SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

edwagreen An absolute sparkling 1953 musical is The Band Wagon. The film just goes to prove that you can't have Faust plays turned into musicals, as they shall lay an egg as shone so beautifully on stage.Jack Buchanan just steals every scene that he is in as director De Cordova, the expert on Faust who falls for the idea of making a musical.Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant are just perfect as the couple who wrote the original play, only to rewrite it for Faust and then go back to the necessary adjustments when the play opens on Broadway and is a disaster.Fred Astaire is the has-been actor who comes to N.Y. to do the play and Syd Charisse, a ballet dancer, becomes his partner in the production. The two can't get along but love as we know finds a way to bring them together.I'll Go My Way By Myself seems to be where Fred's career is at the beginning of this delightful film, with dance sequences wonderfully staged. That sure is entertainment!

mark.waltz A fading movie star returns to his roots of Broadway to try and make a come-back and encounters issues with the oh-so dramatic director who wants to musicalize "Faust", turning the simple musical comedy he wants to star in upside down with pretentious ideas. Fred Astaire never came back to Broadway after 1932's "The Gay Divorce", but after almost 20 years on the Great White Way, film stardom kept him busy in Hollywood for another 20 years before he made this film. Arthur Freed's follow-up to "Singin' in the Rain", this was a glorious salute to Broadway, almost as if Gene Kelly's character had aged into Astaire's character here, and needed Broadway to help boost his career. Under the direction of Vincent Minnelli, it is an artistic triumph that was also a commercial hit.While Fred makes his entrance escorting a very glamorous MGM star off of the train, it is obvious that all attention is on her, and to the New York press, he is a has-been. Astaire sings the solemn "By Myself" (which Judy Garland later belted angrily in "I Could Go on Singing") then heads to a 14th Street arcade where he takes over after getting "A Shine on My Shoes". This well-staged number features practically every archetype of New York character, particularly a frumpy old lady whom he scares while singing of his shoe shine. Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray are outstanding as an Adolph Green/Betty Comden type writing team, and 1920's British heartthrob Jack Buchannan is the extremely eccentric director who can't see beyond his obsession with "Oedipus Rex".After almost a decade in supporting roles in MGM musicals, Cyd Charisse moved up to leading lady, here playing an ego-driven ballet star who is brought down to earth by Astaire. Her equally egotistical ballet star is the fantastic James Mitchell (Yes, "All My Children's" Palmer Cortlandt and "Oklahoma's" Dream Curley). Charisse, who previously danced with Astaire in "Ziegfeld Follies", is a somewhat wooden actress, but when she starts to dance, the magic explodes. "Dancing in the Dark" is one of the classiest musical numbers where nobody sings, later spoofed by Steve Martin and Gilda Radner on "Saturday Night Live", and Charisse (dubbed by India Adams) is delightful in her production number, "New Sun in the Sky". Fabray, a perky Broadway star who only made a small number of films, steals the show every moment she is on, turning "Louisiana Hayride" into a cute novelty number.Buchannan loosens up when he puts on white tie and tails and proceeds to accompany Astaire in "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan". Then, in "Triplets", Fabray joins them for a feisty look at what's going on in the minds of babies. Astaire had performed this number back in the 1931 musical revue which this took the title from, a story being added to give it some substance. Newly written, "The Girl Hunt Ballet" is an artsy look at the world of a Mickey Spillane type detective and one of the few times film noir met the world of musical comedy. Charisse gets to play several parts in this and like in "Singin' in the Rain's" big "Broadway Ballet", proves her usage as a dancer in movies isn't without merit.Then, there's the glorious title song, utilized in all three editions of "That's Entertainment!". And while the Broadway stage may never have been as big as the MGM sound-stages, that really doesn't matter because "the stage is a world, the world is a stage of entertainment!".

hall895 It is a brave film which has a song called That's Entertainment! as its signature number. Because if, as is unfortunately the case with The Band Wagon, the film is not great entertainment...well, the negative review practically writes itself. This is a film which has the good fortune to have two great talents, Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, and the misfortune of completely wasting them. It's a film full of largely forgettable musical numbers and it has a story which never really engages and which in the end goes off the rails completely. To call the film tedious would be harsh but not entirely untrue. The film goes for laughs but fails rather miserably in that regard. It tries to give you a little romance but that angle never heats up. The film has no flow to it, there is a real disjointed feel throughout. No, this is not entertainment.Astaire plays declining movie star Tony Hunter. His friends Lester and Lily Marton have written a stage show which they think can revive his career. They bring it to noted Broadway director/producer/star Jeffrey Cordova who decides to turn what was written as a light comedy into a serious, and seriously bizarre, retelling of Faust. Not surprisingly this proves disastrous. Lester and Lily start bickering. The play, which no longer makes any sense whatsoever, spirals out of control. And all the while tension rises between Tony and his costar, ballerina Gabrielle Gerard. Tony is intimidated by Gabrielle's youth and beauty, not for no reason with Charisse playing the part. And he thinks this classically trained ballerina has no respect for his style of hoofing. Tony and Gabrielle have no chemistry, can't stand one another, can't work together. Eventually they do come together somewhat which provides the film with perhaps its one true highlight, Astaire and Charisse with a wonderful, beautiful dance in a park. Unfortunately after that Tony and Gabrielle's play continues to crumble and so does the film. By the time Astaire and Charisse dance together again much later on the film is past the point of being salvageable.Astaire and Charisse really were hung out to dry here. The supporting cast adds nothing. The loony Cordova character is meant to be over-the-top but Jack Buchanan goes way too far with it. This character is too nuts for the film's good. At least he has some spark to him which is more than can be said for the writing couple, Lester and Lily. Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray play those parts quite lifelessly. And James Mitchell, playing a romantic interest for Gabrielle, is a total wet blanket with all the personality of a doorknob. The musical numbers all fall flat and many make no sense whatsoever. By the end the film is just throwing random songs up on the screen to see what sticks. None of it does. Some of the numbers in the film's homestretch are obviously meant to be funny but they are just terrible, producing groans not laughs. The big final number is a little better even if, as with so much of what preceded it, it makes very little sense. The best musicals have a lot of life in them. The Band Wagon does not. The energy just is not there. The story doesn't work, the songs are forgettable, the performances of the supporting cast leave much to be desired. Astaire and Charisse have a couple of moments. A couple of moments is not enough to make a good film.

Spikeopath The Band Wagon is directed by Vincente Minnelli and written by Alan Jay Lerner, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Songs are written by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz. It stars Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan. Out of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it's a Technicolor production with cinematography by Harry Jackson.Story tells of ageing musical star Tony Hunter (Astaire) whose cinema glory days appear to be well behind him. Upon the request of his friends Lester (Lavant) & Lily Martin (Fabray), he heads to Broadway to appear in a play they have written with him in mind. He hopes this will restart his career, however, the play's director, Jeffrey Cordova (Buchanan), changes the play into an arty interpretation of the Faust legend. Not only that, but he brings in prima ballerina Gabrielle Gerard (Charisse) to star in it, and Tony and Gabrielle don't exactly hit it off.One of the greatest musicals to come out of MGM, The Band Wagon makes up for what it loses in plot ingenuity, with quality songs, stunning choreography, bustling vitality and heart, big heart! Three parts of the film is made up of character building and said characters attempts to put a show on successfully in spite of behind the scenes worries. Then the final third then switches in mood with a different show and primary characters come to their respective destinies.Along the way we are treated to a series of wonderful song and dance routines, with the stand outs being "Be Myself," "A Shine on My Shoes," "That's Entertainment," "Dancing in the Dark," "I Love Louisa," "I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan" and the joyously macabre, "Triplets." These are then crowned magnificently by "Girl Hunt," an elongated parody of noir-type crime movies from the golden era, where it's not just Fred and Cyd who sparkle, but the dance troupe around them also dazzle the eyes with some truly amazing moves.Where the big heart comes in to it is with Astaire's take on the role of Tony. It's very touching at times, full of nostalgia pangs for his former glories. He also has good comic timing, whilst readily able to laugh at himself as the (thin) narrative thread reminds him of his ageing years. The latter of which accounts for the not so great chemistry with the divine Charisse, but the film under Minnelli's active direction easily overcomes this tiny flaw. There's also some salt in the story in the observation of what goes on behind the scenes of a Broadway play, specifically the people pulling the strings.Big production for a big movie, all told, it's big entertainment, yes indeed. 9/10