“I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan” October 27, 2007

From The Band Wagon (1952), four Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz musical numbers for the price of (n)one …

• “New Sun In the Sky”, danced by Cyd Charisse (singing dubbed by India Adams);

• “I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan”, performed by Fred Astaire and Jack Buchanan;

• “Louisiana Hayride”, performed by Nanette Fabray; and

• “Triplets”, performed by Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan.

Jack Buchanan (1891-1957) was known as “the Scottish Fred Astaire”. Although no one would have said he was as good a dancer as Astaire, he was more versatile behind the camera, having directed and produced such films as The Sky’s The Limit (1938).

One of his trademark music-hall acts was pretending to be a clumsy dancer, a schtick that’s nodded to when he and Astaire drop their hats and canes at the end of “I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan”. Buchanan was in pain from spinal arthritis during the filming of The Band Wagon; he died four years later of cancer at the age of sixty-six.

Technorati tags: The Band Wagon, Arthur Schwartz, Howard Dietz, Cyd Charisse, India Adams, Fred Astaire, Jack Buchanan, Nanette Fabray