about taking shorthand. "You're easy on the eyes" George coos and she certainly is!! Another musical break with the Alvino Rey Orchestra taking a novel approach to "St. Louis Blues" featuring a steel guitar no less. Another novelty song "Murder, He Said" is given a feisty rendition by vocalist Peggy Mann to her zoot suited romeo, backing by the Teddy Powell Orchestra and yet another singing interlude featuring The Pied Pipers showing they were never as good once Frank Sinatra left them.In between acts the story progresses - George dictates a sure fire story but because Terry can't take shorthand she doodles, then has to hire a stenographer while she dictates what she remembers. The finished product is pronounced very amateurish ie "we ate tons and tons of ice cream", George loses his job and Terry pours out her woes to a nice tramp in the park, who just happens to be the head of the studio. Terry and George go dancing to the Glen Gray and His Casa Loma Orchestra with "No Name Jive". There is a very limp rendition of "Cherokee" by Charlie Barnett's Orchestra but "Brazil" as sung by Nan Wynn is more like it - you can't go wrong with "Brazil". Terry finally gets an audition but when they enthuse she thinks they are making fun of her and she storms out, fortunately she storms back for a scintillating finale "Vict'ry Polka" and I agree with another reviewer, if only she had been given a couple more dances at the expense of some of the bands.Jess Barker didn't have a huge career - his wife's left him completely in the shade - she was Susan Hayward!!!

Neil Doyle Watching JAM SESSION, the big question that comes to mind is why on earth did it take ANN MILLER so long to break into A-films and become a big musical star? She had pep, verve, charm, an overload of personality and those twinkling dancing feet. She plays a girl with aspirations for becoming a Hollywood movie star, even breaking into studios to pretend being secretary to handsome JESS BARKER, or onto movie sets to watch a musical number being filmed while she watches from the sidelines.The big drawback is that Ann doesn't get to do her own "Victory" dance routine until the final five minutes or so. Then she gets her big production number with a sizzling routine that ought to have convinced MGM to take her away from Columbia much earlier than they did.Several popular bands and band singers of the day are featured in a thin plot that has the usual predictable ending for these sort of show biz stories. For fans of 1940s nostalgia, there are The Pied Pipers with Jo Stafford, Nan Wynn, and bands like Charlie Barnet, Glen Gray, Alvino Ray, Teddy Powell, etc., all squeezed into the running time of this Columbia B-film with Ann Miller in the lead.A pleasant diversion, the sort of programmer Miller was featured in more often than not.

timothymcclenaghan Copying the format used in Ann Miller's previous film, "Reveille With Beverly", once again the plot is an excuse to piece together musical performances by popular recording artists of the day.Nevertheless, it's an opportunity to enjoy the lovely Miller, who was only in her early 20s at the time of filming. I read that Dorothy Parker was once quoted as saying Miller "was the most statuesque broad in Hollywood". While she dances only once, it's a nice production number with a World War II theme. She remarked in her autobiography that her Columbia films were intended as entertainment of the troops.

HallmarkMovieBuff Ann Miller shines in this oft-used tale playing a small town girl trying to break into Hollywood.This is a movie about making a movie. Not any movie, mind you, but this movie, a movie named "Jam Session." A writer is hired to write a plot to tie together performances by several big bands, not true jam sessions, however, or even staged ones, but rather numbers performed and filmed for the movie within the movie (making the title a bit of a misnomer).Ann's character carries a letter of introduction to the head of the studio which just happens to be the one making Jam Session, but she can't get past the door. Not one to give up, she attempts to get into the studio by whatever means, including posing as secretary to the movie's screenwriter. (It's a bit of fun watching her character trying to figure out a typewriter.)As for the musical numbers, they kick off with one by trumpet master Louis Armstrong. A couple of throw-away novelty numbers follow, but pick up again with the Pied Pipers, a perennial favorite, and with Nan Wynn, the vocalist featured in the opening credits. Naturally, without belaboring the plot points, everything works out in the end with a production number featuring our gal Ann.