DVD/150: THE BAND WAGON (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)

A year after SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, Betty Comden and Adolphe Green wrote another showbiz tale, this time about Broadway, with songs by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz.

THE BAND WAGON has MGM gloss: directed by Vincente Minnelli with choreography by Michael Kidd, only his second film assignment.

It has a good script, great choreography an attractive cast - Fred Astaire, his British counterpart Jack Buchanan, Cyd Charisse...  but something is lacking - perhaps SINGIN's director Stanley Donen would have suited the backstage story over Minnelli's elegance?

Tony Hunter's film career has dried up so he returns to star in a new Broadway show which Jeffrey Cordova - an actor and director from the Legit theatre - wants to direct.

Cordova rewrites it as a musicalization of FAUST and casts ballerina Gabrielle Gerard; Tony is against both ideas, and his attidude annoys Gabrielle too.

After disasterous previews, Tony saves the show with Broadway pizzaz...

Shelf or charity shop?  This can dance along the shelf for a while longer.  The shoot wasn't too happy - Astaire, like his character, was worried about Cyd Charisse's height as it was their first time working together, Oscar Levant blamed everyone else when he forgot his lines and Jack Buchanan was enduring painful dental work. As I said, it all seems too glossy for it's own good but when the musical numbers start THE BAND WAGON is on a roll - Astaire singing "By Myself" and the dynamic "A Shine On Your Shoes" partnered by Leroy Daniels, the one song written for the film "That's Entertainment" still has the best critique of HAMLET: "When a ghost and a prince meet / and everyone ends as mincemeat".  Astaire and Buchanan are class personified singing "I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan" and the two dance numbers for Fred and Cyd are just glorious - they swooningly fall in love as they dance in Central Park to "Dancing In The Dark", and in the "Girl Hunt Ballet" - a Mickey Spillaine-esque thriller in dance - for two glorious minutes, Fred and Cyd do one of the most stunning routines ever committed to film - before Fosse, there was Kidd.  Fred was right to be worried, in her sequinned red dress and black opera gloves, her high kicks and leg slides, her hips, arms and back working overtime, you simply cannot take your eyes off her.  All this and Julie Newmar as a dancer too!

 

Dvd/150: THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (Arthur Lewin, 1945)

The most famous of the eighteen films based on Oscar Wilde's 1890 supernatural novel made a big impression on me when I first saw it years ago.

However  although the film has some great components, ultimately it is smothered by MGM's 'taste'.

The film also suffers from Hurd Hatfield as Dorian; he certainly looks the part but his glacial, uninvolving performance never suggests anything underneath, good or bad.

The film however looks wonderful with marvellous art direction, atmospheric lighting and Academy Award-winning cinematography by Harry Stradling.

It also gained 20 year-old Angela Lansbury an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award, in only her third screen role.  She is luminous as tragic Sybil Vane, loved and discarded by Dorian.

George Sanders' silky Sir Henry excels while Lowell Gilmore as Basil, Richard Fraser as James Vane and Morton Lowry as a dissolute artist make up for Hatfield's anonymity.

Shelf or charity shop?  I can see myself watching this again but it lives in the limbo of my plastic DVD box...

Dvd/150: CHINA SEAS (Tay Garnett, 1935)

Pure MGM adventure-hokum that races along with little character development as the stars are all playing their personas to the hilt.

Clark Gable is the gruff captain of a boat carrying passengers and cargo between Singapore and Hong Kong.  His voyage is complicated by the appearance on board of old flame and newly-widowed Sybil (Rosalind Russell) as well as 'China' Doll (Jean Harlow), a gregarious good-time-girl who is besotted with him.

To make Gable jealous, Harlow pals up with old friend Jamesy (Wallace Beery) but discovers he has secretly plotted with vicious Malay pirates to steal gold hidden on board.  As the ship sails into a violent storm, the action explodes...

Akim Tamaroff, Robert Benchley and Lewis Stone wander about as Harlow dazzles in her wonderful Adrian-designed gowns that cling where they touch.  An added delight is uncredited Hattie McDaniel as Harlow's cheeky maid Isabel.

Shelf or charity shop?  Braving the elements on the shelf...

Dvd/150: DINNER AT EIGHT (George Cukor, 1933)

Made the year after MGM's similarly all-star GRAND HOTEL but far more enjoyable!

Based on George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's play, George Cukor's deft direction melds the different styles of the cast into a seamless treasure.

Ailing Lionel Barrymore secretly faces financial ruin but his snobbish wife Billie Burke insists on hosting a dinner for a British lord. Barrymore's former amour, actress Marie Dressler needs to sell her stock in his company and competitor Wallace Beery is eager to buy them to shut the business down.  However his scheming wife Jean Harlow is determined he won't ruin her chance of entering society.

Burke invites drunken actor John Barrymore - art imitating life - unaware that her daughter is his lover.  But when his agent Lee Tracy makes him face reality, everything changes for the worse.

Stars and supporting cast deliver 100% but Harlow is iridescent in her satin and fur.

Shelf or charity shop? Whoever heard of a society dinner in a charity shop??