THE BAND WAGON

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According to Wikipedia this is, along with 'Singin' In The Rain', one of the finest MGM film musicals.


Well, I beg to differ. To put this film, directed by Vincente Minnelli, in the same bracket as the Gene Kelly classic is absurd; this film is clearly inferior in terms of the songs, the dance routines, the comedy, the romance. In other words it falls short in every department. 

An aging Fred Astaire does what he can but he really needs a Ginger Rogers to complement him but instead he, and we, have to make do with Cyd Charisse.  


Quite how she became as famous as she did is something of a mystery to me given that her acting is wooden, she doesn't sing, and even her dancing is quite limited in its range.  

In this film she plays a famous ballerina so it is unfortunate that the ballet sequence which is our introduction to her is so woeful as to be laughable. 

Given that there is an age gap of over 20 years between the two leads, I guess we should be thankful that there is little effort made to make us believe in a romantic relationship between them, but of course the absence of any real romance is a problem. 

I found the comedy involving the characters played by Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray quite laboured, but thankfully Jack Buchanan provides solid support as the pretentious actor-director who has to reluctantly go back to song-and-dance basics.

The idea at the heart of this story,about what constitutes entertainment, is fine as far as it goes but the screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green is nowhere near as lively as the superb one they wrote for ‘Singin’ In The Rain’. 

The best point at which to join the film is quite near the end.

The sequence of musical numbers starting with 'Louisiana Hayride' is pretty damn good, culminating in 'The Girl Hunt Ballet' which shows off Cyd Charisse (or at least her legs) to great advantage.

Even so, I wouldn’t go as far as Pauline Kael who reckoned that “when bespangled Charisse wraps her phenomenal legs around Astaire she can be forgiven everything, even her three minutes of ‘classical’ ballet and the fact she reads her lines as if she learned them phonetically”.

A shame that much of what comes before is a bit lack lustre.

 RATING: ✓ Cheers

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