Curtain up!

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Movie
German title Curtain up!
Original title The Band Wagon
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1953
length 113 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Vincente Minnelli
script Betty Comden ,
Adolph Green
production Arthur Freed
for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
music Adolph German
camera Harry Jackson
cut Albert Akst
occupation

Curtain up! is an American film musical directed by Vincente Minnelli from 1953.

action

The dancer and entertainer Tony Hunter has not had a revue success for years. In the industry, his dance style is considered outdated and his interpretation of entertainment outdated. Only his friends Lester and Lily continue to believe in him and write a review for him. It is to be directed by the current shooting star of the stages Jeffrey Cordova, who, however, specializes in serious, tragic subjects such as Oedipus Rex . Cordova succeeds with a trick in engaging the ballet star Gabrielle Gerard for the revue, but he lets the easy revue be rewritten as a difficult dance adaptation of the fist material . The premiere in a small town will be a terrific flop.

After initial animosity, Tony and Gabrielle have come together to the point that Gabrielle leaves her mentor and trainer Paul to help Tony. After the sobering premiere, he wants to stick to the planned tour program of the piece, but rewrite the Faust material in the revue that was originally supposed to be staged. The piece now changes from performance location to performance location, becomes more entertaining and more colorful and is finally completely rewritten for the performance in New York City .

Gabrielle's ex-boyfriend plans to come to the New York show. Tony, who has long known that he loves Gabrielle, asks her indirectly about her feelings for him, but she cannot give him an answer before the performance. This is followed by the performance in New York, including a long crime scene with Tony as a detective. The play was a great success, but Tony was surprised after the performance that nobody appeared in his dressing room. Gabrielle believes he is together with Paul. When he wants to spend the evening alone in a bar and leaves the cloakroom, all those involved in the play have gathered in front of it and congratulate Tony on his success. Gabrielle confesses to Tony that she loves him and it comes to a happy ending.

production

The film was shot in MGM studios. Curtain up! premiered on July 9, 1953 in New York City and was released in German cinemas on May 21, 1954.

The long scene in which Fred Astaire can be seen as a dancing detective inspired Michael Jackson to make the video clip of his single Smooth Criminal .

synchronization

role actor German speaker
Tony Hunter Fred Astaire Erik Ode
Lester Marton Oscar Levant Erich Poremski
Gabrielle Gerard Cyd Charisse Marion Degler
Jeffrey Cordova Jack Buchanan Hans Nielsen
auctioneer Douglas Fowley Franz Otto Kruger
Porter Ernest Anderson Herbert Weissbach

The film was dubbed by MGM Synchronization Atelier Berlin.

criticism

source rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
IMDb

Der Spiegel called on curtain! a "film-'musical' that communicates the creation of a stage musical with little action and yet without length."

The lexicon of international films published by film-dienst in 1990 called the curtain up! a “perfect, lavish revue musical with Fred Astaire, whose dance number 'Shin on Your Shoes' is one of the best of his career.” However, the lexicon criticized the “miserable Germanization of the songs”, which was later broadcast on television.

Cinema said: "Astaire is tapping here - and so is the bear!"

Awards

Curtain up! was nominated for three Oscars in 1954 : In the category "Best Original Screenplay" it could not prevail against the sinking of the Titanic . In the category "Best Costume Design (Color Film)" it was defeated by the film Das Gewand and lost in the category "Best Film Music (Music Film)" to Madame Makes Stories .

The curtain was raised as “Best Written American Musical” ! Nominated for a WGA award in 1954 and lost to Lili .

In 1990, That's Entertainment was the first time in the curtain! could be heard, as “Most Performed Feature Film Standard” with an ASCAP Award.

In 1995 the Library of Congress raised the curtain! to the National Film Registry .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b See cinema.de
  2. ↑ See synchronkartei.de
  3. ↑ a b curtain up! at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed October 15, 2014
  4. ↑ Curtain up! in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  5. ↑ New in Germany: Curtain up . In: Der Spiegel , No. 27, 1954, p. 30.
  6. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Ed.): Lexicon of International Films . Volume 8. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, p. 4164.