The Band Wagon (1953)

The Band Wagon is a 1953 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. The plot follows an aging musical star who hopes a Broadway show will revive his career, but the play's director envisions a pretentious retelling of Faust and brings in a prima ballerina who clashes with the star. Although initially a box-office disappointment, the film is now regarded among the finest Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals, alongside An American in Paris (1951) and Singin' in the Rain (1952).

Hollywood composer Arthur Schwartz and lyricist Howard Dietz wrote the songs, with orchestrations by Conrad Salinger, and dance and musical numbers staged by Michael Kidd. Schwartz and Dietz adapted parts of the score from their 1931 Broadway revue The Band Wagon, starring siblings Fred and Adele Astaire. The song "Dancing in the Dark", from the original Broadway production, is considered part of the Great American Songbook. Schwartz and Dietz wrote the song "That's Entertainment!" specifically for the film, a hit that subsequently became a standard in popular music.

Astaire's early number in the film, "A Shine on Your Shoes", was written for the 1932 Broadway revue Flying Colors, with score by Schwartz and Dietz. (It was originally performed by the dancing team of Buddy and Vilma Ebsen). For The Band Wagon film, the song was reworked as a specialty number by jazz arranger Skip Martin to showcase all of Astaire's musical talents. The song is the only time Astaire danced on-screen with a black dancer, the uncredited Leroy Daniels.

The musical director was Adolph Deutsch and the production was designed by Oliver Smith working for the first time in motion pictures. The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, Color, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay.

Screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who received the nomination for the screenplay, patterned the film's characters Lester and Lily Marton after themselves; however, the fictional characters were a married couple, and Comden and Green were not romantically involved. The character of an overachieving impresario was developed with the producer-director-actor José Ferrer in mind.

In 1995, The Band Wagon was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2006, this film ranked number 17 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals.