Get on The Band Wagon; or The King Reigns Supreme

As I’ve written before, one of the real pleasures of living in Amherst, MA is the Amherst Cinema.  My wife and I are members of this community treasure.  It’s an independent, non-profit, member-supported cinema…aka, where all of your non-studio, non-blockbusters play.  That’s all fine and good; it’s definitely a great place to catch the Oscar-nominated films that your local chain theatre doesn’t have.  For example it’s where we saw Moonlight earlier this year.  For me, though, Amherst Cinema’s greatest appeal is when they periodically show classic films.  These may be as part of a series, such as a couple year’s ago Martin Scoresese festival, or as just one-off special events.  Typically, they get one showing, so if you can’t make it…better luck next time.  Here’s an incomplete list of the shows I’ve seen there, since moving to Amherst in July 2011:  Raging Bull, The Iron Giant, Dr. Zhivago, Treasure of Sierra Madre; Enter the Dragon; Who Framed Roger Rabbit?; Psycho; Mary Poppins; Citizen Kane…and I think you get the point.

So anyway, right now Amherst Cinema is having a two month festival of musicals.  I’ve always loved the classic Hollywood genre, and the slate is really good: Singin’ in the Rain (which I saw at Amherst Cinema a year ago); The Wizard of Oz, The Band Wagon, An American in Paris, Carmen Jones, and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.  I suppose you could criticize that, with the exception of Umbrellas, there’s no real outlier.  You’ve got the big budget MGM productions; where’s Cabaret, for example?  Now, as an absolute admirer of his genius, I’ll join you in lamenting the absence of one Bob Fosse.  But be that as it may, the current choices are still really good.

Yesterday’s showing was The Band Wagon, which I had seen before, but it’ been a long time.  And I found, I had forgotten most everything.  For those who have never seen it, a little background.  The Band Wagon was a product of the Freed Unit the division of MGM headed by Arthur Freed, which made glorious technicolor movie musicals in the late 1940s/50s.  They were big budget: the colors are glorious, the costumes incredible, and they’re just a visual delight.  The music is incredible; the studio orchestra had a sound, with horn players who must’ve been parts of the great swing bands of a decade earlier.  Arrangers, conductors and musical directors included were Conrad Salinger, Lennie Hayton, Carmen Dragon, Adolph Deutsch and others who knew who how to make the most of their source material.  The storylines tended to be original; most of the Freed Unit productions were not movie versions of Broadway shows, but rather, assembly of a collection of songs, with a romantic plot to host them.  The plots weren’t “throw aways” but they served a framing purpose for a collection of songs from a particular composer/songwriting team.  An American in Paris brought together an assembly of Gershwin tunes, just as Easter Parade did the same for Irving Berlin.

And what else did the Freed Unit have but star power!  The headliners reads like a “who’s who” of the classic Hollywood musical: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Leslie Caron, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Peter Lawford and so many more.  When the 1950s began, the Freed Unit cranked out the “Big 3” of American movie musicals, in succession, An American in Paris (Oscar winner for Best Picture), Singin’ in the Rain, and The Band Wagon.  All three are instant classics.  Yet for some reason, the last of those seems to not quite be held in the same august regard.  But after seeing it yesterday at Amherst Cinema, I think that might need re-visiting.  I love all three of those pictures, but I do think a case can be made that history has gotten it wrong.  Not only is The Band Wagon not the weak link….it just might be the best.  And for the reason why, you need look no further than the lead.

Check out what kind of hat that is!

Both An American in Paris and Singin’ in the Rain starred Gene Kelly.  There’s no question in my mind that Kelly was an absolute genius.  He has a very strong presence and his aspirations reach the level of art.  Though he has plenty of fun moments in both films, they also include his extended ballets in which Kelly is often showcased by himself.  And let’s not forget, Kelly’s most famous number, the title song in Singin’ in the Rain, is just him, a solo show (and no, I’m not counting the police officer at the end).  It’s all brilliant.  I think I read somewhere that Kelly was originally going to be considered for the lead in The Band Wagon.  Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know.  What I do know is, there’s no way Kelly could’ve pulled it off.  Sure, he could’ve sung and dance just fine.  But the way the team of Adolph Comden and Betty Green (who also wrote Singin’ in the Rain) penned the character of Tony Hunter, there’s no one who could have personified (not just played) the role better than Fred Astaire.  Astaire was in his 50s at the time of the film. and was recently back from an announced retirement.  Tony Hunter is a famed song and dance movie star who has seen better days.  How closely Tony Hunter is Fred Astaire is seen from the opening credit.  What’s that behind the credits?  Why it’s a top hat, white gloves, and walking stick; favorite props ever since Mr. Astaire dance and sang, “I’m putting on my top hat, tying up my white tie, brushing up my tails” two decades earlier.

And this is where it appears Astaire must have been one of the most self-effacing stars of that Golden Age.  For, once the credits are done, we soon find that these props of star Tony Hunter are on the auction block…and with no bidders.  The idea of Tony Hunter being a “has been” continues.  We then see two gentlemen en route to New York on a train, and with one being from California, the talk goes to movie stars.  Again, Hunter’s better days are behind him.  And when the train arrives and the press is waiting, it’s not for Hunter; they’re there to see Ava Gardner.  Think of the humility this took.  John Wayne playing a washed up cowboy?  Tom Cruise playing an actor who can’t get action roles anymore?  Yet Astaire plays it with relish.

There are many things that struck me about Astaire in this film.  One is that he really can act.  Maybe it’s because he was in his 50s and had previously retired, but I found him absolutely believable as Tony Hunter.  Kelly could’ve sung and dance just as well, but he wouldn’t have “lived” Tony Hunter like Astaire did.  In non-musical moments, Astaire was always “all in.”  He has great facial expressions, reacting to dialogue and characters around him.  Astaire was definitely more than a “song and dance man.”  Just a few years later, he would give an excellent performance in the nuclear apocalyptic film, On the Beach.  Here he is with Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck, from that film.

Something else about Astaire that struck me was that all his routines in The Band Wagon were in the company of someone else.  Unlike Kelly, who could command a song with a solo performance, Astaire, at least in this film, never does that.  The closest is the fantastic Shine On My Shoes sequence, at a penny arcade in Times Square.  Tony Hunter’s return to New York finds him again discovering time has moved on without him.  What was once a high society theatre is now a parlor of cheap amusements.  But since this is Fred Astaire, what better way to improve a mood than with a song and dance?  The vehicle is a shoe shine, but even this isn’t a solo performance.  The shoe shine is done in such a way that it’s provider, Leroy Daniels, is part of the action.  It’s completely entertaining.

Another thing about the Shoe Shine scene.  Look at the expressions of the passer-byers.  In many a musical, when a song and dance breaks out, everyone is in on the fun.  I’m absolutely in love with La La Land; I can’t remember the last time I saw a film where I was entranced for every second.  One of the most memorable scenes in La La Land  is it’s first one, the celebrated Another Day of Sun, where everyone on the freeway knows the tune and has a few dance steps ready to go.  Well, in Shoe Shine, anyone who is not Fred Astaire or Leroy Daniels is completely perplexed.  They don’t know what’s going on.  After all, what kind of person just starts singing and dancing in every day life?  And it plays brilliantly into what The Band Wagon is.  Tony Hunter is yesterday’s star…so maybe a song and dance on a city street is the same; a relic of a bygone era.

Astaire’s decision, or that of screenwriters Comden or Green, or perhaps that of brilliant director Vincente Minnelli, to always give him partners helped make all of his routines in The Band Wagon unforgettable.  The source of the show’s music were songs written by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz.  All of them were from shows decades earlier, one which was actually called The Band Wagon and featured a brother and sister song and dance team of….who else, Fred and Adele Astaire.  The only new song for The Band Wagon came when Arthur Freed insisted the show, a story about putting on a Broadway show, needed an anthem, a la Irving Berlin’s There’s No Business Like Show Business.  Dietz and Schwartz wasted no time, and in 45 minutes, created the tune that would become MGM’s theme, That’s Entertainment.  It was supposed to be an imitation of Berlin and frankly….it may be better.  The lyrics are just as witty, but the rhythmic pulse really puts That’s Entertainment over the top.  It makes for the perfect instrumental theme throughout The Band Wagon, as we see “the show within a show” being prepared and tried out on the road, before opening in New York.  Here it is, in its original incarnation.  The performers are Jack Buchanan, who is the show’s director and had a reputation as the British Fred Astaire, comedian and pianist Oscar Levant, and Nanette Fabray.  Astaire plays a limited role but watch his face.  Like I said, he really could act!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6gX37d2eP8

Jack Buchanan deserves further mention.  He was primarily a British entertainer and I’m not familiar with any of his other work.  But if The Band Wagon was his one American film, it more than suffices to secure a legacy.  His character, Jeffrey Cordova, is a theatre producer, director, writer and actor, supposedly based on Jose Ferrer and Orson Welles.  He’s pretentious, and Tony Hunter is right to fear his credentials to direct a musical.  When we first encounter his character, he’s playing the title role in Oedipus Rex….always good preparation for a musical.  He then turns the script for the show within a show, also called The Band Wagon, into a modern take on Faust.  It’s a delicious role that calls for overacting, from his over-meddling with Tony’s role to the elaborate stage scenery he devises.  Predictably, it all comes crashing down, and leave it to Tony to save the day.  He sells his own art collection (Degas, among the many impressive pieces) to finance an song and dance revue.  There’s little plot but a whole lot of fun moments.  And one of the most fun is his duet with Astaire.  Take a look.

The Band Wagon may have played fun with Astaire’s 1930s persona, but come I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan, it’s back in fully glory.  For there’s Buchanan and Astaire wearing, what?  Why, it’s a top hat, white tie, and tails!  The routine is simple, sublime, and magical.  It’s a soft-shoe of the Vaudeville style that both play with panache.  But Minelli, or perhaps choreographer Michael Kidd, doesn’t let us forget this is 1953 and not earlier.  When both actors go to toss their top hats on their shoes, they both miss.  The act isn’t perfect…and again, there’s that humility.  Astaire was a legend and yet he has no problems with an intentional flub being immortalized on the screen.  I don’t know how many other stars would’ve done the same.  The entire routine lasts less than two minutes, just enough time for us to imagine what Buchanan and Astaire, now in their 50s, would’ve looked like in living color on the Vaudeville tap dance circuit.  If the joke of The Band Wagon was Fred Astaire past his prime, this sequence gives him and Buchanan a brief chance to recollect just what that prime was all about.  Worth noting is that Buchanan was going through painful dental surgery at the time of filming, yet it never comes across.  Talk about a show business professional.  Sadly,  he would pass away four years later, due to cancer.

But, of course, when you are talking Fred Astaire and partners, you have to talk about his  romantic counterpart.  Naturally, we always associate Astaire with Ginger Rogers, his partner from so many black and white films of the 1930s.  But come 1953, we’re in glorious technicolor, and this time, it’s Cyd Charisse in the role.  She was absolutely smoldering a year earlier, as the seductive vixen with the Broadway Melody ballet from Singin’ In the Rain.  So steamy was a sequence of her with her million dollar legs wrapped around Gene Kelly that it was removed for fear of censors.

In Singin’ in the Rain, Charisse had no lines, just dance.  In The Band Wagon, her character of Gabrielle Gerard is at the center of the story.  Jeffrey Cordova’s artistic aspirations to Broadway leads him to want to cast a ballerina, instead of a typical music comedienne.  And again, what a sport we see Astaire to be.  We find him intimidated since he’s a song and dance man and Gabby is a legitimate dancer.  She’s also taller than him.  And then there’s the problem of age.  At first, it’s a joke, as when in their first meeting, Gabby informs Tony she saw one of his films in a museum.  The fact of the matter was, though, there was a 20 year age gap between the two.  This had been somewhat problematic with Astaire and Judy Garland in 1948’s Easter Parade so The Band Wagon handles this delicately.  Despite a couple of a very sensual dances (more on that later), the romance between Tony and Gabby really isn’t developed. They’re working professionals and for much of the film, she is in a relationship with her choreographer.  Though he leaves the show, it’s not clear whether their romance is off.  Toward the end, Tony in a conversation with Lester Marton (Oscar Levant’s character) reveals he’s crazy about Gabby, but an encounter between the two before the show’s Broadway debut provides nothing conclusive.  Gabby’s penultimate speech, at the celebration of the show’s premiere, indicates that there is a future for them, but again, it’s not deliberate.  Kudos to Minelli and all involved on how this was handled.  There’s definite chemistry between Astaire and Charisse, but the sparks are only detailed through dance.  The rest is up for us.

But make no mistake, dear friends, the sparks most definitely fly between Astaire and Charisse.  The Dancing in the Dark sequence is one of the most passionate dances I’ve ever seen.  The way Comden and Green set it up is brilliant.  Tony offers to take Gabby to a night club but she refuses.  Instead, they go for a carriage ride through Central Park.  Getting out, they pass through a public dance.  But they just walk through.  Anyone expecting to see our two leads dazzle for a crowd are mistaken.  We have to wait till its just Gabby and Tony by themselves for something to happen…and it’s worth the wait.  There are no words to this version of Dancing in the Dark, it’s just the MGM Studio Orchestra in all its glory.  And what a creative decision that was, because as Astaire and Charisse’s moves get more and more passionate, the orchestra rises in volume.  Let’s get back to La La Land.  One of the things I really appreciated about that film is how it uses dance to suggest.  There are no sex scenes in La La Land.  Obviously, Sebastian and Mia are living together so you can put two and two together.  But we never actually see them engage.  But their delightful frolic at the Griffith Observatory has more impact than mattress romp could.  It’s the same with Dancing in the Dark.  Gabby and Tony are not a couple at this point.  They are fully clothed…and I must add, beautifully so.  Charisse in that flowing all white outfit and Astaire, always one of the best-dressed men in Hollywood, in a white and yellow suit that absolutely works.  Yet the way the dance moves, coupled with that incredible music….it’s a scene as passionate, as sensual as any sex scene ever filmed.  And they never kiss!  But you want suggestive….watch till the end of the routine.  As they ride away in the carriage, again, fully clothed, Astaire and Charisse both sit there, their eyes staring straight into space, exhaust and burning with afterglow.  If you didn’t know better, you’d think they had just had the most passionate, soul-enhancing, mind-blowing sex in the universe.  That’s what those great musical could do, and what La La Land brought back.  Do a song and dance right and you don’t need to show sex; the song and dance did enough for you!

As I’ve mentioned, Tony Hunter protests at Gabrielle Gerard joining the show because she’s ballet and he’s a hoofer.  In reality, Astaire hopefully give himself more credit.  Each of the Big 3 of Freed Unit musicals had an extensive ballet sequence near the end.  An American in Paris has Gene Kelly’s artistic interpretation of Gershwin’s tone poem as envisioned in his character’s dream. Singin’ in the Rain features  Broadway Melody which has little to do with the plot but hey, it brings Cyd Charisse into the film, so why not?!  With The Band Wagon, we get the Girl Hunt ballet.  It’s a throwback to the original idea for the “show within a show’s” plot.  As the Martons explained it (and it goes by fast, so you can easily miss it), the original concept was a children’s stories author who moonlights writing hard-boiled detective mysteries….or maybe it was the other way around.  Not important.  What matter is, the Girl Hunt ballet is the reflection of this.  It’s a 15 minute romp, where Astaire provides a voice-over, dance fighting with mobsters (sort of like the rumble in West Side Story) and engaging in very sultry moves with a blonde and a brunette, both played by Charisse.  She absolutely steams, and if the ballets in An American in Paris and Singin’ in the Rain were an excuse for Gene Kelly to stretch his artistic wings, then I can definitely accept 10 minutes or more of a detective sketch, if it means more Astaire and Charisse, with palpable sexual tension.

You can feel the heat!

I guess I should say, at this point (gee, I’ve already gone over 3,000 words!) whether I feel The Band Wagon is a better picture than Singin’ in the Rain or An American in Paris.  That’s a tough call.  It’s not a perfect picture.  For, as much as I rave about Astaire, there’s more to the film than him.  It’s been a long time since 1953 and tastes have changed.  Oscar Levant is in both An American in Paris and The Band Wagon.  I found him amusing in the former, and annoying in the latter.  He and Nanette Fabray have a scene between just the two of them, after Tony Hunter has angrily walked out of rehearsals.  I suppose it was supposed to be for comedy, but it just doesn’t work.

Both Singin’ in the Rain and The Band Wagon deal with the production of shows.  With the former, it’s the transition between silent films to talkies.  In The Band Wagon, it’s Broadway, and we can speculate what the theme is.  Tony is back on Broadway for the first time in what seems decades (which would’ve been true with Astaire) and it appears his preferred style, a song and dance revue with slim plot is out of vogue.  Jeffrey Cordova proposes a strong book show, a telling of Faust, to give the musical comedy more depth.  But in the end, after a disastrous out of town preview in New Haven, that’s thrown out the window and we’re back to a non-narrative sequence of songs…which everyone loves.  I wonder if there was a message being sent here.  At the same time the Freed Unit is cranking out these pictures, Rodgers and Hammerstein have been putting shows on Broadway that are more serious, have a strong book, and the songs advance the story.  With the exception of a 1951 adaptation of Show Boat, the Freed Unit stayed away from such shows. They much preferred the song book shows, of which A American in Paris, Singin’ in the Rain, and The Band Wagon are perfect examples.  The fact that The Band Wagon “show within a show” is depicted as being a smash; was that MGM’s way of telling America we’re not interested in the “strong book” musical and neither should you?  We can only speculate.

I think I lean a little more toward Singin’ in the Rain because of the comedy of Hollywood struggling to adapt to sound.  Jean Hagen’s Lina Lamont, the delusional silent cinema queen with the horrid voice and devious intent, was brilliantly funny.  The Band Wagon lacks that comic element, at least from a supporting character.   Likewise, there’s no equivalent of Donald O’Connor, who was so scene-stealing as Kelly sidekick Cosmo Brown.  You look at The Band Wagon, there’s no song and dance scene that doesn’t involve either Astaire or Charisse, outside of Nanette Fabray’s Louisiana Hayride, while Singin’ in the Rain gives us O’Connor’s tour de force  with Make ‘Em Laugh.  And I find a couple of the numbers in the out-of-town try-outs for the re-vamped show in Band Wagon to be tedious: the afore-mentioned Louisiana Hayride and the simply bizarre Triplets, which involved Astaire, Fabray and Buchanan as toddlers.  Again, time and tastes change.

This might’ve been funny in 1953.  Now?

But what The Band Wagon has over An American in Paris and Singin’ in the Rain is Fred Astaire and that alone is enough to cover for any plot weaknesses (the narrative is pretty much out the window, once the “show within a show” gets going….but hey, An American in Paris literally ends as soon as the ballet does, with tons of plot lines still out there.  At least The Band Wagon resolves everything!).  There’s no one who could’ve played Tony Hunter the way Astaire did.  And though his career was far from washed up in 1953, he certainly made you believe that wasn’t the case.  Fred Astaire’s only Academy Award nomination came from a role in which he never sang, The Towering Inferno.  It’s too bad. I think you can make a very compelling argument that he’s one of the top 10, if not top 5, actors in Hollywood motion picture history.  He had many fine roles.  But when you consider how believable he made Tony Hunter; how much chemistry he had with everyone he danced with (from Leroy Daniels the show shine guy to soft shoe elegance with Jack Buchanan, to steaming sexual passion with Cyd Charisse); and his entire presence raises the entire material he works with, it’s no leap of faith to call The Band Wagon Astaire’s greatest role.  An American in Paris won Best Picture.  Neither Singin’ in the Rain nor The Band Wagon were nominated.  Such a shame.  Based on what I saw yesterday, there’s no doubt in my mind.  The Band Wagon deserves an august place as one of the single greatest movie musicals ever made.  Now that’s a bandwagon I’m proud to jump on!