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The Band Wagon (1953) - Uncut (Patreon)

Published:
2025-06-26 02:14:15
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Nanette Fabray, Jack Buchanan, Robert Gist, James Mitchell

Comments

Erin Mileur

The auctioneer at the beginning of the movie actor Douglas Fowley played the director in Singin in the Rain.

Erin Mileur

The actor Leroy Daniels was a real shoeshine man in L.A. and veteran dancer and comedian on the chitlin circuit. A friend of Redd Foxx who later appeared on Sanford and Son.

Erin Mileur

The character Jeffrey Cordova was based on actor Jose Ferrer. Father of Miguel Ferrer and uncle of George Clooney.

Erin Mileur

Since you guys are a fan of musicals if you haven’t seen any check out the work of Busby Berkeley. A massively influential choreographer and director. 42nd Street (1933), Golddiggers of 1933 (1933), Footlight Parade (1933) with James Cagney are highlights just to name a few.

Jonathan

Fred had in his contract for most of his films that he had complete autonomy to direct any dancing scene he was in. He invented a lot of the methods used to film dance. Fred retired in the mid 1940s but came out of retirement to fill in for Gene Kelly when he was injured and couldn’t film Easter Parade which was enough of a hit to give him a second career. Having Cyd being 29 was much better than another film where his female costar was only 17 at time of filming.

Youtalkingtome
>>178395679

Thanks! I was very curious about the creative process for Fred (and other stars like Gene Kelly) in choreographing their own dances. Ummm...what movie including the casting of a 17 year-old costar?

Sammy Fan

I always think of this movie as MGM saying good bye to itself. The studio system was dying. The old school musical was winding down due to the rise of rock and roll. Band wagon poked fun of every genre of film. The two of you always do such great watch a longs.

Erin Mileur

Cyd Charisse isn’t actually singing. The voice is provided by India Adams. Amazingly studios did that in musicals a lot back then.

Clare Manion

That was wonderful -- Fred Astaire does it again! And Cyd Charisse! It was great to see Oscar Levant as well. He’s my favorite old-Hollywood curmudgeon (perhaps not so much here, but in many other roles). Fun fact, he’s a classically trained pianist. So when you see him play in a movie, he’s doing it for real. Loved the music here too – the ‘show’ tunes were great (especially the noir ballet) and the ‘off stage’ numbers were kind of a greatest hits compilation of American Songbook tunes. I might have to find that arrangement of Dancing in the Dark from the Central Park scene, it was gorgeous.

Youtalkingtome
>>178430278

"Dancing in the Dark" was an absolutely beautiful arrangement here. It really tied in so well with the scene.

DelGuy03

The partnership with Ginger Rogers, though artistically and commercially successful, was restricting to both people, who understandably didn't want to be considered part of a package deal. (Fred had been part of a twosome with his sister onstage for decades, and here he was being tied down the same way when he went into the movies.) They did make a series of 9 pictures together (plus one more a decade later), but after it ended Ginger focused on nonmusical comedy and drama films, and Fred made a point of never costarring with the same leading lady more then twice.

DelGuy03

"The Girl Hunt Ballet" does indeed relate to film noir, as you said. But its most immediate source was probably the tough-guy suspense fiction that was so popular in the 1950s -- every corner drug store had a paperback rack stuffed with such books, the original "pulp fiction." The curtain that broke apart at the start of the number showed a number of typical covers of that type of books. Mickey Spillane, with his hero Mike Hammer, was one of the most popular of those pulp authors, and Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade (as in The Maltese Falcon) is an example from an earlier decade.