The Band Wagon (DVD, 2005)

The Band Wagon (1953) is a wonderful M-G-M musical which features many of that studio's top talents. Directed by Vincente Minelli, written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray, and Jack Buchanan, this movie is about the production of a Broadway show which in the hands of an enthusiastic though misguided director radically changes from the light musical comedy envisioned by the writers to a dark musical version of Faust and back again, starring a classically trained ballet dancer and a popular hoofer who are convinced they can't get along.

The film is fun and has a certain ring of truth added to it through the writing and casting. The husband-and-wife writing team played by Levant and Fabray are clearly transpositions of Comden and Green, who were veterans of many great Broadway shows and movie musicals. Also, Astaire's Tony Hunter character is an exaggerated version of Fred Astaire, a has-been actor whose days of hugely successful top-hat-and-tails dancing films are far behind him. (That's not to say Astaire was washed up in the '50s, because he wasn't!--it's just that Hunter's background is nearly identical to Astaire's.) Cyd Charisse is a fantastic ballet dancer whose elegance in toe shoes is unmatched. This movie gives her opportunity after opportunity to show her amazing legs.

The Band Wagon includes one of Astaire's favorite performances during the "Girl Hunt" sequence, in which he plays a hard-boiled detective following the clues to catch a killer and falls for Charisse first as a blond and then as a brunette. Charisse and Astaire's gracefulness during their "Dancing in the Dark" scene in Central Park is perfect. Also, the "Triplets" number is also not to be missed. Astaire, Fabray, and Buchanan portray three dancing babies through the use of special boots made to fit on their knees. Filming this scene caused them a lot of pain, but the end result is visually interesting and very fun.

The Band Wagon is the backstage musical at its best, filled with great music, memorable songs, high-quality dancing, and plenty of humor. The song "That's Entertainment" came from this film. In the 1970s, that title went to a series of documentaries about M-G-M's great musicals, of which The Band Wagon is certainly one of the most enjoyable.