The Band Wagon

Fred Astaire, befitting the age old knock against Hollywood that there are not enough roles for older actresses, enjoyed two careers in Hollywood. His first came in the 1930's when he co-starred with Ginger Rogers in nine films in the decade. However, almost as if prohibited by the passing of the decade, Ginger Rogers career quickly petered out in the 1940's. She still had a career, she won an Academy Award in 1940 for "Kitty Foyle", but the films she appeared in were mostly B level light comedies, and perhaps most egregiously, were not singing and dancing musicals! Fred Astaire, however, had an entire second career apart from his co-star of the 1930's. His second career began in the early 1940's when he started making films with younger, hotter actresses of the time, such as Rita Hayworth. But then his second career completely blew up in the later 1940's with "Yolanda and the Thief", a relatively innocuous title, but more signficantly his first Technicolor MGM musical. Over the next fifteen years Astaire would go on to star in eight MGM musicals, all in beautiful Technicolor, and while his co-star would always change, the Arthur Freed unit touch and Astaire's beguiling charm and legendary dancing skills were always the constants. One of that combinations most successful collaborations was 1953's "The Band Wagon". An absolute powerhouse of a production, the film boasted direction by Vicente Minnelli, a script by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, music by longtime MGM musicians Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz, and strong supporting turns by Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan, as well as the dazzling Cyd Charisse, and the incandescent Astaire, effortlessly gliding through one of the classics of his second career.

The plot is reminiscent of some of the corniest musicals from the Busby Berkely era, revolving almost entirely around the "Hey gang! Let's put on a show!" sentiment, which merely served as a medium for Berkely to display his immense choreography talents. That sentiment holds true here as well, except the character actors, witty script, and subtle jabs at present day goings on in both Hollywood and Broadway distinguish this from just another back stage spectacle. Fred Astaire plays Tony Hunter, a song and dance man who began on Broadway and then made it big in Hollywood (sound familiar?) who is currently in between gigs. Mulling a return to Broadway, Tony comes back to New York at the behest of his old friends, a husband and wife writing duo (sound familiar?), named Lester and Lily Martin. They reluctantly get a committment from him on a script they have for a new show, to be directed by Jeffrey Cordova, an egomaniacal Broadway impressario. Tony is extremely unassuming, he knows he's just a common hoofer who is good at what he does, and accordingly never strays from his bread and butter. Naturally he is concerned at the Faustian tale Cordova seems intent on putting on, and also balks at his co-star, ballerina Gabrielle Gerard. Reluctantly the cast and crew come together, under the brash direction of Cordova, who continues taking the production in bizarre directions, turning it into some kind of warped Greek tragedy, in the process alienating Tony, Lester and Lily even more. When opening night on the road finally rolls around, the production is an absolute disaster, and the backers, who thought they had a huge hit on their hands thanks to the incredible assemblage of talent, now stagger from the theater as if coming from a funeral. Of course the happy-go-lucky Tony bonds with the "great gang of kids" who make up the chorus and crew, and decide to put on the show that Lester and Lily originally wrote. To the surprise of everyone, Cordova agrees with them, and consents to appearing in the new production as the most unlikely song and dance partner Fred Astaire might have ever had!

The new production, which plays like a revue long on elaborate sets and costumes, but short on plot (each number seems like its from an entirely different production, and the only one that has something resembling a plot is the knockout finale, a Mickey Spillane/Mike Hammer influenced dance melodrama, in which Astaire is the gumshoe and Charisse is the femme fatale). Of course during this time Tony and Gabrielle have fallen in love. Usually in the Astaire MGM films this happens as more of an afterthought, with the duo embracing for the first time at the very end, a big "of course I love you!" moment clinching everything. "The Band Wagon", however, contains one of the most romantic and provocative moments Astaire ever put to film, as he and Charisse literally fall in love before their own eyes, and the audience's, while dancing to the ethereal strains of "Dancing in the Dark", a beautiful scene shot on a perfect MGM recreation of New York's Central Park. The production saved, and a love affair gained, "The Band Wagon" closes with the film's most enduring number, "That's Entertainment", a rousing show business anthem second only to "There's No Business Like Show Business". Unlike most films of the time, this was extremely self-referential, with Astaire, Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray essentially playing himself, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, respectively. The film also includes plot parallels concurrent with Astaire's career at the time, the same production concerns (Cyd Charisse being "too tall" a co-star for Astaire equates to Gabrielle Gerard being too tall for Tony Hunter), and the character of Jeffrey Cordova was widely known to be a play on actor/producer Jose Ferrer, who like his on screen alter ego, was producing four plays at the time and starring in a fifth. The film also precludes Mike Todd's "creation" of the cameo by three years, having Ava Gardner appear briefly in the beginning as herself. I credit all of this Hollywood intrigue to the brilliant screenwriting team of Comden and Green, but the film succeeds on so many other levels, from Vicente Minnelli's brilliant use of color and comedy, and the wonderful, off the wall supporting turn by Jack Buchanan, who also turns out to be quite game for the latter half of the film's musical numbers. By 1953 the Arthur Freed unit was humming like a well oiled machine, and this product is one of its very best.