The most sophisticated of all screen musicals and Minelli's masterpiece. It's also the best putting-on-a-show musical ever made, (forget about those Busby Berkeley musicals and Judy and Mickey; this is the real McCoy). The show about to be put on is a musical version of "Faust", directed by a high-minded type, 'a genius of the theatre' with more hits running than Andrew Lloyd Webber, (Jack Buchanan in a great musical-comedy performance). The show would, of course, have been a disaster had not its star, (the incomparable Fred Astaire at his incomparable best), and its writers, (Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant as fairly obvious take-offs of the film's writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green), not rescued it with some good, old-fashioned Broadway hoofing and a score that includes 'I'll guess I'll have to change my plan', 'Louisiana Hayride' and 'The Girl Hunt Ballet'. It also has Fred and Cyd Charisse 'dancing in the dark' and this is the one with 'That's Entertainment'. Nothing much happens but it arguably has the best score of any musical as well as the best cast and a director who knew how best to utilize both. It really should be preserved in a time-capsule.
Review of The Band Wagon
