Starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Nanette Fabray, and Oscar Levant
Directed by Vincent Minnelli
Music by Howard Dietz; Lyrics by Arthur Schwartz
By 1953, the MGM musical was at its zenith. It was one of the most popular entertainments in the entire world, with its biggest films often the top hits of their year. This one, however, had a lot of trouble on the road to filming. Fred Astaire's wife was dying, and he had to focus on this and losing her. Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant didn't get along. Writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green had to figure out how to turn the original 1931 revue, with unrelated songs and skits, into a full story. How well did they do, with everything else going on? Let's begin with the auction of a famous top hat and cane belonging to former movie star Tony Hunter (Astaire) and find out...
The Story: Tony's friends Lily (Fabray) and Lester (Levant) Martin have written a stage musical that he hopes will be his big comeback. However, they've also convinced Jeffery Cordova (Jack Buchanon) to direct. Cordova is a theatrical wonderkind who has directed three plays on Broadway at once and is currently starring in a fourth. None of those plays were musicals, however, and Tony has his doubts about using him when Cordova insists he wants to change the Martins' fluffy detective story into a pretentious musical version of Faust. He even convinces ballerina Gabrielle "Gaby" Geraud (Charisse) and her choreographer boyfriend Paul Byrd (James Mitchell) to create the dances.
Everything goes badly at first. Gaby and Tony are from different eras and styles of dance and don't get along. Lester is tired of Lily going on about how great Cordova, too, and they end up bickering. Cordova is not only hard to please, but is overfond of huge productions with sets too large for the stage and special effects that hide the dancers. Tony finally quits in frustration. Gaby follows him, finally admitting she thinks he's the better dancer. Dancing together makes them realize they have more in common than they previously believed. Now they just have to convince Cordova that he's barking up the wrong cardboard tree and bring the rest of the show together, too.
The Song and Dance: I've loved this movie since I saw it on TCM in college. It's one of my favorite movies of any genre. Along with Three Little Words, it's probably Fred Astaire's best performance at MGM; it's also Vincent Minnelli's second-best work on a musical after Meet Me In St. Louis. Minnelli manages some wonderful touches, especially the montage that depicts how badly the first version of the show went over by just showing still images of crashes. Even Cyd Charisse does well as Gaby, who gradually comes to enjoy the "lower" form of entertainment as much as she does ballet, Buchanon is appropriately oily as the overconfident director who learns that musicals are harder to pull off than they look, and pianist Levant and Broadway star Fabray are hilarious as the married writers who end up quarreling over how much Cordova took over their original idea.
Favorite Number: The movie begins with a brief "By Myself" as Hunter strolls down New York, looking for his friends. "Shine On Your Shoes" has him dancing around an arcade that used to be a theater lobby, joined by real-life dancing shoe shine man Leroy Daniels. Cordova sings "That's Entertainment," the only new song written for the film, to convince Tony that "there's no difference between Shakespeare's immortal words and Bill Robinson's immortal feet." Watching the two of them and the Martins clown around and hoof it together, you almost believe him.
Two big chorus numbers that are barely seen in the film, "Something to Remember You By" and "You and the Night and the Music," represent the show during its original rehearsal period. "Music" in particular is drowned out by Cordova's huge special effects. This leads to the film's most famous number, "Dancing In the Dark." Gaby and Tony escape to Central Park, where their dance together is more lyrical and moving than any special effect...and proof positive that high and low art can work together. We get a more comic version of this as Tony, Gaby, and Lily clown around with the German-themed "I Love Louisa" at the chorus members' after-party.
Charisse almost literally glows in her gorgeous yellow gown, singing about that "New Sun In the Sky." Fabray leads a group of hayseed chorus kids on a lively "Louisiana Hayride." Buchanon and Astaire define elegance in their top hat-and-cane duo, "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan." Despite the number being almost a literal pain to make, Astaire, Fabray, and Buchanon are morbidly hilarious as "Triplets" with dancing knees who wish the others would go away. "The Girl Hunt Ballet" ends the film, with real-life detective novel lover Astaire as the gun shoe who pursues two different versions of Charisse, an ethereal blonde beauty and a low-down, dark-haired vamp in glittering scarlet.
Trivia: The original Broadway Band Wagon revue opened in 1931, with Astaire, his sister Adele, Frank Morgan, and Helen Broderick. It ran almost a year, not bad for the height of the Depression. "New Sun In the Sky," "Dancing In the Dark," and "I Love Louisa" came from this version. This would be the last time Fred and Adele appeared together. Adele retired to get married shortly after the show's run.
A stage adaptation of the film debuted as Dancing In the Dark in San Diego in 2008. It reverted to The Band Wagon when it played New York City Center as an Encores! special event.
Cordova was inspired by Broadway director and actor Jose Ferrer, who in the early 50's produced four shows on Broadway and was considering a fifth. The Martins are based on unmarried songwriting team Comden and Green. Fred Astaire really did almost retire for a while in the mid-40's.
Look for a redheaded Julie Newmayr as one of the models seen during the fashion salon segment of "The Girl Hunt Ballet."
The number "Two Faced Woman" with Charisse and the chorus was cut from the film. The recording would be used in the Joan Crawford movie Torch Song; part of the number would turn up in That's Entertainment III.
What I Don't Like: Even for a light-hearted backstage comedy, there's a lot of plot contrivances and unexplained stuff going on. The most obvious is how Cordova got into Tony's hotel room without anyone noticing after the "I Love Louisa" number. (Well, he was Mephistopheles...) There's also all the fact that, of all those great numbers at the end, only "The Girl Hunt Ballet" sounds like it could have been created for the description of the show that Lily and Lester give Jeffery and Tony in the beginning. The others look like they could have come from the original Band Wagon revue.
The Big Finale: This is one of my favorite movies of all time, period. If you're a fan of Astaire, Charisse, dance on film, or the big splashy MGM musicals of the 40's and 50's, they don't come any bigger, splashier, or more fun than this. Check out this with Singin' In the Rain as a double-feature if you want to know what the MGM musical is all about.
Home Media: My two-disc DVD set that I've had since it came out is in print but now a bit expensive. You may be better off looking for this on the one-disc Blu-Ray or streaming.
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