For my 300th (and final!) movie of 2024, I decided to go out on a high, with what a vast majority of critics (inlcuding Siskel and Ebert) alongside multiple online aggregate sites list as ‘The Greatest Musical Ever Made!’ Yep, I sat down in the middle of a severe weather warning for wind and rain on New Years Eve with my partner, and together in the warm glow of the christmas lights, we watched ‘Singing in the Rain’ for the first time ever. And we had a pretty great time.
The films set in the 1920s and follows Silent film lethario ‘Don Lockwood’ (Played by Gene Kelly) and his malicious co-star Lina Lamont (Jean Hagan) Linas maliciousness is spurred by the fact that Don really just, isnt that into her, despite her being MASSIVELY into him. The pair are icons of California appearing as THE romantic pairing in all of the major films of the day.
But one fateful night, two incidents will set in motion events that will change the face of Hollywood forever. The first is Don, while being hoarded by fans, tries to escape by jumping into the car of one ‘Kathy Selden’ (Debbie Reynolds) at first the pair cant stand each other, with Kathy insulting Dons acting ability and Don swiping at Kathy for being a lower rung on the actors ladder than he is. But after another encounter later at a party being held by the head of ‘Monumental Pictures’ (R.F Simpson) Don is left swooning by Kathys attitude and way of being…which only upsets Lina even more when she clearly sees he’s more interested in Kathy than her AND during the party Kathy accidentally sends an entire birthday cake into linas face.
The other incident is that, while at the party, R.F Announces a special treat, revealing a new revolution in moviemaking…Sound. specifically they cite that warner brothers is soon to release the first fully talking picture ‘The Jazz Singer’…They’re not worried though as, at this point, its just being seen as a gimmick…That is until ‘The Jazz Singer’ does gangbusters at the box office, leading ‘Monumental’ to urgently rework all their ‘in production’ silent films into ‘talkies’.
For Don, thats not a problem, he’s maybe a little stiff on delivery and line memory, but he’s fine…But Lina? she has a voice that could cut a two by four in half. She cant remember lines, she has trouble pronouncing words…She isnt built for the ‘Talkies’…But you know who is? Kathy. And when Don and Kathy are reunited. the pair along with Dons lifetime friend Cosmo hatch a scheme to put Kathy on the map, while also keeping Lina from stirring up trouble…IF they can pull it off that is.
And y’know what? I think ‘Greatest Musical Ever’ is *probably* an overstatement. But I’ll tell you what, this is a MORE than fantastic little musical that had me grinning for most of the runtime.
In an era where musicals were often a little…’rigid’. Where they basically came in three flavours, ‘Very serious and dower’, ‘Farsical comedies’, or ‘Opera’. ‘Singing in the Rain’ breaks new ground by looking at the framework of the ‘muscial’ genre up to that point and remodelling it with the slightly more swinging and hip sensibilities of the 1950s.
Its a musical that inherently takes itself VERY seriously, with careful consideration put into every dance routine, line delivery and musical number. and BECAUSE it spends so much time trying to master the hard stuff to the point it looks effortless, it grants them the tremendous fortune of being able to actually PLAY the film as a bit self aware, a bit laid back. a more natural happening, rather than an almost pained movie of routine after routine.
And everyone in this film quite literally put their blood sweat and tears into the production (I lost a lot of respect for Kelly over this film) but it cant be denied the end result is a masterwork. A film that from top to bottom feels like its been optimised almost to the point of perfection for the genre at that time.
For a starters the script is a VERY pacy hour and 42 minutes long, the tone is easy going, playing for laughs, but not to TOO much of an obnoxious degree. he cast are charming, charismatic and entertaining throughout. I had a warm smile for most of the runtime on this thing just watching the antics go down, and there are some really solid laughs in this to boot too!
The songs are well paced out, not *too* often, but plentiful enough (and consistent with hits) to keep you engaged. I feel its biggest triumph is taking an element of movie history (the jump to the talkie) and actually managing to translate it not only into a successful musical, but an entertaining and well played one at that. It could have been SO easy to mess this up, and wind up with an insincere piece that felt flat and too tied to the time to be fun. But they relish every scene their in with quirky dialogue and *just* the right amount of snark as and when required to just about keep the production afloat for the whole runtime.
In fact my only criticism is the somewhat surreal ‘Gotta Dance’ sequence in the 3rd act…Which for me? while VERY nicely handled, did feel out of place with the rest of the movie and seemed to go on for an AGE. I understand why its there because it helps to further work on Don as a character a bit. But I think it could have been cut, or at the very least trimmed a fair bit and this would have been even better still.
Direction is frankly superb, the dance numbers are cited as some of the most difficult routines in musical history, Debbie Reynolds hadnt done anything like this before and somehow, via supernatural powers or the pure wrath of Gene Kelly, they managed to pull off some of the most memorable, creative and interesting direction that i’ve seen in a movie in a good while, constantly shapeshifting and evolving, theres sequences in this film that feel 30 years fresher than they actually are. It honestly blew my mind to find out this was 1952, as i’d have had it as a late 50s film truthfully.
Direction of the cast is extroadinary as well, again these were NOT easy routines to learn and Kelly, Reynolds and O’Connor MASTER them. I dont think i’ve ever seen footwork and intensity in a performance anywhere quite like whats shown here. its truely remarkable. Concerning…But remarkable.
As for the cine, its beautiful, intense and creative sequences flow beautifully from one scene to the next, theres room for creative compositions that most all land, sequence building is a little stiff in places (but it is 1952) and I think a little more B-roll would have got it over the line fully for me…But its a minor grumble, this thing looks fantastic, its vivid, colourful, engaging, SHOWS more than it tells and the edit is seamless, equally smooth and frankly an utter delight.
Performance wise, Debbie Reynolds and Gene Kelly are astounding. Given what we know Kelly did to Reynolds through this production I almost feel perverse praising him here. But the pair really do have a strong on screen chemestry, they both astound in their roles delivering fantastic performances that largely (and successfully) carry the film from start to finish.
Donald O’Connor and Jean Hagan as Cosmo and Lina equally delight as comedy foils for the production, with O’Connor *maybe* just about pushing the comedy foil a bit *too* far for my taste. But never full crossing the line. and Hagan is just perfect as Lina, giving a performance thats rich, multi layered and varied. I laughed at her when we found out her voice was a dud for ‘talkies’ I winced when she started flexing her stranglehold on the studios when she found out they were employing Kathy. It takes a strong performance to be able to play both the victim of comedy, the comic foil AND the villainess all at the same time, all in one movie. But she really truely nails it delivering a memorable performance that helps tie the whole thing together.
And as if I could review this without talking about the soundtrack. the titular ‘Singing in the Rain’ is a wonderful classic, but ‘Good Morning (to you)’, ‘Gotta Dance’, ‘Make ’em Laugh’ and ‘Moses’ are all show stoppers in their own right and really showcase the talent both on screen and the crew behind it. I was beyond impressed and was in awe of the craftsmanship behind it.
Is ‘Singing in the Rain’ the greatest musical ever made? In my opinion? im not fully convinced. I could easily see a point where, through re-watches, this becomes one of my favourite musicals. In terms of technical ability it almost certainly is in the top 3. But for me? this is just a really solid, charming and astounding work that is guarenteed to raise even the sourest of moods and was a fantastic way for me to see out 2024. The only thing better than finishing ‘Singing in the Rain’ is knowing a next time will always be on the cards.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/singin-in-the-rain/
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