The Band Wagon (Two-Disc Special Edition)
by Vincente Minnelli
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Cyd Charisse, Fred Astaire, Jack Buchanan, Nanette Fabray, Oscar LevantDirector: Vincente Minnelli
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Harry Jackson
Editor: Albert Akst
Producer: Arthur Freed
Producer: Roger Edens
Writer: Adolph Green
Writer: Alan Jay Lerner
Writer: Betty Comden
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled
Running Time: 111 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-03-15
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- In this Vincente Minnelli-directed backstager, Fred Astaire dazzles in numbers set in a train station (By Myself), a penny arcade (A Shine on Your Shoes), a backlot Central Park (Dancing in the Dark) and a smokey cafe (Girl Hunt), the latter two with the incomparable Cyd Charisse. And when he, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan play infants who "hate each other very much!" in the merry Trip
Movie Reviews of The Band Wagon (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Movie Review: Good, but not great
Summary: 3 Stars
First, the good points: Fred Astaire is ... Fred Astaire, and Cyd Charisse is an all-time great Hollywood dancer. Some numbers, such "The Girl Hunt" and especially "Dancing in the Dark" are simply great.
But the story doesn't even vaguely hold together. Almost none of the songs in the "show-within-a-show" have anything to do with either show, or advance the plot in any way. Jack Buchanan is fun in spots, but has an odd grimace when he dances. Oscar Levant just isn't that funny, and Nanette Fabray doesn't have much to do. The storyline about the disastrous production has great potential, but ........
At times, Comden and Green are clearly trying to have it both ways - entertaining while making fun of a musical genre, but too often they don't quite make it on this one. There are some terrific lyrics, but it never makes it into the pantheon of great musicals.
Summary of The Band Wagon (Two-Disc Special Edition)
A MUSICAL DELIGHT ABOUT THE PROBLEMS OF A FADED HOLLYWOOD STAR WHO TURNS TO BROADWAY.The Band Wagon (1953) marked the culmination of a series of near-autobiographical pictures Fred Astaire made for MGM following his return from premature retirement in the late '40s. Astaire plays Tony Hunter, a fading film star (his big hit: Flying Down to Panama) who decides to return to his former glory, the Broadway stage. (In 1931, Astaire had starred on Broadway with sister Adele in The Band Wagon, a revue that lent some of its songs to this film.) His playwright-songwriter friends (Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant) hook him up with Broadway's hottest director, Jeffrey Cordova (a nicely hammy Jack Buchanan), who proves that the "new" theater traditions can be an awkward fit with the old. Hunter also finds himself at odds with his prima ballerina leading lady (Cyd Charisse), one of his chief worries being that she seems a little tall. Along the way, producer Arthur Freed, director Vincente Minnelli, choreographer Michael Kidd, and songwriters Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz treat us to some quintessential MGM numbers: Astaire's solo ode "By Myself," the flashy arcade romp "A Shine on Your Shoes," Astaire and Charisse's romantic duet "Dancing in the Dark," the faux-German drinking song "I Love Louisa," the manic trio "Triplets" (with Astaire, Fabray, and Buchanan in matching baby outfits), the Mickey Spillane-esque "Girl Hunt Ballet," and the classic show-biz anthem "That's Entertainment." Even if its ending and obligatory romance fall a little flat, The Band Wagon is one of the classic backstage musicals, a grandiose MGM spectacle that also manages to poke some fun at how grandiose MGM pictures had become. --David Horiuchi
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