Make 'Em Laugh

Rating: 10/10 (4 November 2015)

The year is 1927 and Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) are the hottest couple on silent film.
However, the industry is changing and with the arrival and success of the world's first talking picture,'The Jazz Singer' the studio must step up their game in order to compete.
There is just one problem; while Lina was blessed with Hollywood starlet looks, her voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard.
Oh, and she and Don can't stand each other. Their romance is all for show, but only Don seems to know it.
Instead, he is in love with Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), an aspiring actress he meets one night while he is being chased by adoring fans.
When Don and Lina's first talking picture 'The Dueling Cavelier' bombs at a test screening, Don enlists the help of Kathy and his best friend, Cosmo (Donald O' Connor) to save his career.
They come up with a plan to turn the movie into a musical, using Kathy's voice dubbed over Lina's. But when Lina finds out she takes revenge by insisting that Kathy keeps dubbing her voice in future movies, putting Kathy's own career in jeopardy.
I'm not even exaggerating when I say the amount of energy everyone, especially Gene Kelly and Donald O' Connor, emit during their performances in this movie is immense and it's exhilarating to watch.
When filming the sequence for the movie's title song where Don reflects on how happy his blossoming romance with Kathy makes him, Gene was giving it his all despite suffering with a fever at the time.
My personal favourite song numbers include Donald O' Connor singing 'Make 'em Laugh' where Cosmo impresses upon Don the correlation of humour and success in Hollywood, and the ballet number during the Broadway Melody sequence.
Is there any point talking about the direction or cinematography? Not really; though the cinematography during the ballet sequence and the scene where Don sings 'You were Meant for Me' to Kathy is especially beautiful, it's all pretty much perfect.