A movie where came together perfectly

Rating: 10/10 (26 April 2016)

Singing in the Rain is one of the movies in which everything is virtually perfect. The screenplay is one of Green and Comden's best. The direction by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen is perfect. The musical numbers are fantastic, especially Make 'Em Laugh and Kelly's all-time best number (no, not the title number, which honestly I've never loved the way other people do, but the brilliant, balletic Broadway Melody). Kelly is charming, Donald O'Conner is breezily funny, Debbie Reynold's is a perfect girl-next door, and Jean Hagen is wildly funny as an awful person with a voice to match.
This is not to say that there is nothing to criticize. There is a tedious fashion show number that I wish could be retroactively excised and Hagen, as funny as she is, tends to look a bit too much like a comedic actress to be 100% believable as a screen goddess (she's very pretty but has the overly-expressive face of a comic). But these are such minor quibbles that for practical purposes, this is a perfect movie.