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| The Band Wagon | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Vincente Minnelli |
| Written by | |
| Produced by | Arthur Freed |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Harry Jackson |
| Edited by | Albert Akst |
| Music by | |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Loew's, Inc |
Release date |
|
Running time | 111 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2.9 million[1] |
| Box office | $3.5 million[1] |
The Band Wagon is a 1953 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. It tells the story of an aging musical star who hopes a Broadway show will revive his career. However, the play's director wants to make it a pretentious retelling of the Faust legend and brings in a prima ballerina who clashes with the star. Along with An American in Paris (1951) and Singin' in the Rain (1952), it is regarded as one of the finest Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals, although it was a box-office disappointment on first release.
The songs were written by the team of composer Arthur Schwartz and lyricist Howard Dietz. Schwartz was a prolific Hollywood composer who teamed with numerous lyricists over the years, while Dietz, a studio publicist, generally collaborated with Schwartz. Some of the songs in the film had been created for the original 1931 Broadway musical by Schwartz and Dietz, also titled The Band Wagon, with a book by George S. Kaufman and starring Fred Astaire and his sister Adele. The movie's dances and musical numbers were staged by Michael Kidd.
The song "That's Entertainment!", which Schwartz and Dietz wrote specifically for the film, was a hit and has become a standard in popular music. Another song orchestrated by Conrad Salinger, "Dancing in the Dark", is considered part of the Great American Songbook and was from the original Broadway production. Astaire's early number in the film, "A Shine on Your Shoes", was written for a 1932 Broadway revue with music and lyrics by Dietz and Schwartz titled Flying Colors. (It was originally performed by the dancing team of Buddy and Vilma Ebsen). In the film version of The Band Wagon, the song was reworked as a specialty number by jazz arranger Skip Martin to showcase all of Astaire's musical talents.[2]
The musical director was Adolph Deutsch and the production was designed by Oliver Smith working for the first time in motion pictures. The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, Color, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay.
Screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who received the nomination for the screenplay, patterned the film's characters Lester and Lily Marton after themselves; however, the fictional characters were a married couple, and Comden and Green were not romantically involved. The character of an overachieving impresario was developed with the successful producer-director-actor José Ferrer in mind.[3]
In 1995, The Band Wagon was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4] In 2006, this film ranked number 17 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals.
Tony Hunter, once a famous star of musical comedies on stage and later on screen, is largely forgotten after three years without appearing in a film. He returns from Hollywood to New York. At Grand Central Terminal, he is recognized but almost ignored by reporters who are there by chance as Ava Gardner is on the same train. However, he is greeted enthusiastically by his good friends Lester and Lily Marton, and they tell him they have written a stage show, a light musical comedy, that will be a perfect comeback for Tony. They will also act in it, and they already have caught the interest of Jeffrey Cordova, who they say can do anything: Currently he is starring in, as well as directing, a new adaptation of Oedipus Rex that he wrote based on the original Greek story.
As soon as Jeffrey hears Lily outline the play, he declares it to be a brilliant reinterpretation of the Faust legend, which should star Tony and himself as the characters corresponding to Faust and the Devil. The Martons are delighted that he will be acting as well as directing, but Tony is dubious about the Faust idea. Jeffrey declares that the boundaries between genres in the theater are artificial, and "Bill Shakespeare" and Bill Robinson are all parts of the same whole. Tony agrees, and Jeffrey has the Martons rewrite the play as a dark, pretentious musical drama (when Lester also becomes dubious, Lily insists that one person must be in charge and Jeffrey can succeed at anything).
Jeffrey does succeed in arranging for the beautiful and talented ballerina Gabrielle "Gaby" Gerard to join the production, along with Paul Byrd, who is her boyfriend, choreographer, and manager—even though he always insisted that a musical play would be beneath her. When Tony and Gaby meet, they become sarcastic and hostile to each other, but this is actually because they are insecure: Each of them feels much less talented than the other.
Eventually, it all proves too much for Tony, and he walks out. Gaby follows to meet him privately. In his hotel room, she comments that the paintings by famous artists on the wall are better reproductions than usual in a hotel; he says they are his own property, and are originals. She recognizes a painting of ballerinas as an early Degas. Tony and Gaby put their troubles aside, go for a horse-drawn carriage ride, dance together, and realize they can work together after all. They also begin to fall in love.
When the first out-of-town tryout in New Haven proves disastrous, Tony demands that Jeffrey convert the production back into the light comedy that the Martons had envisioned. Jeffrey says that while they will have to find new backers because the original ones have walked out, he will be happy to appear in that show—if Tony is in charge of it. Tony accepts, using his art collection to finance the production. Paul says the show is no longer suitable for Gaby and walks out, expecting her to follow, but she is pleased to stay and work with Tony.
After some weeks on tour to perfect the new lighthearted musical numbers, the revised show proves to be a hit on its Broadway opening. Gaby professes her love to Tony.
Uncredited
Source:[5]
One musical number shot for the film, but dropped from the final release, was a seductive dance routine featuring Charisse performing "Two-Faced Woman". As with the other Charisse songs, her singing was dubbed by India Adams. Adams' recording of the song was reused for Torch Song (1953) for a musical number featuring Joan Crawford. The MGM retrospective That's Entertainment! III (1994) released the Charisse version to the public for the first time. This footage was included with the 2005 DVD release of The Band Wagon.[10]
In seven weeks at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, the film grossed $1,044,000, one of the higher grossing films at the theater.[11] According to MGM records, the film earned them distributor rentals of $2.3 million in the U.S. and Canada and $1,202,000 in other countries, resulting in a loss of $1,185,000.[1]
In a 1999 Guardian article about the importance of the film, Derek Desmond wrote: "But the whole point about The Band Wagon, and one which sometimes makes people underrate it, was the way everything seems to mesh so seamlessly--almost effortlessly, in fact. That was due to Minnelli, whose flair and imagination, admittedly aided by the huge array of MGM talent both behind and in front of the cameras, was matched by his almost perfect control."[12]
A musical stage adaptation, titled Dancing in the Dark, ran at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego from March 4 to April 20, 2008, with plans to bring the show to Broadway. Gary Griffin directed, with a book by Douglas Carter Beane and choreography by Warren Carlyle. The cast included Patrick Page as the "deliciously pretentious" director-actor-producer Jeffrey Cordova, Mara Davi playing Gabrielle Gerard, and Scott Bakula as "song-and-dance man" Tony Hunter.[13][14][15][16]
In the Variety review of the musical, Bob Verini wrote: "There's no reason this reconstituted Band Wagon can't soar once it jettisons its extraneous and self-contradictory elements."[17]
A revised version of the stage adaptation under the name The Band Wagon was presented in a staged concert in November 2014 as part of a New York City Center Encores! special event. The cast starred Brian Stokes Mitchell, Tracey Ullman, Michael McKean, Tony Sheldon, and Laura Osnes, with direction and choreography by Kathleen Marshall.[18]
Leroy Daniels, who has been mixing shoeshining and bebop at Sixth and Main for 10 years, got his movie break after dancing star Fred Astaire decided he wanted another dancer to do a specialty number called 'Shine Your Shoes'
The supportive and uncredited appearance of LeRoy Daniels in his dance with Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon (1953) provides the perfect example of the black sidelining that was standard practice. Of note, this was the only scene in Astaire's filmic career ...
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