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: $7,241,009 (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 a 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 talented, 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

Back to Home