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Singin' in the Rain Overview:

Singin' in the Rain (1952) was a Comedy - Musical Film directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly and produced by Arthur Freed and Roger Edens.

SYNOPSIS

Perhaps the finest screen musical of all time is a particular treat for classic movie fans as it portrays the frantic period when Hollywood's pictures learned to talk. But this is no dry history lesson: it moves with a nimble grace through flashbacks and a romantic storyline while featuring a selection of the best Freed-Brown numbers from MGM's musicals of the preceding two decades. The silver-screen characters from the late '20s include matinee-idol Kelly and his silent diva leading lady Hagen, whose voice ensures that she won't make the transition to sound, and fresh-faced Reynolds as an aspiring actress and singer who wins Kelly's heart with her voice and good nature. The justly famous numbers include Charisse's slinky "Broadway Ballet" and, of course, Kelly's exuberant stomp through the title song. Other musical numbers include: "You Were Meant for Me," "Make 'Em Laugh," "You Are My Lucky Star," and "All I Do Is Dream of You."

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Singin' in the Rain was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1989.

Academy Awards 1952 --- Ceremony Number 25 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Supporting ActressJean HagenNominated
Best Music - ScoringLennie HaytonNominated
See More Oscar Winners

Singin' in the Rain BlogHub Articles:

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD: SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)

By FlickChick on Aug 2, 2014 From A Person in the Dark

Since my slavish devotion to Lina Lamont is well known to anyone who might have stumbled by here in the past, I simply had to include Singin’ in the Rain as part of the Hooray for Hollywood series. I can’t help viewing this film as a musical counterpoint to Sunset Boulevard; sort of... Read full article

CMBA Blogathon: Fabulous Films Of the 50s: Singin' In the Rain

By Vanessa Buttino on May 19, 2014 From Stardust

CMBA Blogathon: Fabulous Films Of the 50s: Singin' In the Rain Believe it or not, this is now the FOURTH time I've had to re-start this blog post. Singin' In the Rain is one of my all-time favourite classic films and yet I can't seem to put pen to paper - or in this case, fingers to keys -... Read full article

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD: SINGIN' IN THE RAIN

By FlickChick on Jan 22, 2014 From A Person in the Dark

2014 is the year A Person in the Dark celebrates films about my favorite place - Hollywood! Singin' in the Rain When "Singin' in the Rain" was released in 1952, silent films had been a thing of the past for only 24 years or so. Probably more than half of those in the audience remembered them... Read full article

CMBA Film Passion 101 Blogathon: "Singin' in the Rain"

By David on Dec 3, 2013 From The Man on the Flying Trapeze

I was 10 years old when I remember seeing Gene Kelly for the first time, and I was not impressed. It was 1967, and Kelly was the star of a musical TV version of "Jack and the Beanstalk," and he was just so ... so ...smarmy. I felt like he was talking down to me, and I was 10! Besides, I was much ... Read full article

CMBA Film Passion 101 Blogathon: "Singin' in the Rain"

By David on Dec 3, 2013 From The Man on the Flying Trapeze

I was 10 years old when I remember seeing Gene Kelly for the first time, and I was not impressed. It was 1967, and Kelly was the star of a musical TV version of "Jack and the Beanstalk," and he was just so ... so ...smarmy. I felt like he was talking down to me, and I was 10! Besides, I was much ... Read full article

See More Singin' in the Rain Articles

Singin' in the Rain Quotes:

Kathy: Are you sure it's all right? Being seen with me?
Don Lockwood: You mean lofty star with humble player?
Kathy: Not exactly, but for lunch don't you usually tear a pheasant with Miss Lamont?
Don Lockwood: Kathy, all the stories about Lina and me are sheer publicity.
Kathy: Oh? It certainly seems more than that. From all those columns in the newspapers and articles in the fan magazines...
Don Lockwood: You read the fan magazines?
Kathy: I pick them up at the beauty parlor or the dentist's office, just like anybody.
Don Lockwood: Really?
Kathy: Well... I buy four or five a month.
Don Lockwood: Four or five...
Kathy: But anyway, to get back to the point, you and Miss Lamont do achieve a certain intimacy in all your pictures...
Don Lockwood: Did you say *all* our pictures?
Kathy: I guess if I think about it I've seen eight or nine of them.
Don Lockwood: You know I remember someone saying, "If you've seen one you've seen 'em all".
Kathy: I said some awful things that night, didn't I?
Don Lockwood: No. I deserved them. But I must admit I was hurt by them. So hurt in fact that I haven't been able to think about anything but you ever since.
[after Don shows up late for a party]
Cosmo Brown: Don, how did you come, by way of Australia?
Cosmo Brown: You have to show a movie at a party. It's a Hollywood law.
Lina: You mean it's going to say on the screen that I don't talk and sing for myself?
Cosmo Brown: The new Don Lockwood. He yodels, he jumps around to music.
Don Lockwood: The only problem is once they release this movie, no-one's gonna want to see me jump off the Woolworth building into a damp rag.
See More Quotes from Singin' in the Rain
Singin' in the Rain Facts
The script was written after the songs, and so the writers had to generate a plot into which the songs would fit.
While the film makes a central point of the idea that Kathy's voice is dubbed over Lina Lamont's, what is not told is that, ironically, in some of these songs - notably "Would You" and "You Are My Lucky Star" - Debbie Reynolds, the actress who plays Kathy, is actually dubbed by Betty Noyes. However, Reynolds' own singing voice can be heard on the outtake footage of "Lucky Star" as performed next to the giant billboard of Gene Kelly.
The role of the ditzy movie diva Lina Lamont was written with Judy Holliday in mind. Holliday was a close friend of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and they even modeled the character on routines they had worked up with Holliday back when they were part of a satirical group called The Revuers in New York. Timing was everything, however, and the idea of casting Holliday was vetoed after she hit it big in Born Yesterday. Everyone figured she'd be uninterested in the supporting part but, as it turned out, the lovely Jean Hagen, Holliday's understudy on Broadway for "Born Yesterday", got the part.
Norma Talmadge is parodied as Lina Lamont in Singin' in the Rain (1952).
In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #5 Greatest Movie of All Time.
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