Dance Movies

Singin’ in the Rain is a 1952 comedy musical film starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds and directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen, with Kelly also providing the choreography. It offers a comic depiction of Hollywood’s transition from silent films to “talkies“.

The movie is frequently described as one of the best musicals ever made, topping the AFI’s 100 Years of Musicals list, and ranking fifth in its updated list of the greatest American films in 2007.

Production

In the famous dance routine in which Gene Kelly sings the title song while twirling an umbrella, splashing through puddles and getting soaked to the skin, he was actually dancing in water with a little bit of milk added, so that the water puddles and raindrops would show up in the filming. Kelly was sick with a 103-degree fever at the time.

Debbie Reynolds was not a dancer at the time she made Singin’ in the Rain — her background was as a gymnast. Kelly apparently insulted her for her lack of dance experience, upsetting her. Fred Astaire was hanging around the studio and found Reynolds crying under a piano. Hearing what had happened, Astaire volunteered to help her with her dancing. Kelly later admitted that he had not been kind to Reynolds and was surprised that she was still willing to talk to him afterwards. After shooting the “Good Morning” routine, Reynolds’ feet were bleeding. Years later, she was quoted as saying that making this film and surviving childbirth were the two most difficult experiences of her life.

Awards and honors

Jean Hagen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the film for Best Original Music Score.

Singin’ in the Rain has appeared twice on Sight and Sound‘s list of the ten best films of all time, in 1982 and 2002

In 1989, Singin’ in the Rain was also deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
American Film Institute recognition

• 1998 – AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies – #10;
• 2000 – AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs – #16;
• 2002 – AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Passions – #16;
• 2004 – AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Songs:
  • “Singin’ in the Rain” – #3
  • “Make ‘em Laugh” – #49
  • “Good Morning” – #72
• 2006 – AFI’s 100 Years of Musicals – #1
• 2007 – AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #5

Cast

• Gene Kelly as Don Lockwood. Although his performance in the song Singin’ in the Rain is now considered iconic, Kelly was not the first choice for the role — Howard Keel was originally cast. However, Keel was replaced by Kelly as the screenwriters evolved the character from a “Western actor” to a “song-and-dance vaudeville” performer.
• Debbie Reynolds as Kathy Selden. Early on in production, Judy Garland (shortly before her contract termination from MGM), Kathryn Grayson, Jane Powell, Leslie Caron, and June Allyson were among the names thrown around for the role of the “ingenue”.
• Donald O’Connor as Cosmo Brown. The role was based on, and was initially written for, Oscar Levant.
• Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont. Judy Holliday was strongly considered for the role of Lina, until she suggested Hagen, who had been her understudy in the Broadway production of Born Yesterday. Fresh off her role in The Asphalt Jungle, Hagen read for the part for Arthur Freed and did a dead-on impression of Holliday’s Billie Dawn character, which won her the role.
• Millard Mitchell as R.F. Simpson. The initials of the fictional head of Monumental Pictures are a reference to producer Freed. R.F. also uses one of Freed’s favorite expressions when he says that he “cannot quite visualize it” and has to see it on film first, referring to the Broadway ballet sequence, a joke, since the audience has just seen it.
• Cyd Charisse as Don’s dance partner in the “Broadway Melody” ballet
• Rita Moreno as Zelda Zanders, the “Zip Girl” and Lina’s informant friend