THE BAND WAGON
US, 1953, 111 minutes, Colour.
Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray, Jack Buchanan.
Directed by Vincente Minnelli.
The Band Wagon is considered one of the best musicals of all time. It is yet another fine film for Fred Astaire who had begun in musicals twenty years earlier, with cautions from the studio heads who felt that he could dance a little. From the 1930s and his partnership with Ginger Rogers he moved into the 1940s and a range of musicals and leading ladies including Betty Hutton and Vera Ellen. He is at his peak dancing with Cyd Charisse – who had also made an impact during the 1940s and 1950s in such films as Singin’ in the Rain and Brigadoon. Musician Oscar Levant also features. British song-and-dance man Jack Buchanan has a central role.
The film is a satire on show business. The idea is to put on a small Broadway show – but a modernistic artistic director is brought in who pretentiously changes the style of the film. However, the variation on ‘Let’s put on a show’ is very entertaining. One of the featured songs is the classic ‘That’s Entertainment’.
Vincente Minnelli had directed a number of very successful musicals from the 1940s including Meet Me In St Louis with his then wife Judy Garland. During the 1950s he moved into strong melodramas including The Bad and the Beautiful and the biography of Van Gogh, Lust for Life. He was to win an Oscar for his direction of Gigi in 1958.
The screenplay is by veterans Betty Comden and Adolph Green (Good News, The Barkleys of Broadway, On the Town, Singin’ in the Rain). The film was entered on the National Registry of Films in the US in 1995.
1. How good a musical is this? It is considered a classic. Does it deserve it? What conventions were to the fore, song, dance, comedy, characterizations, the theatre world, stage performances and choreography? How well were each used?
2. How important was the presence of Fred Astaire in this film? The mystique about his dancing? His quality of dancing? His flair for musical comedy? The values implicit in his characterization as getting older, fading, lack of success and the comparisons with his own life?
3. How was the theme, 'That's Entertainment' important for the film? The implications of the lyrics of the song? Its appearance during the film and as a finale? Did the film entertain audiences? What is entertainment and how is it illustrated in this film?
4. How important was the theatre background? The atmosphere of theatre and its life, theatre as a means of communication, for exploring values, but as being too serious, for laughter, songs, spectacle?
5. How well did the film show the world of actors? Personalities and temperaments, clashes and ambitions, careers, agents, and manipulation, fights? Tony as a man of the theatre and his fears, clashes with Gaby, gradual reconciliations, determination to go on and succeed? Gaby as a ballerina, managed by Paul, fearful of Tony, getting into the swing of the musical comedy, falling in love with Tony etc.?
6. The comedy in the presentation of the Martons? The clashes of husband and wife in their creativity? Their participation in plot and in the musical, 'The Bandwagon'?
7. The importance of the character of Cordova? The vain character? playing Oedipus, the satire in him as actor and director, entrepreneur? His belief in the Faust legend and the dramatic build-up, his failure? His response to the failure and his joining in the musical? Jack Buchanan's capacity for song and dance?
8. Was plot important for this film? Was it original, did it have cliches?
9. The importance of the songs in the film? Fred Astaire's initial biographical song? 'That's Entertainment'? The comic songs?
10. The impact of the dancing in the film? Cyd Charisse as a suitable Astaire partner? The importance and tone of 'Dancing In The Dark'? The Mickey Spillane ballet? Fred Astaire's elegant dancing with Jack Buchanan?
11. How important was the dialogue of this film? The sharpness of the quips? Style?
12. Is it easy to see why this film is considered a classic?
