Some controversy has arisen about who actually designed the sets for The Band Wagon (1953). Preston Ames, the credited art director (with art department head Cedric Gibbons, who took a credit on every MGM film) claims he did the sets, with Oliver Smith only designing the musical numbers. But Smith and set decorator Keogh Gleason claim that everything had to be approved by Smith, who went against many of Gibbons long-standing policies on design and color.

The film's set was anything but happy. Astaire was dealing with his wife's terminal illness and Minnelli was concerned about his ex-wife, Judy Garland. Her increasingly erratic behavior on the set of A Star Is Born. (1954) at Warner Bros. was the talk of the town. Buchanan was undergoing dental surgery. Smith and Mary Ann Nyberg, both newcomers to MGM, were at war with the art and costume departments, respectively. And Oscar Levant was recovering from a heart attack, which made him more acerbic than ever.

The film's original cinematographer, George Folsey, had worked several times with director Vincente Minnelli and was used to his methods. But as Minnelli's perfectionism put the production behind schedule, Freed replaced Folsey with Harry Jackson, borrowed from 20th Century-Fox, in the hope that he could speed up Minnelli's production.

Beyond economy, the production had to move quickly to finish with Buchanan before his three-month contract expired. To move things along faster Minnelli concentrated on dialogue scenes for a week, then handed production reins over to Kidd so he could stage "That's Entertainment!" and "Triplets."

During rehearsals of "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan," Astaire and Buchanan were supposed to perform a series of tricks with their hats and walking sticks. They kept dropping them, however, which inspired the joke that ends the number, in which they fail to catch their hats, throw away their sticks and walk off arm in arm.

On Broadway, "Triplets" had been performed by three very different looking actors and had failed. For the film, Kidd made the three performers look exactly the same size by having specially made baby shoes fit over the performers' knees. Their real feet and legs were covered with black velvet stockings, and the set's floor was black. The actors then danced on their knees. It was so strenuous they could only perform 20 minutes at a time. Originally, the number was to have featured Astaire, Buchanan and Levant, but the latter claimed ill health and Nanette Fabray took his place. The day before it was filmed, Fabray had an accident shooting "Louisiana Hayride." She jumped onto a barrel that hadn't been properly reinforced and fell through, tearing up her leg. She was on Novocain while filming the trio number.

"The Girl Hunt" ballet was the last number filmed. In contrast to the tense atmosphere on the set during the rest of the film, this sequence was a joy for all involved. Astaire was happy to be developing a new dancing character as the hard-boiled detective, and everyone seemed energized. Minnelli had promised producer Arthur Freed that he would shoot the ballet in three days, to keep costs down. Instead he finished it in seven at a cost of $314,475. The sequence ran 13 minutes.

The first cut of The Band Wagon ran two hours and 29 minutes. To get it down to less than two hours, a more convenient length for exhibitors, Freed had to cut four musical numbers. These included a Levant-Fabray duet, "Sweet Music," and a portion of "The Girl Hunt Ballet" in which Charisse and Astaire dance out a telephone conversation. One cut number traced the development of a song ("Got a Brand New Suit") from Fabray's introducing it to Astaire in rehearsal to his final rehearsal of it just before learning it's been cut. The sequence was supposed to help motivate his character's temper tantrum upon learning that. Another cut number, Charisse's "Two-Faced Woman," re-surfaced that year performed by Joan Crawford in Torch Song (1953). They simply staged a new number to the vocal tracks recorded by India Adams, who dubbed both actresses. The two numbers play side-by-side in the musical compilation film That's Entertainment! III (1994).

During editing, MGM's New York executives, concerned about the publicity for 20th Century-Fox's wide-screen process, CinemaScope, told Freed to have the film printed with a wide-screen image. Freed convinced them that to do so with a musical already shot in normal aspect ratio would mean cutting off the dancers' heads and feet during musical numbers. They relented, but the first CinemaScope release, 20th Century-Fox's The Robe (1953), would become the year's top-grossing film.

The Band Wagon's final budget came to $2,169,120, slightly more than the cost of An American in Paris (1951).

Originally, union rules forbid non-union production designer Oliver Smith from being credited on the film. Freed pushed his membership through, however, so he could receive credit.

Appalled (or titillated) by Charisse's thigh-baring costume in the "Girl Hunt Ballet," the Legion of Decency labeled the film "Morally Objectionable in Part for All."

by Frank Miller