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Post by Vits on May 1, 2020 9:22:14 GMT
If a movie is lighthearted, its conflict doesn't have to be serious. However, there have to be stakes of some kind. Otherwise, why have a conflict at all? The problem in THE BAND WAGON (which is about a washed-up actor named Tony Hunter who agrees to work on a Broadway show) isn't that the problems are solved easily; it's that the characters don't seem that affected by them. It's funny at times (except whenever Lester & Lily Marton (the writers) are on screen), but none of the songs are memorable. Tony insists that he and Gaby Gerard (his co-star) need to talk to solve their rivalry... and then they dance without saying a word. SHINE ON YOUR SHOES and I LOVE LOUISA are the kind of "Doing fun stuff just for the sake of it, even if it doesn't advance the plot or develop any characters" musical numbers that should be done halfway through the movie. The former happens before the conflict has been introduced and before all the main characters have appeared, while the latter happens very late in the story, so neither of them work. What is the musical play even about? We see 3 songs unrelated to each other, including TRIPLETS, where 3 adults are dressed as babies. It's silly, but luckily, the dark humor in the lyrics are a way to acknowledge the silliness. Then we see a detective story that combines theatre, ballet and movie techniques. It's a mess! A play where the protagonist only speaks through narration (I assume that Tony had recorded his lines and they were played live) and where certain moments only make sense if you see it in close-ups?! That would never be a success in real life! 6/10 ------------------------------------- You can read comments of other movies on my blog.
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Post by Doghouse6 on May 1, 2020 12:01:24 GMT
Hi, Vits . I don't think I've seen you around the CFB lately. If you've been here and I overlooked you, apologies. The Band Wagon was Arthur Freed's attempt to do for Astaire what Singin' In the Rain had done for Kelly: pull numbers from the trunk of a veteran songwriting team (in this case, Schwartz and Dietz), and task writers Comden and Greene to build a story around them. There had been a 1931 show by the same name (and same songwriters) with Fred and Adele Astaire in 1931, but it was a revue rather than a book show. While MGM's TBW doesn't quite capture the near-perfect combination of all of SITR's elements, it's one of those cases of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. About those "stakes" you mentioned, the plot falls back on the simple premise of dozens of backstage musicals dating to the dawn of sound: the show's gotta succeed. A matter of life or death? No, nor does the basis have the resonance in 1953 that it did 20 years earlier during the depths of the Depression, when the wolf was at the door of everyone from the producer to the last chorine on the left. But by that booming postwar time, it was a tradition of those stylized filmusicals, as, indeed, was an incongruous collection of numbers that bore no possible relation to the show everyone had been talking about mounting, or were of a scale impossible to accomplish within any proscenium (as in a score-and-a-half of Busby Berkeley extravaganzas of the '30s - '50s). You'll find both in any number of films from MGM, Warners, 20th-Fox or any other studio purveyor of the backstage musical form. My guess at the motivation for those conventions is twofold. First, a simple matter of variety. Second, one of practicality: seemingly unrelated numbers offered the simplicity of convenience, with no requirement to present a libretto that would give them context. Whether the songs are memorable is a matter of taste, but with only one exception, they'd all been around for 20 years, give or take, and several were considered standards (Dancing In the Dark, By Myself and Something To Remember You By, for instance). Of those performed in the film, only Dancing In the Dark, New Sun In the Sky and I Love Louisa had been in the original '31 revue. The only new song written for the film was That's Entertainment, which has achieved its own memorable status among many. And while you didn't say so explicitly, I'll allow that none of Astaire's numbers present him at his best...again, with one exception: the aforementioned Dancing In the Dark. I find it one of his most sublime adagio duets, so beautiful and elegant that it's been known to cause my eyes to well up. And just a point about its setup: neither Astaire nor Charisse say they "need to talk;" she expresses uncertainty about their ability to dance together, and he merely says, "Let's find out." It's the 1950s counterpart to the dances of seduction like Night and Day or Cheek To Cheek that he did with Ginger, with the dimension not only of the birth of romance, but the added one of establishing a harmonious partnership between two professionals. Those are some of the attributes for which I like and admire the film, and by the time it reaches any of its weaker moments, I'm so much in the spirit of the fun of it that I can view those moments affectionately. Nice to see you again, and I hope you haven't minded my shooting off my mouth keyboard at such length.
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Post by marshamae on May 1, 2020 13:34:15 GMT
Bandwagon is consistently my top film, so you can imagine I don’t agree with you
That said, I thought the device of the two different types of shows was perfectly serviceable . The book show, one a comedy with musical numbers, the other a Greek tragedy with grand aspirations and musical numbers, perfectly corresponds to the Dueling Cavalier and the Dancing Cavalier in SITR. The other thing bandwagon has is a lot more Cyd Charisse. She is so wonderful with Fred in Dancing in TGE Dark. I love the Girl Hunt Ballet, a very funny take on Mickey Spillane and on Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. It is a gem of Michael Kidd choreography. The costumes by Mary Ann Ny erg ( never heard of her) were excellent especially Cyd’s Black flouncy cocktail dress with Emerald green petticoat. Finally I love Oscar Levant and think Nannette Fabray was a great partner for him. A hit on broadway and a Sid Caesar sidekick, she and Levant were the perfect insiders to play Adolf green and Betty Comden parodying themselves. We just have to agree to disagree. 💕
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