Singin' in the Rain (1952)

They don't make films like "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) anymore. And it's quite glaringly unfortunate. "Singin' in the Rain" is the single best reminder of the days when Hollywood musicals where still all over the place. Nowadays, Hollywood is frightened of making musical films. (It should probably be noted that this review was written some months before the release of the film adaptation of the great stage musical Chicago, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture of 2002. Boy, did I ever eat my words then!) Audiences these days need to see action and violence and star power. With blockbuster action films like "Spider-Man," "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones," and "The Sum of All Fears," nobody could even dream of making "Singin' in the Rain" today.

However, watching "Singin' in the Rain" recently, it still seems timeless. The comedy is still funny, the musical numbers are still fun, and the romance still has its charm. "Singin' in the Rain" was unforgivably snubbed at the Academy Awards in 1952 for a number of nominations it should have recieved. Obviously, it's a travesty that it wasn't nominated for Best Picture, but most disappointing is the fact that Donald O'Connor didn't get a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance as Cosmo Brown, best friend of Hollywood star Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly). This is one of the funniest and most entertaining performances ever put on film.

The film itself is set in Hollywood, 1927. Don Lockwood and his screen partner Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) are the biggest silent film stars of the day, working for fictional Monumental Studios. But Warner Bros. has just made "The Jazz Singer," the first talking motion picture. The audiences want more of these talking pictures. R.F. Simpson (Millard Mitchell), head of Monumental Studios, wants his stars, Lockwood and Lamont, to make one (He reassures them: "You do what you always do, you just add talking to it."). This would be no sweat, were it not for the horribly raspy voice of Lina Lamont, which has to be heard, because it is impossible to accurately describe.

So here we have fair game for a number of funny gags involving actors switching over to talking pictures. Like the scene where the director can't get Lina to talk into the mic while performing, so they try a bunch of different ways to get the mic to pick up her voice. The sound problems are never really solved, but the film is previewed anyway. Everything that could possibly go wrong goes wrong. Unintentional sound effects are heard, the sound goes out of synchronization with the picture, and eventually the film starts to slow down and the premiere is an official disaster.

Lockwood is convinced that he is ruined. However, Cosmo gives Don the idea of using the six weeks until it goes national to turn the picture into a musical. The picture is saved--except for one problem: Lina. Lina Lamont's voice is so horrible, that if she were to actually sing, the audiences would (understandably) take the film out of the projection booth and hurl it into the sea. Now for Cosmo's next brilliant idea, which is to use the voice of Don's girlfriend, Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) for Lina to lip sync over (Don meets Kathy earlier in the film through a series of coincidences). Now the picture is really saved.

The musical sequences in "Singin' in the Rain" are unforgettable. The most famous of these is Gene Kelly's performance of the title song while dancing through a storm. This is a spectacular scene, of course, but the best sequence in the film is that done by Donald O'Connor to the tune "Make 'Em Laugh." O'Connor does some tremendous work during this sequence; he gets hit in the head with a board, wrestles with a dummy, jumps through a cardboard wall, and runs into a brick one. All this is done with perfect comic grace and concludes as the single most relentlessly fun musical sequence in film history.

There are other great sequences: Kelly and O'Connor tap dancing to "Moses Supposes" (the only song written specifically for the film); Kelly and Reynolds' scene in the empty studio; and certainly the "Broadway Melody" sequence. This scene is shown as Don Lockwood is pitching it to Simpson as an idea for a part of the new musical picture for Lockwood and Lamont. We see a very long sequence which tells a story itself. This strays from the actual movie, but it entertains us and holds our interest so we can easily forgive it.

And then there is the final scene at the premiere of the new musical film (the title has been changed from "The Dueling Cavalier" to "The Dancing Cavalier"). It's a complete smash, the audience loves it, mainly because they think Kathy's voice belongs to Ms. Lamont. When the audience begs for Lina to sing, Don declares that Kathy has to do the singing for her behind the stage. Kathy reluctantly agrees, but is turned completely cold by Don's rudeness and wants never to see him again. While Lina is lip syncing to Kathy singing behind the curtain on the stage, Don, Cosmo, and R.F. decide to open the curtain, exposing Lina. As the song concludes, Kathy runs away in tears, but Don begs the audience to stop her. They stop her and Don informs them that the voice they heard indeed belongs to Kathy. He has won her back. Yes, this is cheesy, but it works perfectly. Remember, this a lighthearted 1952 musical comedy. It only makes sense for scenes like this to appear.

I don't think I've ever encountered a film more joyous and bursting with life than "Singin' in the Rain." It's one of the most fun filmwatcing experiences I've had, and considering I saw it for the first time only about two months ago, it wouldn't be accurate to say that time has not been kind to the film. I've seen it about four or five more times since then because every time I see it, I have just as much fun as the first time. "Singin' in the Rain" is perfect timeless fun.

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