273 replies to this topic

[canbelto]

Just a note: Singin in the Rain is finally being released on blu-ray. I already pre-ordered my copy. Really an eternally fresh and funny movie.

[sidwich]

dirac, on 05 July 2012 - 03:29 PM, said:

Apart from what I remember as big flower appliques on Cyd Charisse's strapless number at the end of the movie, I don't recall the costumes from "The Band Wagon" as being all that bad, either. There's a story behind the white dress (which I agree is a wonderful one, perfect for the number) that I heard on TCM - the costume designer, Mary Ann Nyberg, found it for $25 but since it was no longer in production the studio had to make a new one from scratch. I forget for how much but it was a lot more than $25.

The story of the dress is in one of the books on the Freed unit.  From what I remember, Arthur Freed wasn't happy with any of the proposed designs for the "Dancing in the Dark" dress, but shouted "That's the dress for Cyd!" when his assistant came in to work one day in the $25 off-the-rack dress.  Unfortunately, as Nyberg found out, the dress was no longer being made, and yes, it was quite costly to reproduce the dress for Cyd Charisse.

Quote

Thanks, Quiggin. The first half of the movie is pretty much all Buchanan (and he's marvelous) but once the decision is made to change the show to a straight revue he has less to do. But I doubt this had anything to do with his health so much as the structure of the story

The Bandwagon was originally a revue onstage with the Astaires, but the storyline in the movie is that the show becomes a musical comedy instead of a psychodrama.  A lot of the revue numbers are in the movie, though, and the second half kind of becomes a mish-mash of numbers and Jack Buchanan kind of disappears.  Oscar Levant isn't as prominent either (he asked to be dropped from "Triplets"... apparently, the knee attachments were rather painful),

[Anthony_NYC]

This talk about what Charisse is wearing in the "Dancing in the Dark" number makes me smile. I watched this movie a couple years ago with a female friend, and her first comment after the number was over was, "I want that skirt!" And I guess I'd always noticed how attractive it is, too. Interesting how something so simple can make such a difference.

Anyway, it's a wonderful number, once of the very best of the Astaire duets. (My other favorite part of the movie is the timpani player.)

[dirac]

Hi, sidwich, good to hear from you. You're right, they don't actually say "We're going to do a revue" and I think Astaire does say something like "we're going back to what the Martons wanted to do"  but given the string of unrelated numbers (and as I remember they're introduced that way) it's hard to see how they could have presented anything else.

Greetings to you, too, AnthonyNYC. It's my favorite Astaire duet not involving Ginger Rogers or a coat rack .Also parodied memorably by Steve Martin and Gilda Radner back when.