With a happy refrain

Rating: 9/10 (25 November 2007)

"Singin' in the Rain" is a musical that explores the transition from silent to sound films. It also features the story of actor Don Lockwood, who is famous for his on-screen romantic pairing with Lina Lamont. Lina expects Don to marry her, but Don is more interested in Kathy Selden.
Gene Kelly, Jean Hagen and Debbie Reynolds are all excellent in the lead roles. Hagen is especially amusing and her screechy voice functions perfectly as an impediment in the transition to sound films.
There are not surprisingly a lot of musical numbers, which are generally well-made. Especially good is the title number as sung by Gene Kelly while meandering through a street. The only number that seemed out of place was the extended "Broadway Melody" number toward the end of the film, which looks nice, but is disruptive to the flow of the story.
The storyline exploring the tumultuous transition from silent to sound films and the relationships between characters were clever and amusing. It helped that I watched "The Jazz Singer" (1927) shortly before watching this one, as the film makes reference to its role as the film that ushered in the sound era. It is not essential to view it before seeing this, but it may help to learn of the song "Mammy" from that film since some of the jokes in this film make reference to it. "Singin' in the Rain" is not my favorite musical, but it is certainly one of the better ones I have seen.