The Band Wagon (1953) grossed over $5.6 million during its initial release (on a budget of $2.1 million). It was the top-grossing Arthur Freed musical, ranking between Singin' in the Rain (1952) and Gigi (1958).

"'BAND WAGON' A RARITY: LITERATE MOVIE MUSICAL" - Otis L. Gurnesey, Jr., New York Herald Tribune.

"The apotheosis of the backstage musical." - British Arts critic Clive Hirschhorn.

"The Comden-Green script isn't as consistently fresh as the one they did for Singin' in the Rain, but there have been few screen musicals as good as this one...When the bespangled Charisse wraps her phenomenal legs around Astaire, she can be forgiven everything, even her three minutes of "classical" ballet and the fact that she reads her lines as if she learned them phonetically." - Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies.

"No mistake about it, a review of The Band Wagon at the Music Hall boils down to a collection of superlatives. It is the best musical of the month, the year, the decade, or, for all I know, of all time. For my money it's better than An American in Paris [1951], which was good enough." - Archer Winston, New York Post.

"There was some instinctive hesitation in the mind of this reviewer the other day when he came out and said The Band Wagon might be one of the best musical films ever made. Lofty comments of that nature sometimes have a way of popping up a few weeks or months later and causing the maker's face to turn bright red. But another inspection of the picture, which is now on the Music Hall's screen, and a hasty review of the record emboldens us to let the comment stand. As a matter of fact, we'll make it stronger: It is one of the best musicals ever made." - Bosley Crowther, New York Times.

"The Band Wagon represents the best efforts of the movie industry in producing musicals. Talent, energy, imagination all came together in the early 1950s to produce a number of fine musicals. Among the best of them is this classic film..." - Daniel J. Nash, The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers.

"Extravagant MGM musical, directed with much flair by Vincente Minnelli. It starts out slowly but keeps getting better and better as great musical numbers keep piling up." - Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic.

"One of Minnelli's best musicals...More importantly, it parades a stream of brilliant Howard Dietz-Arthur Schwartz numbers. Astaire is superlative in several items, notably "By Myself" (a solitary introspection that opens the show with a purr)...All this and witty dialogue too. A treat." - Tom Milne, TimeOut Film Guide.

"Simple but sophisticated musical with the bare minimum of plot, told mostly in jokes, and the maximum of music and song...Level of technical accomplishment very high." - Halliwell's Film & Video Guide.

AWARDS & HONORS

The Band Wagon won Oscar® nominations for Betty Comden and Adolph Green's original screenplay, Adolph Deutsch's musical score and Mary Ann Nyberg's costumes. It lost to Titanic, Call Me Madam and The Robe, respectively.

Comden and Green won a Writer's Guild Award nomination for Best Written American Musical, but lost to Lili.

The Band Wagon was voted on to the National Film Registry in 1995.

Compiled by Frank Miller & Jeff Stafford