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The Band Wagon Photos
Movie Info
Famous musical movie star Tony Hunter (Fred Astaire) fears his career may be on the skids, but his friends, Lester (Oscar Levant) and Lily (Nanette Fabray), have written a Broadway vehicle to kick-start his professional life. Tony is ecstatic -- until egotistical director Jeffrey Cordova (Jack Buchanan) joins the project and casts ballerina Gaby Gerard (Cyd Charisse) as the leading lady. Tony's second chance seems to be fading, but he may get more than he bargained for as the show goes on.
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Genre: Musical
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Original Language: English
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Director: Vincente Minnelli
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Producer: Arthur Freed
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Writer: Betty Comden, Adolph Green
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Release Date (Theaters): original
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Runtime:
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Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Production Co: Metro Goldwyn Mayer
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Sound Mix: Mono
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News & Interviews for The Band Wagon
Critic Reviews for The Band Wagon
Audience Reviews for The Band Wagon
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The general outline of the plot is pretty close to what we're used to in these kinds of musicals, however the character's emotions feel more real which I imagine is the result of how closely they mirror their real life counterparts involved in the production. Also there are some truly great and almost surreal numbers in this.
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Fred Astaire was 54 when he made 'The Band Wagon' with Cyd Charisse (who was 31), and he supposedly loved the role in 'The Band Wagon' because it allowed him to show what it was like to be in productions as an older dancer. The first half of the movie is engaging, as a musical is put together starting with a script from writers played by Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray pitched to a bombastic producer played by Jack Buchanan. Astaire and Charisse's characters initially don't like one another, and the scene where they're all assembled at a gathering of Buchanan's to raise funds as he pitches his vision of the musical to the horror of the writers as well as touting stars who already 'want out' is fantastic. I loved the performance of 'That's Entertainment', which has since become a musical standard. Charisse and Astaire do have some great dance moments with one another, but performances overall are a little uneven. And, as the musical within the movie is reworked in the second half, it becomes a little hodgepodge, and it's hard to fathom how a hayride, a performance on triplets, and a film noir like number fit together (hint: they don't). There are some bright spots and the film is reasonably entertaining, but there is a lack of cohesion that separates it from the truly great musicals of the era.
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Beautiful little musical from Vincente Minnelli. The tale of the development of a Broadway musical provides some great moments in the interactions between potential cast members. Astaire gets to act as well as dance and he proves up to the task.
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America has always suffered from an inferiority complex when it comes to "art", but in my mind the creative output of the country mid twentieth century ranks with anything Europe achieved in it's long history. Not many realised it at the time but in creating this unapologetic defense of American entertainment, Minnelli just may have. The irony is that across the Atlantic European critics were raving about film-makers like Minnelli, a technicolor respite from the stark tone of fifties European cinema. His use of color was particularly influential in Italy, a country whose neo-realistic cinema at the time was resolutely monochrome. Directors like Bava and Argento would adapt Minnelli's primary colors and elegant camera movement to fit the horror and thriller genres. The movie's finale was homaged by those other masters of musical comedy "The Muppets" in their comeback film of 2012. Even this year's Oscar winner "The Artist" owes much to this in it's tale of a fading star forced to auction his memorabilia. We begin with this auction where even the famous top hat and cane associated with Astaire fails to sell. Giving up on Hollywood he takes a train to New York and is humiliated by disinterested passengers and paparazzi. It's here we get the wonderfully melancholy song "By Myself", one of the quieter numbers but possibly the most memorable. Upon hitting 42nd Street he finds much has changed and we get the first rollicking dance number "A Shine On Your Shoes", a delirious mix of color, rhythm, song and Astaire's nimbleness, outrageous given he was 54 years old at the time. Astaire's co-star in the scene is Leroy Daniels, a real life shoe shine man who Minnelli found in Penn Station while researching the scene. It might not be as respected as the movie's famous closing number but as an example of choreography between man and camera this is unsurpassed. Of course Minnelli was a master of choreography but not just in the musical sense. A scene set at a party involving conversations in three separate (and color coded) rooms is dazzling, characters opening doors just at the right time to hear a snippet of conversation. Broadway has changed too, with Buchanan's director insisting on twisting every show concept into something "meaningful". Astaire is skeptical but goes along for the ride, encouraged by the long legs of his young co-star Charisse, a rising ballet dancer. It's in the relationship between Astaire and Charisse that Minnelli demonstrates his point, that high art and entertainment can coexist. The movie's final number "The Girl Hunt Ballet" is one of the greatest ever expressions of this ideal. The American genre of the day was Film Noir and Minnelli gives us the most colorful Noir homage ever seen. He may resemble your elderly uncle but in this sequence Astaire achieves a level of cool that Dean and Brando could only dream of. It's a sequence famously homaged by Michael Jackson in his "Smooth Criminal" video. For fans of classic Hollywood the real punch the air number is "That's Entertainment" and as it's lyrics suggest, this is the art that appeals to the heart.
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