Classic Movies: Singin' in the Rain (1952)

By Jason Haskins


I'm picky about musicals. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but I'm awfully reserved. Some completely throw me off guard with their creativity like 1981's Pennies from Heaven. Others make me want to rip my eyes and ears out (...Grease...admit it, Grease sucks). Then there were the ones I grew up on like The Wizard of Oz--which isn't just one of my all-time favorite movies, but one of my favorite musicals as well (if you'd classify it as such). However, when I think of the Hollywood musical and one full of dance numbers and pleasant story, only one film comes to mind: Singin' in the Rain. This is the perfect musical with one of the best stories the genre has to offer.

Gene Kelly plays Don Lockwood, a big time movie star in the mid-1920s during the silent era of Hollywood. His onscreen love interest, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), is an insane diva that's not too bright (and oddly thinks that they're a real couple). One night after a party Lockwood runs into an aspiring actress (long story) named Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) while escaping from his fans and a blossoming relationship begins.

Alongside of the Lockwood/Selden love plot, the talkies of Hollywood are on the rise and Lockwood's newest silent picture, The Dueling Cavalier (a period piece), is forced to be converted to sound. This causes a huge conflict, which actually mirrors the real-life struggles people had with syncing sound with video among a whole list of other things. One of the big problems is Lamont's voice, which is atrocious--and it's decided that Selden's voice is to be dubbed over hers.

Many events occur over the course of the film ultimately leading to Lockwood and the studio deciding to turn the picture into The Dancing Cavalier and from a historical perspective, the story actually treats the true events of the time period extraordinarily well. I'm going to geek out for a minute, but what makes Singin' in the Rain so good (apart from a ton of other things) is that it did for musicals what no other had done well before: transferred it loosely to true events.

It gives you a behind the scenes look at filmmaking in the era as well as how important the mainstream addition to sound was and how much it changed Hollywood. The historical and contextual values of the film alone warrant it a viewing by a film nerd (especially if you're interested in that sort of thing). The story itself is quite compelling and because of the illustrious use of characters and the extravagant plot, the lengthy running time (an hour and forty minutes I believe) melts away.

However--what's most important? The singing and dancing, of course! I can't even begin to describe how fantastic this film's overall composition is. Some of my favorite songs from any musical are here. First of all, Donald O'Connor rounds out the top cast as Lockwood's colorful friend Cosmo and he provides a majority of the comedic value the movie has to offer. If you're not familiar with O'Connor, he was one of Hollywood's great song and dance men (especially for his tap dancing).

He contributes Make ‘em Laugh, which was recently redone by Joseph Gordon-Levitt a little while ago on Saturday Night Live. This is one of the coolest routines in the whole picture with O'Connor seeming to go completely nuts and whacky for Lockwood--including his famous somersaulting off walls, a mimed flirtation with a headless doll, and rolling around on the floor. It's catchy and it shows the extraordinary physicality of this truly amazing performer.

Gene Kelly, however, steals the whole show (which his egocentric nature probably enjoyed). A haunting and elegant version of You Were Meant for Me has Kelly swooning for Reynolds after he transforms a movie set into a romantic getaway. This is such a gorgeous number and so wonderful to watch as Lockwood sweeps Selden off her feet.

I should also mention the title number, Singin' in the Rain, which is my all-time favorite song from a musical. Kelly seamlessly makes dancing crazily in the streets getting wet from the rain hopelessly romantic and you can't help but feel the joy he's yelping. His mostly improvised dance number is flawless and extraordinary to watch as well. Kelly actually makes this movie for me. He's a charming leading man and his dancing is simply fabulous to watch. He's physical, but he's also soft displaying both masculinity in his performance, but also sweetness. He's fast and secure with his work and it definitely shows in the finished product.

The three leads band together for another one of my favorites called Good Morning (originally from Babes in Arms with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, though the Singin' in the Rain version is a million times better). This song occurs when the trio figure out to turn their ailing talkie into a musical and that success is on the horizon after staying up into the morning. The tap dancing and dancing in general, is watertight and quite entertaining to watch as their use the space of the set so extraordinarily. And it's one of those songs that gets your blood pumping (and won't leave your head for days).

Say what you will about Debbie Reynolds, but she actually does a good job here. It's been notoriously told that Kelly and her didn't get along because she couldn't dance as well as the rest of the cast, but I thought she did a pretty good job given that she was dancing between such greats as Kelly and O'Connor. The ultimate irony, however, is that her voice was dubbed by another actress--which parallels the story of her character dubbing for someone else's voice. I think it will go down in history as one of the bigger ironies and it adds another interesting tidbit to the story.

Lastly the final scenes in the movie have Lockwood pitching the movie to some higher ups, which in turn goes into a grandiose and widespread musical transition. This has gotten a lot of flack because it slows down the film and goes off on a huge tangent. While I can agree to a certain extent, it's so well done and colorful that I don't really care. It features some of the best direction (courtesy of Gene Kelly) from the feature as well as an intricate performance art piece with Kelly and a woman with a long silky scarf and wind machines that's truly an amazing piece of work to see for yourself.

Singin' in the Rain is a masterpiece, if you ask me. Everything from the sets, to the surprising amount of humor and the sheer loveliness that all of the characters bring makes this an easygoing yet fruitful film to watch. This will never get old to me because of the variety in performances and songs and the amount of eye candy involved.

The story keeps you interested all the way through and has an even hand with the transitions to musical. Some films focus on the song and dance routines alone before giving two craps about the story, but everything is on an even playing field and wouldn't survive without the other. I appreciate all the work that went into this and ultimately it makes for a great watch. If you haven't seen this yet, do yourself a favor-you might find it to be your favorite musical.

© Jason Haskins, 2011

5 out of 5 Stars