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'''Singin' in the Rain''' is a 1952 comedy musical film starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds and directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen, with Kelly also handling the choreography. It offers a comic depiction of Hollywood's transition from silent films to "talkies".
The movie is frequently described as one of the best musicals ever made,^[1] topping the AFI's 100 Years of Musicals list, and ranking fifth in its list of the greatest American films.

Contents

Plot

Songs

Discarded versions

Cast

Acclaim

Production

Movie references

References to ''Singin' in the Rain''

DVD and VHS releases

References

External links

Plot

Gene Kelly plays Don Lockwood, a silent film star with humble roots as a musician, dancer and stunt man. Don barely tolerates his vapid, spoiled leading lady, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), who is convinced their screen romance is real. After the first talking picture, ''The Jazz Singer'', proves to be a smash hit, the head of the studio, R.F. Simpson (Millard Mitchell), decides he has no choice but to convert the new Lockwood and Lamont film, ''The Dueling Cavalier'', into a talkie. The production is beset with difficulties (most, if not all, taken from real life), by far the worst being Lina's comically grating voice and thick New York accent.
After a disastrous test screening, Don's best friend, Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor), comes up with the idea to overdub Lina's voice and they convince R.F. to turn ''The Dueling Cavalier'' into ''The Dancing Cavalier'', a musical comedy. Meanwhile, Don falls in love with aspiring actress Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) who is providing the voice for Lina. When Lina finds out, she is furious and does everything possible to sabotage the romance. She maliciously demands that Kathy continue to provide her voice in all future films, but remain uncredited. An irate, but desperate R.F. is forced to agree; Kathy has no choice because she is under contract.
The premiere is a tremendous success. When the audience clamors for Lina to sing live, Don and Cosmo improvise and get Lina to lip-synch while Kathy sings into a second microphone while hidden behind the curtain. Unbeknownst to Lina, as she starts "singing", Don, Cosmo and R.F. gleefully raise the curtain behind her, revealing the deception. Lina flees in embarrassment. When Kathy tries to escape as well, Don has her stopped and introduces the audience to the real star of the film.

Songs

''Singin' in the Rain'' was originally conceived by MGM producer Arthur Freed, the head of the "Freed Unit" responsible for turning out MGM's lavish musicals, as a vehicle for his catalog of songs written with Nacio Herb Brown for previous MGM musical films of the 1929-1939 period.^[2] Screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green contributed lyrics to one new song.^[3]
All songs have lyrics by Freed and music by Brown, unless otherwise indicated. Some of the songs, such as "Broadway Rhythm", "Should I?" and most notably "Singin' in the Rain", were featured in numerous films. The films listed below mark the first time each song was presented on screen.

★ '"Singin' in the Rain"', from ''Hollywood Revue Of 1929''.(1929) Ironically, in the final scene in which Kathy apparently sings "Singin' in the Rain" for Lina Lamont to lip-sync to, it was actually performed by Jean Hagen herself.

★ '"Fit as a Fiddle (And Ready For Love)"', from ''College Coach''^[4] (music by Al Hoffman and Al Goodhart)

★ '"Temptation"' (instrumental only), from ''Going Hollywood'' (1933)

★ '"All I Do is Dream of You"', from ''Sadie McKee'' (1934)

★ '"Make 'Em Laugh"' - considered an original song, but a near-plagiarism of Cole Porter's "Be a Clown", although it is said Porter gave his tacit permission. In the lead in to the song, O'Connor/Cosmo sarcastically references the tragic line "''ridi pagliaccio''" ("Laugh, clown") from the opera ''Pagliacci''. O'Connor was hospitalized for a week for exhaustion after shooting this number.

★ '"Beautiful Girl Montage"' comprising "I Got a Feelin' You're Foolin'" from ''Broadway Melody of 1936'' (1935), "The Wedding of the Painted Doll" from ''The Broadway Melody'' (1929) and "Should I?" from ''Lord Byron of Broadway'' (1930)

★ '"Beautiful Girl"', from ''Going Hollywood'' (1933) or from ''Stage Mother'' (1933)

★ '"You Were Meant for Me"', from ''The Broadway Melody'' (1929)

★ '"You Are My Lucky Star"', from ''Broadway Melody of 1936'' (1935)

★ '"Moses Supposes"' (music by Roger Edens, lyrics by Comden and Green)

★ '"Good Morning"', from ''Babes in Arms'' (1939)

★ '"Would You?"', from ''San Francisco'' (1936)

★ '"Broadway Melody Ballet"' composed of "The Broadway Melody" from ''The Broadway Melody'' (1929) and "Broadway Rhythm" from ''Broadway Melody of 1936'' (1935) (music by Nacio Herb Brown and Lennie Hayton)

Discarded versions

In an early draft of the script, the musical number "Singin' in the Rain" was to be sung by Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor and Gene Kelly on the way back from the flop of a talkie movie. "You Were Meant For Me" was not included in that draft. Instead, the love song was supposed to be Gene Kelly's version of "All I Do is Dream of You," which would be sung after the party at R.F. Simpson's house, when Kelly chases after Reynolds. The song would have ended up at Kelly's house. The footage of this scene has been lost. Reynolds' solo rendition of "You Are My Lucky Star" (to a billboard showing an image of Lockwood) was cut from the film, but has survived.⁷

Cast

★ Gene Kelly as Don Lockwood. Although his performance in the song ''Singin' in the Rain'' is now considered iconic, Gene Kelly was not the first performer chosen for the role — Howard Keel was the original choice to play Lockwood. Keel was replaced by Kelly as the screenwriters evolved the character from a "Western actor" to a "song-and-dance vaudeville" performer.

★ Debbie Reynolds as Kathie Seldon

★ Donald O'Connor as Cosmo Brown

★ Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont

★ Millard Mitchell as R.F. Simpson. The initials of the fictional Monumental Pictures' owner are a reference to producer Arthur Freed. R.F. also uses one of Freed's favorite expressions when he says that he "cannot quite visualize it" and has to see it on film first, referring to the Broadway ballet sequence, a joke, since the audience ''has'' just seen it.

★ Cyd Charisse as Kelly's dance partner in a dream sequence

★ Rita Moreno as Zelda Zanders, Lina's friend

Acclaim

Jean Hagen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the film for Best Original Music Score.
''Singin' in the Rain'' has appeared twice on ''Sight and Sound's list of the ten best films of all time, in 1982 and 2002, and the American Film Institute placed it at the top of their 100 Years of Musicals list. It is also tenth in the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (1997) list and fifth in their 2007 edition, and the title song is third in their 100 Years... 100 Songs list.^[5]
In the 2007 version of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list, the film rose from tenth to fifth place. ^[6]
In 1989, ''Singin' in the Rain'' was also deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Production

Gene Kelly dancing while singing the title song "Singin' in the Rain".

In the famous dance routine in which Gene Kelly sings the title song while twirling an umbrella, splashing through puddles and getting soaked to the skin, he was actually dancing in water with a little bit of milk added, so that the water puddles and raindrops would show up in the filming. Kelly was sick with a 103-degree fever at the time.
Debbie Reynolds was not a dancer at the time she made ''Singin' in the Rain'' — her background was as a gymnast.^[7] Kelly apparently insulted her for her lack of dance experience, upsetting her. Fred Astaire was hanging around the studio and found Reynolds crying under a piano. Hearing what had happened, Astaire volunteered to help her with her dancing. Kelly later admitted that he had not been kind to Reynolds and was surprised that she was still willing to talk to him afterwards. After shooting the "Good Morning" routine, Reynolds' feet were bleeding.⁷ Years later, she was quoted as saying that making this film and surviving childbirth were the two most difficult experiences of her life.
Donald O'Connor also apparently did not enjoy working with Kelly, finding him to be somewhat of a tyrant on the set, despite being quoted as saying that Kelly was "patient" with him.

Movie references

★ The scene where Don repeats "I love you" to Lina over and over, to audience's laughter, is a reference to a scene by John Gilbert in his first talkie.^[8]

★ The film ''The Dueling Cavalier'' is probably a reference to ''The Cavalier'' (1928), a largely silent picture notable only for its poorly dubbed songs that were thrown in when it became clear talkies were popular.

★ The song "Broadway Melody Ballet" is named after the first all-out musical produced by Hollywood in 1929: ''The Broadway Melody'' which is based around the song.

References to ''Singin' in the Rain''

★ Cary Grant, in the Alfred Hitchcock movie ''North by Northwest'' (1959), also made at MGM, whistles ''Singin' in the Rain'' while pretending to take a shower.

★ The "Singin' in the Rain" routine has been parodied numerous times, notably by Morecambe and Wise and Paddington Bear. The dance was also parodied, briefly, by The Goodies during their television episode Saturday Night Grease, where the music for the dance sequence was "Singin' in the Rain". It was also once sung (very badly) by Bill Owen outside Nora Batty's house in an episode of ''Last of the Summer Wine''. In the 1980 film ''Fame'', the character Coco Hernandez (played by Irene Cara) dances in a puddle on a train station while singing "Singin' in the Rain". The 2003 film ''Shanghai Knights'' featured an homage involving Jackie Chan using an umbrella as a weapon in one of the action sequences. The music heard during the sequence is none other than the song "Singin' in the Rain".

★ The sequence was also the subject of a 2005 advertisement for the new Volkswagen Golf GTI.
★ [1] Kelly appeared to replace his routine with a combination of breakdance and body pop dancing styles, culminating when he stopped to look at the aforementioned car. To create this illusion, three breakdancers performed different parts of the routine on a painstakingly recreated replica of the original set. Kelly's face was digitally superimposed upon each dancer in post-production for the close-ups, while prosthetic makeup was sufficient for most of the footage. A big beat remix of the original song (courtesy of Mint Royale) provided the soundtrack.

★ "Singin' in the Rain" is sung mockingly by Alex DeLarge in the rape scene in Stanley Kubrick's film ''A Clockwork Orange'' (1971), and Gene Kelly's rendition is played over the end credits.

★ A predominant theme in season four of ''The Spencer Howard Show'' is Spencer's starring role in a shot-for-shot remake of ''Singin' in the Rain''.

★ The 1986 movie ¡Three Amigos!, styled after Hollywood's golden age, features a paean to ''Singin' in the Rain'' in the form of a billboard for ''The Dueling Cavelier'' (featured at the fictitious Goldsmith Studios).

★ In the 1989 music video for Liza Minnelli's "Don't Drop Bombs", she pays homage to the Broadway Melody ballet sequence briefly as the Cyd Charisse character dancing with a great white veil flowing behind her.

★ Natalie Portman's character in the 1994 film, ''Léon'', plays a guessing game and imitates Gene Kelly from this movie.

★ On the The Nanny epsiode ''Freida Needa Man'' (1996) Fran watches the Tv and watches the part where Cosmo does his fancy dancing and comments on how spry he is, Donald O'Connor guest star on this epsiode also.

★ In the 1997 film ''The Full Monty'', the character of Guy (played by Hugo Speer), in his audition, imitates Donald O'Connor's famous dance sequence in "Make 'Em Laugh" by attempting to run up the wall and backflip, only to fall on the floor.

★ In the 1979 film ''Alien'', Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) sings a few lines from the song "You Are My Lucky Star" as she is preparing to send the alien into space through the airlock.

★ In 2004's ''Mean Girls'', gay characher Damian has a poster for this film on his bedroom wall, referencing the film's strong gay following.

★ In 2005, the BBDO ad agency in Singapore created a campaign for Pizza Hut, incorporating a well known frame from the film into one of their designs.

★ In one of the initial scenes in ''Shrek the Third'', Donkey sings a few lines from 'Good Morning' to wake up Shrek and Princess Fiona.

★ In the ''Family Guy'' episode entitled "Peterotica," Glenn Quagmire parodies Donald O'Connor's "Make 'Em Laugh" song and dance routine while in an erotic book shop.

★ In a ''Simpsons'' episode, the town of Springfield begins to harbor pollutions creating acid rain, and on this occasion, while it was raining, Willy begins to sings the movies title only to have his eyes burn in agony.

DVD and VHS releases

According to the audio commentary on the Special Edition DVD, the original negative was destroyed in a fire, but despite this the film has been digitally restored for its DVD release.
The Fortieth Anniversary Edition VHS version includes Reynolds' cut, solo rendition of "Singin' in the Rain".

References

1. Haley Jr., Jack: ''That's Entertainment!'', Frank Sinatra segments. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1974
2. George Feltenstein (2002). ''"Producer's Note"'', included in the liner notes of the ''"Music from the original motion picture soundtrack (deluxe edition) Singin' in the Rain"'' double CD by Rhino Entertainment and Turner Classic Movies
3. Track list in the liner notes of the ''"Music from the original motion picture soundtrack (deluxe edition) Singin' in the Rain"'' double CD by Rhino Entertainment and Turner Classic Movies.
4. ''CineBooks' Motion Picture Guide'' review of the movie included on the Microsoft Cinemania 1997 CD
5. http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/100yearslist.aspx AFI's 100 Years lists
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI's_100_Years..._100_Movies_(10th_Anniversary_Edition)
7. New 50th Anniversary Documentary ''What a Glorious Feeling'', hosted by Debbie Reynolds
8. Betty Comden, Adolph Green (2002). ''"The story Behind Singin' in the Rain: Now It Can be Told"'', reprint of the ''"Singin' In the Rain"'' screenplay introduction, originally published in 1972, included in the liner notes of the ''"Music from the original motion picture soundtrack (deluxe edition) Singin' in the Rain"'' double CD by Rhino Entertainment and Turner Classic Movies.

External links

★

★ Roger Ebert's review

★ Movie photos and lobby posters