Classic film, yet flawed

Rating: 8/10 (1 January 2007)

It's almost sacrilegious to find fault with a classic film, one on most top 10 lists of great all-time films, but I continue to wonder about the dream sequence. Enough has been said about all of great scenes and song and dance numbers, but what about the Gene Kelly / Cyd Charisse scene? I never liked the piece and thought it totally stopped the pace of the film. The scene itself seems to have nothing to do with the picture and just drags on and on. I left the movie for many years and in watching it again my opinion of that scene only gets worse. I turned on many people to the film over the years, including my family. The first thing they said when the movie was over was, "what was with that dream scene? Is just dragged on and on!" I can only guess the director, Stanley Donnen either thought that somehow presented another view of the toughness of making it in Hollywood, or Gene Kelly used his star power to make sure that number stayed in the film as an ego trip. I would have much rather seen the deleted number with Debbie Reynolds singing to the billboard. Oh well, it's still a great movie. Though it meant something different to audiences who saw this picture only 20-30 years after the advent of talking pictures and who heard these songs in other movies, it still is good family entertainment.