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This week on «Film Friday» I am honoring Cyd Charisse's 95th birthday, which was on Wednesday, by telling you a little bit about one of her best-known works. This is also widely regarded as one of the greatest musicals of all time. Since I was unable to write this article on time, this week's «Film Friday» comes on a Sunday. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, The Band Wagon (1953) tells the story of stage and screen star Tony Hunter (Fred Astaire), a veteran of musical comedy, who is concerned that his career might be in decline. His good friends Lester and Lily Marton (Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray) have written a stage show that they believe is perfect for his comeback. Tony signs up, despite misgivings after the pretentious director, Jeffrey Cordova (Jack Buchanan), changes the light comedy into a dark reinterpretation of the Faust legend, with himself as the Devil and Tony as the Faust character. Tony also feels intimidated by the youth, beauty, and classical background of h...

Directed by Vincente Minnelli, Some Came Running (1958) tells the story of Dave Hirsh (Frank Sinatra), a cynical World War II Army veteran and failed novelist, who arrives by bus at his hometown of Parkman, Indiana. He is accompanied by Ginny Moorehead (Shirley MacLaine), a dim-witted but good-natured woman of loose morals from Chicago, who has fallen in love with him during the journey. To Ginny's disappointment, Dave gives her 50 dollars to return to Chicago and then checks into a hotel. Although he has been away from Parkman for 16 years, Dave is soon recognized by the locals, who report his return to his older brother Frank (Arthur Kennedy), a successful jewellery store owner, with whom he did not stay in touch. Frank Sinatra with Shirley MacLaine, Dean Martin and Martha Hyer in Some Came Running .   Still resentful over childhood misunderstandings, Dave refuses to move into the Hirsh home, but reluctantly agrees to have dinner with his brother, his sister-in-law Agnes (Leora ...

This week on «Film Friday,» I have decided to celebrate both Gene Kelly's 104th and Van Johnson's 100th birthdays by telling you about one of the only two pictures they made together. Incidentally, this was the first Van Johnson film I ever saw.   Directed by Vincente Minnelli, Brigadoon (1954) begins when New Yorkers Tommy Albright (Gene Kelly) and Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson) become lost in the highlands of Scotland while on a hunting trip. Upon the clearing of the mists, they discover Brigadoon, a village that only materializes once every century for only a day. If any villager ever leaves, the enchantment will be broken for all and the whole town will vanish forever. If, in contrast, an outsider wishes to stay, then they must prove to love someone in the village strongly enough. Cynic Jeff finds himself increasingly bored with the town's peculiarities, while dreamer Tommy falls in love with both Brigadoon and village lass Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse), whose younger s...

In 1940, up-and-coming Broadway star Gene Kelly was offered the lead role in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's new musical Pal Joey , based on the eponymous novel by John O'Hara about an ambitious and manipulative small-time nightclub performer. Opening at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Christmas Day of that year, the show brought Gene his best reviews up to that date. For instance, John Martin of The New York Times wrote of him: «A tap-dancer who can characterize his routines and turn them into an integral element of an imaginative theatrical whole would seem to be pretty close, indeed, to unique .»   One of Gene's performances in Pal Joey was attended by established Hollywood star Judy Garland , who requested to meet him after the show. Gene agreed and then accompanied Judy and her entourage, which included her mother Ethel and several press agents, to dinner at the newly-opened Copacabana nightclub, at 10 East 60th Street. They sang and danced until 3 a.m., after whi...