the definitive musical

Rating: 10/10 (2 July 2003)

A simple story that pokes fun at every cliché about film stars and the studios for which they work, Singin' in the Rain has lost nothing over time. The dance scenes with are unbeatable, not that one would expect differently with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. The music, even if it isn't original (it all appears in earlier movies -- old ones at the time of this movie's creation) always fits.
The premise: the advent of sound in the new 'talking pictures' makes all silent movies obsolete as mass entertainment, and a high-budget project that "Monumental Pictures" has nearly completed would be a disaster at the box office unless it is turned into a sound movie. Technical difficulties, including the directional requirements of early microphones, the tendencies of microphones to pick up sounds like heart beats that distract from dialogue, and the poor co-ordination of sound and image create their own problems.
Even more, the silent-era actors have to relearn how to talk for best effect. With Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Cosmo Brown (O'Connor) it's almost a lark, and even the pedantics of voice lessons become a set up for a fine musical dance sequence.
The potential catastrophe is that Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) has a voice incorrigibly unsuited to sound pictures, a fact good for both comedy and dramatic tension. But she is the great star of the silent era, she has a big salary, overwhelming arrogance, and a big contract. Even worse, she leaves no question to the question that she poses at one point "What do you think -- that I'm dumb or something"? The solution is to dub the voice of Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) for dialogue and music without Lina "Am I dumb or somethin'?" Lamont knowing what's going on.
So the silent movie is given sound and is even extended with musical and dance numbers. But that's not the whole story, and the sockdolager ending has to be seen to believed. It works!
Unless one considers >The Wizard of Oz< a musical even though it is more an adventure story, this is the greatest movie musical of all times and is compelling cinema that everyone must see.