“Only after resolving the conflict between Tony’s entertainment and Jeffrey’s art can the film serve its climactic dessert of onstage musical numbers—exactly as the Busby Berkeley musicals do. Like An American in Paris, The Band Wagon sweeps up its narrative dust quickly enough to get on with the show but subtly enough to convince an audience of its psychological credibility. Minnelli, Comden, and Green solve two ticklish problems so cleverly that they both reveal and hide the way to solve such problems.”