Singin' in the Rain (film)

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Singin' in the Rain

theatrical poster
Directed by Gene Kelly
Stanley Donen
Produced by Arthur Freed
Written by Betty Comden
Adolph Green
Starring Gene Kelly
Donald O'Connor
Debbie Reynolds
Jean Hagen
Music by Nacio Herb Brown (music)
Arthur Freed (lyrics)
Cinematography Harold Rosson, ASC
Editing by Adrienne Fazan
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) March 27 1952
Running time 103 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2,540,800 USD
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

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 providing 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 updated list of the greatest American films in 2007.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) is a popular silent film star with humble roots as a singer, dancer and stunt man. Don barely tolerates his vapid, shallow leading lady, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), who has convinced herself that the fake romance their studio concocted and publicized is real.

One day, to escape from overenthusiastic fans, Don jumps into a passing car driven by Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds). She drops him off, but not before claiming to be a stage actress and sneering at his undignified accomplishments. Later, at a party, the head of Don's studio, R.F. Simpson (Millard Mitchell), shows a short demonstration of a talking picture, but his guests are unimpressed. Don runs into Kathy again at the party. To his amusement and her embarrassment, he discovers that Kathy is only a chorus girl, part of the entertainment. Furious, she throws a pie at him, only to hit Lina right in the face. Later, Don makes up with Kathy and they begin falling in love.

After the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer, proves to be a smash hit, R.F. 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. A test screening is a disaster. In one scene, for instance, Don repeats "I love you" to Lina over and over, to the audience's derisive laughter (a reference to a scene by John Gilbert in his first talkie[2]).

Don's best friend, Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor), comes up with the idea to overdub Lina's voice with Kathy's and they persuade R.F. to turn The Dueling Cavalier into a musical called The Dancing Cavalier. When Lina finds out that Kathy is dubbing her voice, she is furious and does everything possible to sabotage the romance between Don and Kathy. She becomes even more angry when she discovers that R.F. intends to give Kathy a screen credit and a big publicity buildup. Lina blackmails R.F. into backing down and demands that Kathy continue to provide her singing voice anonymously. As a contract player, Kathy has no choice in the matter.

The premiere of The Dancing Cavalier is a tremendous success. When the audience clamors for Lina to sing live, Don, Cosmo and R.F. 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 open the curtain behind her, revealing the deception — Lina flees in embarrassment. When Kathy tries to run away as well, Don has her stopped and introduces the audience to "the real star of the film".

[edit] 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.[3] Screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green contributed lyrics to one new song.[4]

All songs have lyrics by Freed and music by Brown, unless otherwise indicated.[4] 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.

[edit] Changes

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 preview of The Dueling Cavalier. "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 and is included on the DVD version of the film.[6]

[edit] Cast

  • Gene Kelly as Don Lockwood. Although his performance in the song Singin' in the Rain is now considered iconic, Kelly was not the first choice for the role — Howard Keel was originally cast. However, Keel was replaced by Kelly as the screenwriters evolved the character from a "Western actor" to a "song-and-dance vaudeville" performer.[2]
  • Debbie Reynolds as Kathy Selden. Early on in production, Judy Garland (shortly before her contract termination from MGM), Kathryn Grayson, Jane Powell, Leslie Caron, and June Allyson were among the names thrown around for the role of the "ingenue" before Reynolds submitted to a screen test.
  • Donald O'Connor as Cosmo Brown. The role was based on, and was initially written for, Oscar Levant.
  • Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont. Judy Holliday was heavily considered for the role of Lina, until she suggested Hagen, who was her understudy in the Broadway production of Born Yesterday. Fresh off her role in The Asphalt Jungle, Hagen met with Freed to read for the part and did a dead-on impression of Holliday's Billie Dawn character, which won her the role.
  • 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 the "Broadway Melody" ballet
  • Rita Moreno as Zelda Zanders, the "Zip Girl" and Lina's informant/friend

[edit] 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 (#3) in their 100 Years... 100 Songs list.[7]   Two other songs from the film made the AFI list as well: "Make 'Em Laugh" (#49) and "Good Morning" (#72).

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.

[edit] Production

Gene Kelly dancing while singing the title song "Singin' in the Rain".
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.[8]

Debbie Reynolds was not a dancer at the time she made Singin' in the Rain — her background was as a gymnast.[6] 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.[6] 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.

[edit] Cultural references

  • A similar plot had been used in the 1946 French film Etoile sans lumiere (aka "Star without Light"), directed by Marcel Blistene, starring Edith Piaf and Mila Parely and later in the 1959 British film Follow a Star, directed by Robert Asher and starring Norman Wisdom and Jerry Desmonde.
  • "Singin' in the Rain" is sung mockingly by Alex DeLarge, played by Malcolm McDowell, in the rape scene in Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange (1971). Gene Kelly's rendition is heard during the end credits.
  • 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". Canadian figure skater Kurt Browning did an on-ice recreation in a Stars on Ice television special.
  • 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 by Mint Royale provided the soundtrack.
  • 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 popular Bollywood film Om Shanti Om (2007) is, like Singin' in the Rain, set in a film studio. The sequence for the song 'Main Agar Kahoon' is a clear homage to the sound-stage sequence for 'You Were Meant for Me'.
  • The dance to the title song is parodied in the Broadway musical Spamalot in the dance break to "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," complete with tap dancing in raincoats and twirling umbrellas.
  • In the Broadway musical The Full Monty, one of the characters (Ethan) spends the better part of the show unsuccessfully trying to replicate Donald O'Connor's famed "running up the wall thing" from "Make 'Em Laugh."

[edit] DVD and VHS releases

The 40th Anniversary Edition VHS version includes a documentary, the original trailer, and Reynolds' solo rendition of "Singin' in the Rain", which was cut from the film.

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.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Haley Jr., Jack: That's Entertainment!, Frank Sinatra segments. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1974
  2. ^ a b 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.
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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.
  5. ^ a b CineBooks' Motion Picture Guide review of the movie included on the Microsoft Cinemania 1997 CD
  6. ^ a b c New 50th Anniversary Documentary What a Glorious Feeling, hosted by Debbie Reynolds
  7. ^ http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/100yearslist.aspx AFI's 100 Years lists
  8. ^ The Biography Channel. Retrieved on 2008-06-03.

[edit] External links

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American films of the 1950s
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