Singin' in the Rain

Singin' in the Rain
April 11, 1952
MGM
Musical, Comedy, Historical
DVD
B

A sometimes joyous musical, as well as a funny look at the transition from silents to talkies.  You could quibble that the rich Technicolor (my first color movie without Judy Garland, although of course it's MGM) is wasted in the scenes that are purporting to be moments in black & white movies.  (After all, if in real life Harpo Marx had to change his red wig to a blond-looking one, why would someone bother to dye a fur pink?)  I have a more serious problem with the "Broadway Melody Ballet" sequence (hereafter referred to as BMB), which, although only thirteen minutes long, brings things to a crashing halt, being not only a bore but stylistically an anomaly.  (It's "modern," i.e. supposed to be 1920s American rather than pre-revolutionary French, but it looks like the sort of bloated 1950s Hollywood/Broadway number that has not aged well.)  The rest of the numbers are much better, with my favorite being the playful, zippy "Good Morning."  In that number as well as many others, such as "Fit as a Fiddle," I like how two or three people (Gene Kelly with Donald O'Connor and/or Debbie Reynolds) are doing the same or similar steps, but with individual touches.

Without BMB, I still probably would give the movie only a B+, because it doesn't cross over into the lovability of such different movies as The Wizard of Oz and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.  It's very entertaining, and I can see why Reynolds became a big star, but I don't feel I want to stay in this world after the movie ends.

Kay Deslys was in The Big Store.  Julius Tannen, who's in the sound demo short, was Mr. Rafferty in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.  Brick Sullivan was in It's a Wonderful Life.  Mike Lally was in Citizen Kane and Wonderful Life.  Angi O. Poulos was a peddler in Easter Parade, too.  Jimmy Bates, Patricia Jackson, and Joi Lansing were also in Easter Parade.  Gloria Moore was Rosie Kettle in the earliest Ma and Pa movies.

Rita Moreno, then about 20, is almost unrecognizable as red-haired Zelda.  She would appear in Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation the next year.  Cyd Charisse, who's the seductress in BMB, would have a much larger role in The Band Wagon.  Paul Maxey and Joseph Mell would go on to Monkey Business.  Dee Turnell, who was in Copacabana and Easter Parade, would go on to The Band Wagon.  Lyle Clark, Fred Datig, Jr., Peggy Murray, Charles Regan, Joette Robinson, and Jimmy Thompson would all also be in The Band Wagon.  Shirley Wilson would do Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as well as The Band Wagon.  A. Cameron Grant and Judy Landon would be in Gentlemen Prefer, too.  Margaret Bert and Kenner G. Kemp would be in Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair, while Jon Gardner and Timmy Hawkins would be Benjamin and Teddy Kettle in Ma and Pa Kettle in Waikiki.  Tommy Walker would go on to There's No Business Like Show Business, Ann McCrea to Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, and John Logan to Some Like It Hot.  Robert Fortier, who plays a gangster in BMB, would turn up almost three decades later as the town drunk in Popeye.  Sue Allen would be a voice in the chorus of Heidi's Song.