Monday, May 28, 2018

Singin' in the Rain Review












Singin' in the Rain


Release Date: 25th December 1952 - Australia


Production Companies
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Loew's Inc (produced by)


Genre: Musical/Romance

Rating: G

Runtime: 99 minutes


Budget: $2,500,000

Box Office Gross: $7,630,288 (Worldwide)


Plot Summary
When silent films began to be replaced by 'talkies', everyone struggled to adapt to this bumpy transition. Don and Lina keep getting cast as a romantic pair, but when their latest film becomes a musical, only Don has the voice to sing. After much practice with a diction teacher, she still sounds awful, so they hire a bright, young, up-and-coming actress, Kathy, to do the dubbing.


Cast
Gene Kelly - Don Lockwood
Debbie Reynolds - Kathy Selden
Donald O'Connor - Cosmo
Brown
Jean Hagen - Lina Lamont
Millard Mitchell - R.F. Simpson
Douglas Fowley - Roscoe
Dexter
Rita Moreno - Zelda Zanders
Cyd Charisse - Dancer
King Donovan - Rod (Uncredited)
Judy Landon - Olga Mara (Uncredited)
Kathleen Freeman - Phoebe Dinsmore (Uncredited)
Madge Blake - Dora Bailey (Uncredited)

Crew
Directors/Musical Numbers Staging and Directors - Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
Story/Screenplay - Betty
Comden and Adolph Green
Producer/Songs: Lyrics -
Arthur Freed
Art Directors - Randall Duell
and Cedric Gibbons
Set Decorators - Edwin B.
Willis and Jacque Mapes
Costume Designer - Walter Plunkett
Makeup Creator - William Tuttle
Director of Photography -
Harold Rosson
Special Effects - Warren Newcombe and Irving G. Ries
Film Editor - Adrienne Fazan
Recording Supervisor - Douglas Shearer
Songs: Music - Nacho Herb Brown
Musical Director - Lennie Hayton


Awards

1953 Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actress - Jean Hagen (Nominated)
Best Music: Score of a Musical Picture - Lennie Hayton (Nominated)


Review
When SINGIN' IN THE RAIN came out in 1952, it was Gene Kelly's finest hour in one of his best musical performances in cinema history. It didn't even get an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and was a mild showcase until later years when it finally got recognised as a movie classic. However, I managed to watch the film for the second time and revisited it for the late Debbie Reynolds, who passed away two years before I was to complete this review. A triumphant musical comedy from Kelly, co-director Stanley Donen and producer Arthur Freed, who have much in common in handling this film the way Kelly and Freed did it with Vincente Minnelli in An American in Paris. It reminiscences the golden years when movies transitioned into the sound era known as the 'talkies' back then.

It would explain how much the producer has been through this experience where he had his roots as a lyricist co-writing songs for earlier musicals at MGM that he later borrowed for SINGIN' IN THE RAIN as an homage to that period. Kelly's confidence, combined with Donen's co-supervision and Freed's experience, made this movie an all-singing and all-dancing extravaganza. There are bits of slapstick comedy, and the sequences are based on a routine as Kelly sang and choreographed, most of them including the famous number that everyone is humming for a tune.

The cast is full of talents, including Kelly, the standout actor in the movie and the highly-coordinated dancer and prolific director he was. The young actress Reynolds was decent as the loveable sweetheart Kathy Selden, and Donald O'Connor brings joy and laughter into his character role of Don Lockwood. Jean Hagen plays the vain and self-centred actress Lina Lamont, as her bad Brooklyn accent is unsuited for any of the 'talkie' pictures.

There is so much singing and dancing in this kind of picture. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN is a golden oldie and a must-see feature for all, and it will attract a new generation of musical-goers. I look forward to seeing more classic musicals. I intend to review a few shortly.

Star rating: (10/10) Best Movie Ever

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