Tag Archives: The Band Wagon

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Song of the Day #6,239: ‘Girl Hunt Ballet’ – Fred Astaire & Cyd Charisse

Fourteen of Vincente Minnelli’s 33 feature films were musicals, including two Best Picture winners and a bunch that are a lot better than those.

An American in Paris (1951) was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, and won all but two. Best Director nominee Minnelli was one of the misses. And 1958’s Gigi swept its nine nominations, taking the top prize and earning Minnelli his only directing Oscar.

While those are his best-known and most awarded musicals, I rank them relatively low on my personal list. In both cases, the films are beautifully designed and staged but the scripts are lacking.

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Song of the Day #4,444: ‘Dancing in the Dark’ – Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse

Continuing my personal ranking of the 25 movie musicals deemed essential by the American Film Institute…

#10. The Band Wagon – 1953
(#17 on the AFI list)

This is the second Fred Astaire film on the list, this time pairing him with the long, lean and gorgeous Cyd Charisse in her first leading role.

The Band Wagon is about a fading musical star (Astaire) who gets a chance at a comeback through a Broadway musical. He is paired with a rising star ballerina (Charisse) and the two get off to a rocky start before, naturally, falling in love.

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