There is no movie musical more fun than “Singin’ in
the Rain,” and few that remain as fresh over the years. Roger Ebert credited in
his review, “Its originality is all the more startling if you reflect that only
one of its songs was written new for the film, that the producers plundered
MGM's storage vaults for sets and props, and that the movie was originally
ranked below "An American in Paris,” which won a best picture Oscar. The
verdict of the years knows better than Oscar: "Singin' in the Rain” is a
transcendent experience, and no one who loves movies can afford to miss it.”
The film is above all lighthearted and happy. The
three actors – Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and 19-year-old Debbie Reynolds –
must have rehearsed continuously for their dance numbers, which involve
shocking acrobatics, but in the performance, they’re filled with joy. Kelly’s drenching
“Singin’ in the Rain” number is “the single most memorable dance number on
film,” Peter Wollen wrote in a British Film Institute monograph. Ebert said, “I'd
call it a tie with Donald O'Connor's breathtaking "Make 'em Laugh” number,
in which he manhandles himself like a cartoon character.”
Kelly and O’Connor were famous actors when the film
was made in 1952. Debbie Reynolds was a newbie with five previous smaller roles,
and this was her big break. She has to keep up with two veteran stars, and
does. Ebert mentioned, “note the determination on her pert little face as she
takes giant strides when they all march toward a couch in the "Good
Morning” number.”
“Singin’ in the Rain” is filled with life. In a movie
about making movies, you can see the joy they had making this film. It was
co-directed by Stanley Donen, who was 28 at the time, and Kelly, who supervised
the choreography. Ebert noted, “Donen got an honorary Oscar in 1998, and stole
the show by singing "Cheek to Cheek” while dancing with his statuette. He
started in movies at 17, in 1941, as an assistant to Kelly, and they
collaborated on "On the Town” (1949) when he was only 25.” His other films
include “Funny Face” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.”
One of this movie’s joys is that it’s really about
something. Obviously, it’s about romance, as most musicals are, but it’s also
about the film industry in a time of serious transition. The movie mentions the
switch form silents to talkies, but doesn’t falsify it. Ebert mentioned, “Yes,
cameras were housed in soundproof booths, and microphones were hidden almost in
plain view. And, yes, preview audiences did laugh when they first heard the
voices of some famous stars; Garbo Talks!” the ads promised, but her co-star,
John Gilbert, would have been better off keeping his mouth shut. The movie
opens and closes at sneak previews, has sequences on sound stages and in
dubbing studios, and kids the way the studios manufactured romances between
their stars.”
When producer Arthur Freed and writers Betty Comdon
and Adolph Green were assigned to the film at MGM, their instructions were to
recycle a group of songs the studio already owned, most of them written by
Freed himself, with Nacio Herb Brown. Comdon and Green noted that the songs
came from the period when silent films were making room for sound, and they decided
to make a musical about the birth of the talkies. That led to the character of
Lina Lamont, played by Jean Hagen, the blond disaster with a high-pitched voice
that is not pleasant to hear.
Ebert mentioned, “Hagen in fact had a perfectly
acceptable voice, which everyone in Hollywood knew; maybe that helped her win
an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. ("Singin' “ was also
nominated for its score, but won neither Oscar--a slow start for a film that
placed 10th on the American Film Institute list of 100 great films, and was
voted the fourth greatest film of all time in the Sight & Sound poll.)” She
plays a satirized dumb blond, who believes she’s in love with her leading man,
Don Lockwood (Kelly), because she read it in a fan magazine. She gest some of
the funniest lines (“What do they think I am? Dumb or something? Why, I make more
money than Calvin Coolidge put together!”).
Ebert credited, “Kelly and O'Connor had dancing styles
that were more robust and acrobatic than the grandmaster, Fred Astaire.” O’Connor’s
“Make ‘em Laugh” song still is one of the most amazing dance sequences ever
films – a lot of it in longer takes. She wrestles with a dummy, runs up walls
and does backflips, throws himself around like a rag doll, turns cartwheels on
the floor, runs into a brick wall and a lumber plank, and crashes through a
backdrop. Note: Apparently, O’Connor was smoking a lot on set that he ended up
being hospitalized after this song.
Kelly was the genius behind the final version of the “Singin’
in the Rain” song, according to Wollen’s study. The original screenplay placed
it later in the film and tasked it to all three actors (who can be seen singing
it together under the opening titles). Kelly took it for a solo and moved it up
to the point right after he and young Kathy Selden (Reynolds) realize they’re
falling in love. That explains the dance: He doesn’t care on getting wet
because he is so in love. Kelly liked to design dances that grew out of the
props and locations at hand. He dances with the umbrella, swings from a
lamppost, has one foot on the curb and the other in the gutter, and in the
scene’s high point, simply jumps and splashes in a rain puddle.
Other dance numbers also use real props. Kelly and O’Connor,
taking diction lessons from a voice teacher, played by Bobby Watson, do “Moses Supposes”
while balancing on tabletops and chairs (it was the only song written specifically
for the movie). “Good Morning” uses the kitchen and living areas of Lockwood’s
house (ironically, a set built for a John Gilbert movie). Early in the film, Don
climbs a trolley and leaps into Kathy’s convertible. Outtakes of the jump show
Kelly missing the car on one attempt and landing in the street.
Ebert said, “The story line is suspended at the
two-thirds mark for the movie's set piece, "Broadway Ballet,” an elaborate
fantasy dance number starring Kelly and Cyd Charisse.” It’s explained as a
number Don is pitching to the studio, about a gawky kid who arrives on Broadway
with a big dream (“Gotta Dance!”), and fights with a gangster’s leggy
girlfriend. MGM musicals liked to stop the show for big production numbers, but
it’s still possible to enjoy “Broadway Ballet” and still wonder if it’s really
needed. It stops the hurried energy right in its tracks for something more
formal and considered.
The climax smartly uses strategies that the movie has
already made, to shoot down the dim Lina and celebrate newbie Kathy. After a preview
audience cheers Lina’s new film (her voiced dubbed by Kathy), she’s trapped
into singing onstage. Kathy reluctantly agrees to sing into a backstage mike
while Lina mouths the words, and then her two friends join the studio boss,
played by Millard Mitchell, in raising the curtain so the audience sees the
trick. Kathy runs down the aisle – but then, in one of the great romantic
moments in the movies, she’s held in the foreground closeup while Don, onstage,
shouts, “Ladies and gentlemen, stop that girl! That girl running up the aisle!
That’s the girl whose voice you heard and loved tonight! She’s the real star of
the picture – Kathy Selden!” It’s corny, but it’s perfect.
The magic of “Singin’ in the Rain” lives on, but the Hollywood
musical didn’t learn from its example. Instead of original, made-for-the-movies
musicals like this one (Ebert noted, “and "An American in Paris,” and
"The Band Wagon””), Hollywood started recycling pre-sold Broadway hits. That
didn’t work, because Broadway was targeting for an older audience (many of its
hits were showcases for ageless female legends). Ebert mentioned, “Most of the
good modern musicals have drawn directly from new music, as "A Hard Day's
Night,” "Saturday Night Fever” and "Pink Floyd the Wall” did.”
Meanwhile, “Singin’ in the Rain” remains one of the few movies to live up to
its advertising. “What a glorious feeling!” the posters said. It was the actual
truth.
I cannot do this film justice simply by this review.
If you have an HBO Max, go and see this film right now. You will love it, I promise.
No other musical has ever been able to hold a candle to the sheer epicness of
this film. I saw this when I was in Elementary school and I instantly fell in
love with this film. So much so, I have the soundtrack on my iPhone. Check this
out today and have an enjoyable time tapping your toes, humming the beats,
singing the songs, dancing to them, quoting the lines, and having one of the
best movie experiences ever.
Thank you for joining in on my review today. Check in
this Friday for the continuation of “Black History Movie Month.”
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