Singin' in the Rain is a 1952 American comedy musical film starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds and directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, with Kelly also providing the choreography. It offers a comic depiction of Hollywood, and its transition from silent films to "talkies."

Although it was not a big hit when first released, it was accorded its legendary status by contemporary critics. It is now frequently described as one of the best musicals ever made,[2] topping the AFI's 100 Years of Musicals list, and ranking fifth in its updated list of the greatest American films in 2007.

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), though their studio, Monumental Pictures, links them romantically to increase their popularity. Lina herself is convinced they are in love, despite Don's protestations otherwise.

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. At first, she pretends not to know who he is, but later in the film, she admits that she knew who he was all along and is also a big fan. Later, at a party, the head of Don's studio, R.F. Simpson (Millard Mitchell), shows a short demonstration of a Vitaphonetalking picture ("...My voice has been recorded on a record...") which pays homage to the original 1921 DeForestPhonofilm demonstration featuring DeForest himself explaining the system, but his guests are unimpressed. To Don's amusement and Kathy's embarrassment, she pops out of a mock cake right in front of him as part of the entertainment; Kathy, it turns out, is a chorus girl. Furious at Don's teasing, she throws a real cake at him, only to hit Lina right in the face. Later, after weeks of searching, Don makes up with Kathy after he finds her working in another Monumental Pictures production, and they begin to fall in love.

After a rival studio has an enormous hit with its first talking picture, 1927's The Jazz Singer, 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 that reportedly reflect what actually took place during the early days of talking pictures. By far the worst problem is Lina's grating voice. An exasperated diction coach tried to teach her how to speak properly, but to no avail. A test screening is a disaster. In one scene, Don repeats the line "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[3]). Then in the middle of the movie, the sound goes out of synchronization.

Don's best friend, Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor), comes up with the idea to dub Lina's voice with Kathy's, and they persuade R.F. to turn The Dueling Cavalier into a musical called The Dancing Cavalier, complete with a modern musical number called "Broadway Melody". When Lina finds out, she is furious and does everything possible to sabotage the romance between Don and Kathy. She becomes even angrier when she discovers that R.F. intends to give Kathy a screen credit and a big publicity promotion. Lina, after consulting lawyers, threatens to sue R.F. unless he cancels Kathy's buildup and orders her to continue working (uncredited) as Lina's voice. R.F. reluctantly agrees to her demands.

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 her to lip sync into the microphone while Kathy, hidden behind the stage curtain, sings into a second one. While Lina is "singing," Don, Cosmo and R.F. gleefully open the curtain. The deception becomes obvious when Cosmo replaces Kathy at the microphone. Now exposed as a fraud, Lina flees in embarrassment. Kathy tries to run away as well, but Don introduces the audience to "the real star of the film." The final shot shows Kathy and Don kissing in front of a billboard for their new movie, Singin' in the Rain.

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.[3]
  • Donald O'Connor as Cosmo Brown. The role was based on, and initially written for, Oscar Levant.
  • 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." Yet, Director Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly insisted that Debbie Reynolds always was first in their mind for the role.[4] Although the film revolves around the idea that Kathy has to dub over for Lina's voice, even in the talking scenes, it was actually Jean Hagen's normal voice. Reynolds herself was dubbed in "Would You?" and "You are My Lucky Star" by an uncreditedBetty Noyes.[5] Also, when Kathy is supposedly dubbing Lina's voice in the live performance of "Singing in the Rain" at the end of the film, Jean Hagen is actually dubbing Reynolds' speaking voice.[6]
  • Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont. Judy Holliday was strongly considered for the role of Lina, until she suggested Hagen, who had been her understudy in the Broadway production of Born Yesterday. Fresh off her role in The Asphalt Jungle, Hagen read for the part for producer Arthur Freed and did a dead-on impression of Holliday's Billie Dawn character, which won her the role. Her character was based on the silent picture star Norma Talmadge who bombed during the transition to talkies.
  • Millard Mitchell as R.F. Simpson. The initials of the fictional head of Monumental Pictures are a reference to producer 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.
  • CydCharisse as Don's dance partner in the "Broadway Melody" ballet.
  • Douglas Fowley as Roscoe Dexter, the director of Don and Lina's films.
  • Rita Moreno as Zelda Zanders, the "Zip Girl" and Lina's informant friend. Considered to be based on Clara Bow.
  • King Donovan (uncredited) as Rod, head of the publicity department at Monumental Pictures.
  • Judy Landon (uncredited) as Olga Mara, a silent screen vamp who attends the premiere of The Royal Rascal. She is considered to be based on PolaNegri and Gloria Swanson.
  • Madge Blake (uncredited) as Dora Bailey, a radio show host. Considered to be based on Louella Parsons.
  • Kathleen Freeman (uncredited) as Phoebe Dinsmore, Lina's diction coach
  • Bobby Watson (uncredited) as diction coach during "Moses Supposes" number
  • Jimmy Thompson (uncredited) as the singer of "Beautiful Girl"

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 1929-39 period.[7] Screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green contributed lyrics to one new song.[8]

All songs have lyrics by Freed and music by Brown, unless otherwise indicated.[8] 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.

  • "Fit as a Fiddle (And Ready for Love)," from College Coach (1933)[9] (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)[8]
  • "Singin' in the Rain," from Hollywood Revue Of 1929 (1929)[8]
  • "Make 'Em Laugh," considered an original song, but a near-plagiarism of Cole Porter's "Be a Clown", used in another Freed musical, The Pirate (1948). In the lead in to the song, O'Connor/Cosmo sarcastically references the tragic line "ridipagliaccio" ("Laugh, clown") from the opera Pagliacci.
  • "Beautiful Girl Montage" comprising "I Got a Feelin' You're Foolin'" from Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935),[8] "The Wedding of the Painted Doll" from The Broadway Melody (1929)[8] and "Should I?" from Lord Byron of Broadway (1930)[8]
  • "Beautiful Girl," from Going Hollywood (1933)[9] or from Stage Mother (1933)[8]
  • "You Were Meant for Me," from The Broadway Melody (1929)[8]
  • "You Are My Lucky Star," from Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935)[8]
  • "Moses Supposes" (music by Roger Edens, lyrics by Comden and Green)
  • "Good Morning," from Babes In Arms (1939)[8]
  • "Would You?," from San Francisco (1936)[8]
  • "Broadway Melody Ballet" composed of "The Broadway Melody" from The Broadway Melody (1929)[8] and "Broadway Rhythm" from Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935)[8] (music by Nacio Herb Brown and LennieHayton)

Missing scenes

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 their way back from the flop preview of The Dueling Cavalier. In addition, "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 original soundtrack and DVD version of the film.[10] Rita Moreno was originally to have sung "I Got a Feelin' You're Foolin'," but this ended up being part of the Beautiful Girl medley.

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, Kelly was sick with a 103 °F (39°C) fever at the time.[11] The rain seen in the scene was a mixture of milk and water that caused Kelly's wool suit to shrink during filming. A common myth is that Kelly managed to perform the entire song in one take, thanks to cameras placed at predetermined locations. However this was not the case as the filming of the sequence took place over 2–3 days.[12]

Debbie Reynolds was not a dancer at the time she made Singin' in the Rain— her background was as a gymnast.[10] 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.[10] Years later, she was quoted as saying that "Singin' in the Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things I ever had to do in my life."[13]

Donald O'Connor had to be hospitalized after filming the "Make 'em Laugh" sequence. He smoked up to four packs of cigarettes a day.[12]

Most of the costumes from this film were eventually acquired by Ms. Reynolds and housed in her massive collection of original film costumes, sets and props. Many of these items were sold at a 2011 auction in Hollywood. While most items were sold to private collectors, Donald O'Connor's green check "Fit As a Fiddle" suit and shoes were purchased by Costume World, Inc. and are now on permanent display at the Costume World Broadway Collection Museum in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Awards and honors

For her role as Lina Lamont, Jean Hagen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film was also nominated for anBest Original Music Score.

Donald O'Connor won a Golden Globe for this film.[14] Betty Comden and Adolph Green received the Writers Guild of America for the best written American musical.[15]

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. Its position in 1982 was at number 4 on the critics list; on the 2002 critics' list it was listed as number 10 and it tied for 19 on the directors' list.[16] The film has a rare 100% positive reviews on RottenTomatoes.com, based on 43 sources.[17]

In 1989, Singin' in the Rain was among the first 25 films chosen for the newly established National Film Registry for films that are deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation.

American Film Institute recognition

  • AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies - #10
  • AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs - #16
  • AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions - #16
  • AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Lina Lamont - Nominated Villain
  • AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs:
  • "Singin' in the Rain" - #3
  • "Make 'em Laugh" - #49
  • "Good Morning" - #72
  • AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
  • "What do they think I am, dumb or something? Why, I make more money than Calvin Coolidge! Put together!" - Nominated
  • AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals - #1
  • AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - #5