Stunning, a classic!

Rating: 9/10 (26 April 2016)

"Doot Doot Do Doot Do Doot Doot[]" this joyful hum sung and danced its way into America's hearts in the 1950s, and even though the 21st century is well under way, this glorious film continues to put smiles on people's faces.
Singin' in the Rain is a 1952 musical comedy which starred Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O'Conner. The film was directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen and produced by Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM. The movie premiered in Radio City Music Hall in New York City on March 27, 1952, and was released in theatres on April 11, 1952. It made over 7 million dollars in the box office and was one of the highest grossing movies that year.
Just to summarize the film a little bit without giving away too much of the plot, the films opens on a movies premiere at the renowned Grauman's Chinese Theatre in California. The crowds have gathered to see the star studded cast including Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont arrive for the premiere of their new movie. When the premiere had finished, Lockwood finds himself in a situation where he is running away from female fans that are chasing him. Lockwood hops into a car where he meets Kathy Seldon. Not realizing who he is at first she screams and tries to get him out of her car. Finally a police officer sees them and instantly recognizes Lockwood from his movies. Seldon feels a bit embarrassed, but continues on the conversation. They get into a disagreement over whether what Don does in his movies is really acting or not. Kathy believes that just looking at the screen and miming the words is not really acting. There needs to be spoken word. Later after having run into Kathy again, he becomes infatuated with her and tries to track her down but is unsuccessful.
A few weeks later Don walks onto set for his new movie and the producer of the company approaches Don with a crisis. The talkie The Jazz Singer had become a huge success and the public no longer want to see silent films but wanted to see talking films. The rest of the film deals with the struggle of transforming a silent film into a talking motion picture as well as inner character conflicts resulting in the iconic film that we all love today.
Being slightly on the biased side because I am a geek for musicals whether it be on the stage or on the screen, I think that this film deserves all of the recognition that history gives it. While I can understand that it was seen as just another movie when it was released, Gene Kelly made his roll iconic and his scene Singin' in the Rain is one of the most recognized movie scenes in history with his swinging around the lamp post holding his umbrella. This film does a great job portraying the transition that production studios and companies had to go through when the element of a sound system was introduced to the film industry. When the films were silent, they did not have to worry about what the actors' voices sounded like because no one could hear what they sounded like.
This film has the perfect balance of humor woven in with desired romance while portraying an important period in history for the United States. While this film may not have been revered during the time of its release, it certainly has made its mark in film history, and if you are in for a good laugh and love musicals, or if you just want to watch a great film, Singin' in the Rain is definitely a film to pick up and watch. It's going to make you want to get up, walk outside and skip around in the summer pouring rain, because we need to "let the stormy clouds chase, everyone from the place" and "come on with the rain[]"