Special Subject - Supported By Oscar Levant – the 1950s – AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951); THE I DON'T CARE GIRL (1953) & THE BAND WAGON (1953)

Our final Oscar Levant Special Subject episode covers his contribution to two of the greatest MGM musicals, Vincente Minnelli's An American in Paris (1951) and The Band Wagon (1953), plus a 20th Century Fox curiosity, The I Don't Care Girl (1953) in which Mitzi Gaynor supposedly plays early 20th century vaudeville wild woman Eva Tanguay. Levant reaches new heights as a cinematic presence in An American in Paris, a film that, we argue, forms part of an "art life" Levant trilogy with Rhapsody in Blue and Humoresque, then flaunts some virtuoso piano performances in The I Don't Care Girl before succumbing to a heart attack prior to filming The Band Wagon. We give our general impressions of these must-see musicals while also trying to determine what quality Levant brings to An American in Paris, in particular, that it wouldn't have without him (besides self-loathing narcissism). What does Oscar Levant have to tell us about the figure of the artist? Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951) [dir. Vincente Minnelli] 0h 27m 28s:    THE I DON'T CARE GIRL (1953) [dir. Lloyd Bacon] 0h 38m 57s:    THE BAND WAGON (1953) [dir. Vincente Minnelli] +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: "Sunday" by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's piece on Gangs of New York – "Making America Strange Again" * Check out Dave's Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at [email protected] We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!