Jumping on ‘The Band Wagon’

One reason Ted Turner was so anxious to purchase the MGM film library is that it included those incredible Arthur Freed MGM musicals starring either Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly. These Technicolor extravaganzas, never put on the screen before or since, are being issued on MGM/UA laser video discs in restored prints featuring gorgeous color and crystal-clear digital sound.

The most ambitious MGM/UA laser production to date is “The Band Wagon,” director Vincente Minnelli’s generally overrated 1953 venture with Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse and Jack Buchanan. Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant play Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s alter egos (they wrote the story and screenplay).

The “Special CAV Standard Play Edition” features a new Technicolor restoration (courtesy of a digital video transfer) and splendid digital monaural sound. For laser buyers expecting bonus tracks, there’s the original theatrical release trailer and one of four deleted musical sequences, “Two-Faced Woman.” You’ll see why Minnelli was smart to drop it. Even so, one wishes the three other excised, unnamed numbers had also been included.

This backstage musical has the kind of in-house jokes and witticisms for which Comden and Green are famous (they also wrote “Singin’ in the Rain” and “On the Town”). But the plot is creaky enough that it’s much more fun to zip past it (and with nearly 70 chapter stops) go straight for the production numbers. And there are some classics, especially those with Astaire: “ That’s Entertainment,” “Dancing in the Dark,” “I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan,” “Triplets” and the spectacular “Girl Hunt” dance parody of Mickey Spillane.