finest musical of all time

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2006)

What if you wanted a phrase to sum up elation in spite of difficulties? Then you illustrated it with songs, dance, a love story crossing different eras, you offered parallels in the business and personal world, and then underlined it all with a dig at a society that takes itself too seriously? Would it come become widely acknowledged as the finest musical of all time? Singin' in the Rain takes a lost art form, travelling back to the days of silent pictures. A matinée idol (played by Gene Kelly) is caught up in the transition, together with his buddy (Donald O'Connor), a co-star with a grating voice (Jean Hagen) and the girl of his dreams (Debbie Reynolds). Just as is often the case in real life, the lovers bond by accepting each other's worst side. She can't stand his pompousness but her image is shattered when she takes a lowly job and jumps out of a birthday cake. She seems the perfect 'star' but, apart from her whole opposition to the Hollywood industry, she has the jealousy of the real 'stars' to contend with.
Singin' in the Rain successfully re-creates the roaring twenties. By placing much of the story within the film studios themselves, there is easy access to backdrops of wildest imagination, providing constant visual contrasts - music-hall, western, action stunts, as well as forays into black-and-white. The aural contrasts are no less scintillating. The opening scene has Kelly, Reynolds and O'Connor dancing to a jazzed-up title song, quickly cutting to the dreamy Lucky Star number for the opening credits, followed by the clamour and excitement of a red carpet interview. Parodies on silent film, dubbing for sound, and dialect coaches continue to grab attention from one moment to another.
This effervescent, all-American movie (together with An American in Paris) heralded a revolution in the American musical. Part of a counter-trend against popular film noir of the day (like Double Indemnity and The Big Sleep), Singin' in the Rain has been described as a 'great amalgam of realized style and stylized realism'. Even the ending, for all its emotional fulfilment, exalts successful caricature over 'serious' film making.
Although it had to overcome many difficulties in the making, it remains one of the most enduring, effervescent and exuberant of films. It spoofs not only the silent era but also many earlier movies from which most of its songs are taken. Finding true sincerity beneath such light-hearted irreverence is part of the task of the seemingly ill-matched lovers. Today, Singin' in the Rain may be bypassed by devotees of contemporary cinema, echoing O'Connor and Reynolds' characters quip: "Why bother . . . You've seen one, you've seen them all." Yet each year the film gains new converts.