A 1952 musical-comedy directed by Stanley Donen with some sequences directed by Gene Kelly, made and released by MGM in the US. Filmed in Technicolor, it runs 103 minutes, and is rated G.
COSMO
Moses supposes his toeses are roses,
but Moses supposes erroneously.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?
Our first film is about the joy of movie-making. Things to love about this film: The songs! The dancing! The color! This is sheer exuberance.
DONALD
Hey Cos! Do something! Call
me a cab!COSMO
Okay, you’re a cab.
Gene Kelly’s famous “Singin’ in the Rain” number has been copied a million times but there are other incredible dance sequences that will have you laughing and wondering, how did they do that? Donald O’ Connor’s side-splitting “Make ’em Laugh” and toe-tapping “Moses Supposes” numbers; the eye-popping color in the “Broadway Melody” sequence with Cyd Charisse and a coin flipping gangster (see Some Like it Hot in a later entry); the couch-tipping cheer of “Good Mornin’, Good Mornin’.” It’s all about a peppy, go-get ‘em, we-can-do this attitude, making things happen, being flexible in the face of adversity, snapping your fingers and laughing your way to solutions.
LENA
People? I ain’t people! I am a…
‘a shimmering glowing star in the
cinema firm-a-ment.’ It says so
–right there!
There is a strangely apt twenty-first century theme running through the film that explores the juxtaposition between reality and how you want others to perceive you. Perhaps no one is more perceptive of hypocrisy than teenagers, and teens in the audience will recognize all the Donald Lockwoods in their lives as they watch him regaling the press with a grandiose version of his life story, while we (the contemporary audience) see how things really happened.
DONALD
Dignity. Always dignity.
Dignity is contradicted by the pratfalls and humiliations of his trajectory to movie stardom. Using the visuals to contrast with what we hear is a powerful technique that creates work for the audience and engages them in the story and the ironic joke. There is a constant contrast between what you see and what you hear; reality and fantasy; truth and lies. Can we believe our eyes and ears? How do we know what is real? What happens when you’re not sure if your storyteller is reliable? It’s wonderful for families because these big ideas are lightly presented with lots of humor. Full of fun, with peppy hilarious song and dance numbers, it’s great for conversations about pretending to be what you’re not as you strive to become who you wish you were.
COSMO
Well haven’t you heard? She’s
irresistible. She told me so herself.
TRIVIA TIDBITS
Debbie Reynolds was just nineteen when she made this film. There are stories of how Gene Kelly was harsh about her lack of dancing skills, and how Fred Astaire found her crying under a piano after having been insulted by Kelly. The story goes that Fred Astaire took pity on the young actress and gave her dance lessons to boost her skills and confidence playing opposite Gene Kelly.
The show must go on! Apparently this theme in the movie extended to the people making the film, too. The “Make ‘Em Laugh” number where Donald O’Connor dances with a mop and somersaults up the side of the set was so exhausting, he had to take several days bed rest to recuperate. Unfortunately, what they shot was damaged, and he had to agree to do the whole thing a second time.
FABULOUS FILMMAKING: SOUND COUNTS
For budding filmmakers and film buffs this movie is a peppy introduction to an important time in film history when films transitioned from silent to sound. This new technology of dialogue, song, and synchronized sound effects meant big changes in the way things were done. Those who could adapt, be flexible, and find solutions to the new technological challenges were able to create marvelous things in this crazy new world. And that may be a message that still has relevance for us today.
There is a comical scene in Singin’ in the Rain when the sound and image go out of synch during a screening of the film within a film, The Dueling Cavalier. Sound is an important part of filmmaking, and when it doesn’t work, it can ruin your film. When you make your own movies, really pay attention to sound. It’s what separates the professionals from the amateurs.
Sound isn’t just dialogue, it’s also music, sound effects, and silence, too. Check to make sure your dialogue can be heard, and is clear. Think about music, and how it can add to, underline, or play against what is going on onscreen. Sometimes you can really create a feeling of place or action using just sound. If you can’t film in a crowded location, for example, you can create the feeling of a crowd using what sound people call “wallah wallah” which is indistinct background chatter. If your characters are supposed to be in a cave or large cavernous space, you can add a little echo to the dialogue, even if you’re filming in a small room. Think about the creative ways you can use sound to create more depth and texture in your films.
SUPER STORYTELLING: THINKING ABOUT GENRE
Under the title of each film in this book you’ll notice a genre such as romantic comedy, or action adventure. Singin’ in the Rain falls into the category, or genre, of the musical. The French word “genre” means type, and a genre is a type of film that has certain characteristics. You can already guess that musicals have… music. There are many genres, including westerns, gangster films, melodramas, horror, comedy, thriller, film noir, science fiction, and more. Within a main genre, such as comedy, there can also be sub genres. As you’ll see in this book, which has a lot of comedies, some sub-genres include caper comedies, slapstick comedy, zany or surreal comedy, and romantic comedy.
Why talk about film genre? If you know you like Star Wars and other science fiction films, when a new film comes out and it’s advertised as science fiction, odds are you will want to find out more about it and consider going to see it. Genres help studios sell their films. Studios don’t say “this is a science fiction film” but rather, they show science fiction elements in the trailers and posters when they advertise their films. If you see a galaxy far, far away, a spacecraft, and some aliens, you know the film is science fiction. Studios know that if a certain genre of film has made a lot of money, the odds are that another film made in the same genre will also make money and be popular with the same audience. When you tell a genre story, you are making a promise to your audience that certain elements will be in that story, and this helps the people financing the distribution of your story sell this story to an audience who expect and know some of the elements that will be in that story.
Genre is also important because it’s a way of thinking about films that doesn’t place the emphasis so much on a few star people who made the film, such as the director, or actors, but rather on films as collaborations, with a relationship to other films in a similar group. When people first started taking the study of films seriously as an art form like literature or painting, a lot of writing and thinking about film considered the author of a film to be the director. The film was looked at in terms of a specific director’s style, or philosophy. While this is an important part of film history, looking at genre helps us to break away from the idea of a god-like director who is single-handedly responsible for making a film. While it’s true that certain directors do have an identifiable style across all of the films they direct, genre study reminds us how filmmaking is a supremely collaborative process, and the result of many creative visionaries who leave their imprint on the final film.
When you make your own films, or read about movies, and you consider their genre, you too are thinking about films as a group. You too are thinking about audience expectations, and about what elements and patterns you might be using that have been used before in other films of that type.
CREDITS:
CAST
Gene Kelly as Don Lockwood
Donald O’Connor as Cosmo Brown
Debbie Reynolds as Kathy Selden
Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont
Millard Mitchell as R.F. Simpson
Cyd Charisse as Dancer
Douglas Fowley as Roscoe Dexter
Rita Moreno as Zelda Zanders
CREW
Directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly
Written by Adolph Green, and Betty Comden
Produced by Arthur Freed
Cinematography by Harold Rosson
Editing by Adrienne Fazan
Music by Lennie Hayton
Art Direction by Randall Duell, and Cedric Gibbons
Editing by Ralph Dawsom
Costumes by Walter Plunkett
WANT MORE?
Other wonderful films directed by Stanley Donen, mostly musicals:
On the Town (1949) a Technicolor musical that gets a bit slow, but has a fantastic opening “New York, New York” number.
Royal Wedding (1951) Technicolor dance fest with Fred Astaire and Jane Powell that features Astaire’s famous dancing on the hotel room walls and ceiling.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) set in the 1850s this is a cheerful musical about seven brothers who look for seven brides and reference the “sobbin’ Sabine women.”
Funny Face (1957) Technicolor musical with a fantastic opening color number, “Think Pink!” and hilarious Parisian Jazz Club dance scene. Must see if just for those two sequences.