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Rating:  - Poised ,stylish and elegant musical
Outstanding direction by that master stylist Vincente Minnelli helps make this among the greatest ever musical movies.It deftly manages to both celebrate and gently satirise the genre and its conventions.and in the process delivers superb entertainment .
Astaire plays Tony Hunter a fading Hollywood song and dance man in danger of being forgotten .When we first meet him he is travelling by train to New York to discuss appearing in a musical on Broadway,one written by his friends Lester and Lily Marton .Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray play these roles with style and skill and the characters are pretty obviously based on the actual songwriters Adolph Green and Betty Comden .He suffers the humiliation of being ignored by the press on arrival and they make a beeline for Ava Gardner,cameoing as herself and looking stunning it must be said.
The musical mintended as genial lightweight entertainment is hijacked by its producer and co-star' English actor manager Jeffrey Cordova(Jack Buchanan) who sees it as a modern day Faust and signs rising ballerina Gaby Gerrard(Cyd Charisse )and ballet choreographer Paul Byrd(James Mitchell)to work on the show.Gaby and Tony clash personally and professionally and the play flops dismally on try out on the road.So the cast re-invent the show as a musical revue anmd the rest as they say is history
The story is slight but musical highlights are plentiful-the Astaire/Buchanan duet on I Giess I'll Have to Change My Plans ;Astaire twinkling through There's A Shine On My Shoes in a New York penny arcade,the sensual pas de deux between Astaire and Charisse to Dancing in the Dark;the legendary Triplets routine in which superb trick photography enables Astaire ,Buchanan and Fabray to perform as toddlers and above all the That's Entertainment number.For my money the showpiece ballet sequence Girl Hunt ,a homage to dance and film noir,is overextended but many will see it as a higlight.
Astaire was never better and projects an endearaing vulnerability as well as unparalleled terpsichorean skills;Charisse is a better dancer than actress but her performance is perectly adequate;Levant and Fabray give well judged performances but the show is stolen for me by the elegant insouciance of Jack Buchanan as a sligtly pretentius "act-or" but who is still a pretty nice guy
Superb design ,outstanding colour and a movie shot through with love for its subjects-movies and theatre .Whats not to love?
Rating:  - Just a Classic
I'm not a fan of musicals or dance. In fact, this dvd looks way out of place in my collection of dvds. But surely there's something seriously wrong with anyone who has lived in this world for a few decades without recognizing something special in Fred Astaire. This is Fred Astaire in a classic Fred Astaire role. And Cyd Charisse? A special lady, special legs (in the class with Juliet Prouse's). What more could you want? It's an unreal world, a movie with no real bad guys (!) and no stomach-turning downward plot twists. Smooth sailing all the way. Those moments when a "downer" result is threatened are completely defanged - no pain, all the emotional drain removed by Astaire's manner. He handles emotional situations as smoothly as he dances. Yes, an unreal world, but spending a little time there is great uplifting escapist entertainment.
Rating: - That's entertainment!
The Band Wagon was one of those films I'd always managed to miss but which turned out to be a lot of fun. There are minor flaws - Cyd Charisse is unflatteringly shot for much of the picture and is nobody's idea of a prima ballerina, Oscar Levant is clearly well lubricated and sadly well past his prime, while there are quite a few technical fluffs, be it the shadow of the camera making yet another appearance or the stagehand strolling casually across the background in the Louisiana Hayride number, and the Girl Hunt ballet finale goes on far too long as per many post-American in Paris MGM musicals - but Comden and Green's script is so sharp and the numbers so good that none of that really matters. Great fun, and glorious Technicolor too - and theextras package on thetwo-disc set is particularly impressive.
Rating: - Tha Band Wagon
My husband and I had seen the Nanette Fabray clip of the triplets singing and decided that any movie with a song that goofy had to be worth seeing completely. It took a very patient clerk at a Virgin Megastore to help us discover the name of the movie. It never showed up on any of the movie channels so we bought it on Amazon. We were not disappointed - the movie as a whole was really good. If you were born too late to see these oldies in a theatre and you need a shot of what musicals used to be, they are worth every penny.
Rating: - my favorite musical
I love this movie. Cyd Charisse is the epitome of elegance dressed in red and dancing with Fred Astaire in the "Girl Hunt Ballet" sequence. In the track with Liza Minnelli and Micheal Feinstein critiquing the movie, Feinstein says that Cyd Charisse was upset that "Two Faced Woman" was rescued from the MGM archives because the number was in her opinion inferior. And actually I agree with Ms. Charisse. The theme of "Two Faced Woman" was developed better in "The Girl Hunt Ballet". If "Two Faced Woman" had been kept, it would've been too melodramatic and it would have been too much foreshadowing of "The Girl Hunt Ballet" ending. As always I am impressed by the sincerity and sheer elegance of the acting and direction.
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