Fred Astaire Week is drawing to a close. I envision only about two more posts, but I hope you’ve enjoyed the artistry of Astaire and his partners (and don’t forget his co-choreographer Hermes Pan).
This lovely sequence, a jazz dance, is from the 1953 MGM musical The Band Wagon. Remember that Astaire was 54 at the time. The sequence is called “The Girl Hunt,” and Astaire plays a tough detective, using, in his voiceover, every cliché from the Mickey Spillane handbook. Charisse plays both the blonde, who turns out to be the killer, and the brunette vamp.
The famous part of the dance, in the “Dem Bones Cafe,” starts about 7.5 minutes in, so you can skip to that if you just want the center of the cinnamon roll. But I’d recommend watching the whole 12-minute clip.
One of the YouTube notes say the following, which I haven’t verified:
The Girl Hunt is one of the most magnificently staged numbers ever imagined.
An amusing anecdote: It has been said, that Gene Kelly became absolutely sick with envy after seeing this on opening night, and suffered a severe bout of depression for weeks thereafter. I consider The Bandwagon, along with Kiss Me Kate – the absolute best of MGM musicals, better than the over-hyped “Singing in the Rain” although it does have its redeeming moments too… Conrad Salinger’s scoring is gorgeous.
In her autobiography, Charisse compares the two great movie dancers who were her partners: Astaire and Gene Kelly (I wish I could have a week for him!):
“As one of the handful of girls who worked with both of those dance geniuses, I think I can give an honest comparison. In my opinion, Kelly is the more inventive choreographer of the two. Astaire, with Hermes Pan‘s help, creates fabulous numbers – for himself and his partner. But Kelly can create an entire number for somebody else … I think, however, that Astaire’s coordination is better than Kelly’s … his sense of rhythm is uncanny. Kelly, on the other hand, is the stronger of the two. When he lifts you, he lifts you! … To sum it up, I’d say they were the two greatest dancing personalities who were ever on screen. But it’s like comparing apples and oranges. They’re both delicious.”
h/t: Latha Menon
Cyd Charisse from that era. My crush on her will never end.
When I was growing up, they always had these personalities come on the television shows like they were a big deal, but I had no concept of their bodies of work. Seeing them in their primes helps me to appreciate why they always got a grand applause.
Astaire supposedly said “when you’ve danced with Cyd Charisse, you stay danced with.”
For example, at 5:13, does she grab him by the huevos?
I’m loving the obvious inspiration this piece had for Michael Jackson’s ‘Smooth Criminal’ music video. MJ himself acknowledged that his dancing owed a lot to Astaire. Thanks Jerry for this great example of dance genealogy!
Speaking of which.
This is my favorite Astaire film ever!!! (but I’ve only seen about a quarter of them frankly, so I might be missing a better one, but I doubt it.)
“She came at me in sections.” That made my day.
Thanks, Jerry, it’s been a super extended week for us Astaire fans, and hopefully has introduced his artistry to other readers too. Charisse’s views on Astaire/Kelly are entirely pertinent to the nature of her collaboration with them. However, setting aside the difference in their styles, I think that most critics regard Kelly as an excellent dancer, innovator, and good choreographer, but Astaire as something apart – an artist and genius. That is why there has been such detailed scholarly analysis, including several major books, of Astaire’s work, and his influence on jazz, as well as the greatest praise from the greatest classical dancers of the 20th century. But lovely that both men seem to have had a genuine admiration and liking for each other.
Just a couple more points. The Astaire-Pan relationship was clearly something special, but Astaire choreographed all the hugely admired routines with his sister, and he was a legend already by the time he came to Hollywood. And while he liked to collaborate, he led the choreography of his numbers except for the late extended dream sequences (Meuller). (Some, like the glass breaking dance, were entirely his own.)
And finally, I’m reading the excellent book by Kathleen Riley, The Astaires – a scholarly work of dance history on Fred and Adele’s partnership, and discovered that he was one of the very rare males who could dance ballet en pointe – an ability he shared with no less than Nijinsky.
who’s stopping you?
thanks for the Astaire.
Singin in the Rain my not be the finest song and dance movie (though Donald O’Connor’s Make em Laugh is wonderful), but what makes it stand out from other musicals is a much stonger storyline than most. In a lot of others, outstanding dancing supports a weak or non-existent plot.
I grew up in the 30s and 40s. I had a regular diet of Astaire-Kelly musicals. I agree with the experts that “Singin’ in the Rain” is the best movie musical eve made and the dance in the rain was the very best solo dancing performance ever, However, my favorite dancer is and will always be Fred Astaire. If you want to see how versatile he was look up Fred Astaire/ Eleanor Powell and watch them dance to “Begin the Beguine”, then look up Fred Astaire/Cyd Charisse and watch them dance to “Dancing in the Dark.” No one, but Fred could keep up with Powell as a tap dancer, then look so divinely elegant dancing with the balletic Charisse. It makes me happy to have a computer.