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The Band Wagon

 The Band Wagon
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The Band Wagon
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The Band Wagon is a 1953 MGM musical film starring Fred Astaire, who coincidentally enough had also appeared in the 1931 Broadway revue of the same name, and Cyd Charisse.Astaire plays Tony Hunter, a nearly washed-up hoofer who hopes to revitalize his career by doing a new Broadway musical written by his friends Lester and Lily Martin (Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray). The going soon gets rough. The director, Jeffrey Cordova (Jack Buchanan), has megalomaniacal ambitions to stage a show based on Goethe's Faust; the choreographer, Paul Byrd (James Mitchell), is a ballet snob; and Gabrielle "Gaby" Gerard (Charisse), Paul's girlfriend, barely condescends to dance with Tony. After everything goes to hell—so to speak—Tony and Jeffrey manage to salvage the show by going back to the original concept (onscreen, this means turning it into a series of spectacular, and apparently unconnected, production numbers). "That's Entertainment" ensues, along with romance between Tony and Gaby.Directed by Vincente Minnelli, choreographed by Michael Kidd, and written by Comden and Green. It's generally ranked behind only the previous year's Singin' in the Rain among MGM's musicals.It was adapted as a stage musical, although the result was not a critical success. More famously, the "Girl Hunt" sequence inspired Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" video.
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Dropped link to OedipusRex: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
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DBTropes
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No Celebrities Were Harmed
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No Celebrities Were Harmed: Jeffrey was based on José Ferrer, who at the time was producing four Broadway shows and starring in a fifth. He also has similarities to Orson Welles, who in The '40s had tried to direct a musical version of Around the World in Eighty Days with songs by Cole Porter despite having no musical experience. Welles' show also suffered from over-elaborate effects and sets, and just like the designer in the movie complains, had sets that would not fit in the theater.
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Hopeless Auditionees
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Hopeless Auditionees: We see one during the chorus audition.
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The Cameo
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The Cameo: Ava Gardner. Also, Douglas Fowley, who played the beleaguered director in Singin' in the Rain, plays the auctioneer at the beginning of the film.
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Deal with the Devil
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Deal with the Devil: Figuratively speaking—Cordova is a comical version of Mephistopheles for most of the film, and the other characters uneasily go along with him to further their careers.
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May–December Romance
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May–December Romance: Tony and Gaby. (Like Astaire, Tony is supposed to be in his early fifties.)
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 The Band Wagon / int_27a42ebc
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Spiritual Successor
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Spiritual Successor: To Singin' in the Rain; the movie shares the same writers, and is to Fred Astaire what that movie was to Gene Kelly.
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Defrosting Ice Queen
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Defrosting Ice Queen: Gabrielle.
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The Musical Musical
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The Musical Musical: The film is about the staging of a musical.
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 The Band Wagon / int_3684532f
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Never Heard That One Before
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Never Heard That One Before: During the "Triplets" musical number, the titular three children complain about the things they hate about being triplets, one of their points of contention being, "We're sick of jokes on what an art it is to tell us apart!"
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 The Band Wagon / int_38d02d44
type
Batman Gambit
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Batman Gambit: Cordova's way of getting Gaby to appear in the show, even though he knows Paul, her choreographer boyfriend, controls her career; he asks Paul to choreograph Faust, and Paul likes the idea enough to accept the job, then describes the leading role as someone only Gaby could play - without ever mentioning her by name - and Paul predictably says he won't do the show unless Gaby plays the lead.
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 The Band Wagon / int_415b3315
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Stylistic Suck
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Stylistic Suck: The film showcases the rehearsal of a overblown, pretentious dance number that contributes to the show's total failure on opening night.
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PostModernism
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Postmodernism: The movie makes a point of it, especially in the "That's Entertainment" number.
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Author Avatar
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Author Avatar: The Martons are based on Comden and Green.
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 The Band Wagon / int_823c6e3e
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Large Ham
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Large Ham: Jeffrey Cordova. Various people open the door when Jeffrey is acting out the plot of the new show for the money men, only to close the door in horror.
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 The Band Wagon / int_85557b38
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Reality Is Unrealistic
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Reality Is Unrealistic: Comden and Green decided to make the Martons a married couple because they didn't think anyone would believe a male-female working partnership could be platonic.
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 The Band Wagon / int_8d411e7c
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SpecialEffectsFailure
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Special Effects Failure: In universe with the pyrotechnics for the stage production. The first attempt is a underwhelming flash and a small puff of smoke. The next attempt goes to the other extreme and Cordova ends up with a bit of Ash Face. He thinks it's perfect.
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Femme Fatale
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Femme Fatale: Parodied in "The Girl Hunt."
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Tiny Guy, Huge Girl
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Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: In-universe, Tony worries about Gaby's height relative to his.
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Private Eye Monologue
 The Band Wagon / int_ac0827be
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Private Eye Monologue: "The Girl Hunt" is this combined with a ballet. (It should be noted here that the monologue's writer was Alan Jay Lerner.)
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 The Band Wagon / int_b032e4ed
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Ms. Fanservice
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Ms. Fanservice: Gaby. Lots of lots of flattering costumes for Cyd Charisse.
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 The Band Wagon / int_b097493c
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Madonna-Whore Complex
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Madonna-Whore Complex: Parodied in "The Girl Hunt" where the blonde "good woman" in floaty dresses and fabrics turns out to be the killer within the story while the dark-haired femme fatale who was "bad" and "dangerous" turns out to be innocent and ends up as a Official Couple with the main character. Also helps that both the feminine roles are played by Gaby.
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Berserk Button
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Berserk Button: Tony doesn't take too kindly to the fact his pictures are playing at a museum.
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 The Band Wagon / int_bef696dd
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Mind Screw
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Mind Screw: We don´t see anything of the "Faustian" production, only a couple of images. This, and the reaction from the audience, implies that the show ended up as a (rather disappointing) work of art, which nobody actually understood.
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 The Band Wagon / int_c75df49a
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Shout-Out
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Shout-Out: "That's Entertainment" has shout outs to Oedipus Rex, named in the song, and later to Hamlet. "Entertainment"? Indeed. The final scene of Oedipus Rex is actually shown, and the next show number of the movie is performed on that production set. Even a brief allusion to Waiting for Godot, when Tony and Cordova put on bowler hats and fast tracks a conversation before pulling them off. Of course, the line "The world is a stage". Shakespeare is also mentioned.
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 The Band Wagon / int_cd1b0fcc
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Prima Donna Director
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Prima Donna Director: Cordova, until the musical fails. And Byrd, to a lesser extent.
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Slap-Slap-Kiss
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Slap-Slap-Kiss: Tony and Gaby.
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 The Band Wagon / int_d62dd556
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The Chessmaster
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The Chessmaster: Cordova, most notably when he maneuvers Paul Byrd into letting Gaby do the musical.
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Shoe Shine, Mister?
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comment
Shoe Shine, Mister?: Fred Astaire sings and dances "Shine on your Shoes" with the shoe shiner. He was a real dancing shoe shiner rather than an actor/dancer, and the inspiration for the song "Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy."
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Have a Gay Old Time
 The Band Wagon / int_fa6bfde9
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Have a Gay Old Time: "That's Entertainment" includes in its list of plots "A gay divorcee who is after her ex". This is also an Actor Allusion to Astaire's 1934 film The Gay Divorcee.
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 The Band Wagon / int_fb378c33
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Oktoberfest
 The Band Wagon / int_fb378c33
comment
Oktoberfest: The song "I Love Louisa".
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Movie Bonus Song
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comment
Movie Bonus Song: If the film is considered as an adaptation of the 1931 revue of that name (which also featured Fred Astaire and several songs used in the film), "That's Entertainment" would qualify as this.
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The Band Wagon

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

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AFI's 100 Years… 100 Songs / int_d24afb50
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Adaptation Decay / int_d24afb50
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Movie Bonus Song / int_d24afb50
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Never Heard That One Before / int_d24afb50
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Oktoberfest / int_d24afb50
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Private Eye Monologue / int_d24afb50
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Shoe Shine, Mister? / int_d24afb50
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The Cast Showoff / int_d24afb50
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The Musical Musical / int_d24afb50