The Band Wagon

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

I recently saw Scorsese's BFI doc on American film and it featured this film. I was immediately intrigued. The colors were something I'd never seen before in a musical. Actually, it reminded me of Mishima to be honest. Then the camera moved over to Cyd Charisse and that woman's red dress and black hair sold me immediately. I just ordered a copy. Is this a good Minelli to start with or should I go for Some Came Running, too?

[Belmondo]

SOME CAME RUNNING is a damn good movie. Always loved the young Shirley MacLaine and Sinatra and Dean Martin are surprisingly good. It is generally accepted that this is one of only three movies (along with YOUNG LIONS and RIO BRAVO) in which Dino turned in a real performance.

[Michael]

Jean-Luc, please take my advice. Like I said previously here, watch Band Wagon and if you end up feeling uncertain about it - don't dimiss it immediately like I regretfully did, then wait a couple of days and then rewatch it. It worked its weird spell on me that I'm not able to watch anything with a clear mind these days. I hope the spell will wear off sooner so I can start focusing on new movies.

[zedz]

Jean-Luc, please take my advice. Like I said previously here, watch Band Wagon and if you end up feeling uncertain about it - don't dimiss it immediately like I regretfully did, then wait a couple of days and then rewatch it. It worked its weird spell on me that I'm not able to watch anything with a clear mind these days. I hope the spell will wear off sooner so I can start focusing on new movies.

If you don't get over it soon, we can always send in the deprogrammers with their Sound of Music DVDs!

[Panda]

For fans of "The Bandwagon" (I count myself as one), a 35 mm print will be screened in Boston, MA July 25th 7 PM at Harvard Film Archive.

Panda

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

I saw this yesterday and loved it. I'm still dreaming about Charisse's gams, but the whole thing has me feeling like I'd seen it before - cue Fonda's speech to Stanwyck but pretend it's Bandwagon and not her that he saw - and now it's like all I could imagine in a musical is contained in this one movie. I'm quite impressed.
So who'd win the fight? Red Shoes or Bandwagon? I'd like to know who'd get Scorsese's bet.

[malcolm1980]

This is one of my favorite musicals ever. I know Singin' in the Rain gets all of the attention these days but The Band Wagon is equally (if not more) magical.

[Michael]

Can someone please explain why Singin' in the Rain's being recognized as the greatest Hollywood musical or at least, an icon by most critics? And The Band Wagon gets much less recognization, how come? Is it because the latter was released a year later or perhaps it's too subtle and complex for the mainstream? I mean Singin' in the Rain is a fine film that still holds up perfecltly well - it's funny and energetic (probably the reason that's appeal more to most) but I think The Band Wagon is better written, scored, directed, etc. I know it's the matter of taste but if I"m not mistaken, The Band Wagon seems to be falling through the crack to the land of forgotten, I hope not. I talk to people around me - home, work, etc and every single person has never heard of The Band Wagon, but everyone's familiar with Singin' in the Rain whether he has seen it or not.

[souvenir]

This may be too simplistic of an answer, but, as someone who doesn't generally enjoy musicals (gasp, I know!), I love Singin' in the Rain much more. I think it's funnier, has better, livelier songs and overall doesn't feel like a musical. The Broadway setting of The Band Wagon doesn't interest me much while the transition between silent and talking pictures does. I also like Gene Kelly better than Fred Astaire, which doesn't seem to be a popular choice in this thread.

Cyd Charisse is stunning though and the Girl Hunt Ballet sequence is fantastic.

[Michael]

I also like Gene Kelly better than Fred Astaire, which doesn't seem to be a popular choice in this thread.

True that Singin' in the Rain is livelier, funnier, and more energetic but the "old soul" feeling of Band Wagon punches me much harder (Astaire nursing his wife dying from cancer, Minnelli divorcing Garland, etc.. I felt all that - their quiet desperation and melancholy seeping through the Technicolored surface before I learned anything about their heartaches at home.

It's impossible for me to decide between Astaire and Kelly.. I love them both the same but for different reasons. But Kelly can ruin a musical number for me, he seems to love having the camera sliding quickly close up to his face as his smile splash across the whole screen right after some numbers, such as the Broadway Melody and It's Always Fair Weather 's rollerstaking number. I've heard folks calling him a "stagehog" - stepping over others to keep the spotlight fixated on him, only him. I'm not sure about that but I think he's phenomenal in his pairing with Judy - For Me and My Gal and Summer Stock and in An American in Paris, he's simply stunning. Astaire, on the other hand, is more humble and a bit more soulful.

[hearthesilence]

The Museum of Modern Art is screening this today, tomorrow and Friday at 1:30 p.m. (plus I Vitelloni and The Life of Oharu on various days - check their listings, everything's in 35mm and one ticket gets you into every screening of that day). Kicking myself for missing this today, because it's a holiday and I can't see this tomorrow or Friday.

To address a few old questions posted here, Singin' in the Rain is also my favorite musical, but I still consider it on equal footing with The Band Wagon. FWIW, the former was the first musical I ever saw - my brother taped it off a TV broadcast and I saw it when I was about 10 - and I loved all of it instantly. I didn't see The Band Wagon until late high school or early college, and the experience was a little different. I was stunned by the musical sequences, and they still look absolutely amazing, especially since my appreciation for Minnelli has only grown over the years. But Charisse's dramatic scenes were a little disappointing. I don't feel that way anymore, at least not in a way that brings down the movie for me, but there is a huge disparity in what she delivers as an actor in the non-musical sequences and as a dancer. I don't think I ever liked her as a dramatic actor until I saw Nicholas Ray's Party Girl.

Also, I'm a little confused by an old post here that says this was not shot in Technicolor. I thought it was three-strip Technicolor?

[hearthesilence]

I didn't realize the term was used so loosely. One reviewer claimed it was one of the last MGM musicals to use three-strip Technicolor before the studio switched to Ansco, but Daniel Eagan's authoritative book, America's Film Legacy (i.e. the reference guide to every film in the National Registry) clearly lists Ansco as the color process used for The Band Wagon.

Shame, but I have to say, on home video the color does look gorgeous, but I guess I shouldn't expect it to "pop" on the big screen the way an archival Tech print would.

[felipe]

Can someone please explain why Singin' in the Rain's being recognized as the greatest Hollywood musical or at least, an icon by most critics? And The Band Wagon gets much less recognization, how come? Is it because the latter was released a year later or perhaps it's too subtle and complex for the mainstream? I mean Singin' in the Rain is a fine film that still holds up perfecltly well - it's funny and energetic (probably the reason that's appeal more to most) but I think The Band Wagon is better written, scored, directed, etc. I know it's the matter of taste but if I"m not mistaken, The Band Wagon seems to be falling through the crack to the land of forgotten, I hope not. I talk to people around me - home, work, etc and every single person has never heard of The Band Wagon, but everyone's familiar with Singin' in the Rain whether he has seen it or not.

That really bugs me. I'm from Brazil and everyone here, I mean everyone knows Singin' in the rain (even though most haven't seen it). On the other hand I know of many movie buffs who have never heard of The band wagon! And that's sad because it's as good as Singin', if not better.

[Tommaso]

"The Band Wagon" quite simply is the best Hollywood musical of the 1950s. Full stop. That "Singin' in the rain" gets more attention has probably got to do with Kelly's more 'modern' style and with the film's take on the Hollywood industry which probably caused more scholars to write about it. Astaire in "The Band Wagon", on the other hand, was close to the end of his dancing career, even though he still looks youthful and does a perfect job here. "The Band Wagon" is in many ways a summing-up of the old tradition of the backstage musical, whereas "Singin' in the rain" with its more 'integrated' style is easier to enjoy perhaps by people who are not necessarily fans of musicals. But the way in which Minnelli handles the 'old' form seems completely unsurpassed to me (and not just in the famous final dance sequence), and Astaire and Charisse have a chemistry that works at least as well as his pairing with Rogers in the 30s. In this respect, also check out Mamoulian's 1957 "Silk Stockings", which is indeed an underrated film and which again couples Astaire and Charisse to marvellous effect.

[Tommaso]

It's really too bad, but unfortunately I again won't be able to make it to this next September meeting, as I have a commitment to extol the virtues of the three different versions of "The Student of Prague" to some audience on that particular weekend. Dammit. I really think I missed something from what I heard about your adventures the last time you were in Berlin.

Oh, and I have nothing at all against "Funny Face". I love it. But probably I'm just more into Cyd than into Audrey. Especially, as you put it, her gams. One of the reasons for my just-mentioned liking for "Silk Stockings"...

[Tommaso]

Yes, I heard about Schreck also coming. And I too would love to come, but well, I simply can't
So I'm trusting in you guys that someone makes a video recording of your performance and allows me to see it. Sounds like it's not to be missed.

[felipe]

In this respect, also check out Mamoulian's 1957 "Silk Stockings", which is indeed an underrated film and which again couples Astaire and Charisse to marvellous effect.

Silk stockings is great. Hope it'll make it to blu-ray someday.

[George Kaplan]

For David,



GET ABOARD!

[George Kaplan]

Not many drag performers look like truck drivers who seem to be wearing old curtain fabric in simulation of evening gowns. But I will try.

Something rather like this?

[zedz]

Is that the most perfect use of a screengrab ever or what?

(David, I think George has replaced my mental image of you as Fritz Lang once and for all.)