We Lived The Research

Rating: 10/10 (4 February 2007)

In the book The Films of Arthur Freed, Freed made one comment about Singin' in the Rain that always stood out in my mind. As the film was about the Hollywood era when films were learning to talk, Freed said that there was no need to do any research as he lived the research. He and any number of people who were still working at MGM a quarter of a century later.
The knowledge that folks had who worked on Singin' in the Rain and the talent of Gene Kelly are the two things that make that film some consider the greatest of all musicals.
Arthur Freed who wrote a lot of the song lyrics in those twenties and thirties MGM musicals together with his partner, composer Nacio Herb Brown, just reached into his own catalog for the score. The whole score is Brown-Freed except for Moses which was written by Roger Edens and Adolph Green and Betty Comden and Fit As A Fiddler with lyrics by Freed and music by Al Goodheart and Al Hoffman.
The only 'original' song written for the show was Make 'Em Laugh by Brown and Freed and was Donald O'Connor's specialty. You have to put that in quotes because even the writers agreed they ripped off Cole Porter's Be A Clown. Which is from an MGM musical that Arthur Freed produced. Lucky they weren't sued.
Of course the number that Singin' in the Rain is noted for is the title tune sung and danced in the splashing rain by Gene Kelly. That and the Broadway Melody ballet became two of his signature numbers. I know I don't enjoy myself as much as Mr. Kelly did in that inclement weather.
Jean Hagen got a Best Supporting Actress nomination for playing that 'shimmering star in the cinema firmament' Lina Lamont. Unfortunately she lost to Gloria Grahame for The Bad and The Beautiful. One thing that the silent screen did was mask a whole lot of personalities whose voices did not fit the screen image created.
That was done for great comic affect by Hagen, but Kelly in some of his love scenes was using the tragedy of John Gilbert who acted in two much the classical manner as a continental lover. Just think how history might have been different if Gilbert had the background of a song and dance man and could have transitioned to musicals.
Of course Debbie Reynolds is just fine in her first real starring part as the young singing hopeful whose career is made by sound. So many in fact were, as many as those that were broken. A favorite of mine in this is Douglas Fowley the harassed director trying to get a talking performance out of the nasal Hagen and dealing with the new technology at the same time.
As Freed said, no research was needed. Singin' in the Rain is a product of his life experience in those early days of sound.