P.J. Says:

“Why, with all this talent, why don’t we put on a show!” says Oscar Levant, parodying Mickey Rooney and all the backstage musicals of the 1930s and 40s. Funnily enough, that is exactly what “The Band Wagon” is, a back stage musical. It seems that many of the best movie musicals were backstage musicals- Singin’ in the Rain, for example. It just required less suspension of belief and allowed greater latitude. Anyway, for my money, The Band Wagon is the greatest single movie musical ever made. Everything is great in this movie- choreography, dancing, acting, singing, everything. Every movie should want to be this good.

I must give special mention to Michael Kidd. Time and time again his movies show inspired choreography. He has a very different style from his peers, a very masculine, aggressive style, that uses more of the three dimensional space around a dancer. Combined with Fred, they came up with the Girl Hunt Ballet, a simply inspiring Mickey Spillane homage in dance. The final pas de duex between Fred and Cyd is breathtaking. The sheer energy and dynamism of the dance will blow you away.

The Girl Hunt Ballet as an entirety is also inspired. Unlike, for example, the two dream sequences which conclude the two major Gene Kelly movies, this one isn’t ridiculous, overblown, or overstaffed. It’s realistic and gritty and extremely well staged, with no pretensions of grandeur or fantasy. It doesn’t pretend to be a work of high art from a mind of great genius. It’s damn good entertainment- the best that was ever made.

The script, by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, is a thin veneer of fiction over Fred’s real life story. It’s sharp, witty, and tightly written. It was written for Fred, and he doesn’t just act, he inhabits the role, making Tony Hunter a living, breathing alternate-reality Fred. Priceless lines are tossed off, dime-a-dozen throughout the movie, from Levant’s parody, to Fred’s “spreading ideals on a cracker” and his explosive “Tony Hunter, 1952!” and Cyd’s deft little speech filled with double meanings as she tells Fred in front of the whole crew that she is in love with him. (Although that kiss which follows proves Fred’s repeated statement over the years that he couldn’t play kissing scenes very well!)

This movie really is the peak of Fred Astaire. I suspect that he slowly became aware of his decline in his next three movies, and for that reason, along with external circumstances, he quickly escaped before the quality of his work was compromised and found life in new mediums and new genres. In terms of choreography, this movie stand only behind “The Belle Of New York”, and is tops in everything else.

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