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LXVII: Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952)
Another of the Top 100 Films - an MGM musical.
The credits say that the film was inspired by the song "Singin in the Rain", but it is hardly a straight forward dramatisation as you might do of, say, Bob Dylan ballads. It's from a 1929 film, Hollywood Revue of 1929, with later songs taken mostly from revue films of the early 1930s. In fact, 1929 is late period for the film.
Don Lockwood (Kelly) arrives at the premiere of his latest film with his Hollywood girlfriend and screen partner Lola Lamont (Jean Hagen) and explains his youth and career - although we get to see a more realistic one of vaudeville roots, accidental career as a stunt man and then silen film star. Escaping from a party, he falls into the lap of aspiring actress, Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), who is unimpressed by his acting. He runs into her again a few months on a film set but she is fired.
His next film is put on hiatus whilst the studio is rewired for sound, and when production is under way it is clear that Lamont is not up to the deal: the preview is laughed off screen. Lockwood's longterm friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor) suggests they get Selden to dub the voice.
This is a fascinating historical recreation of an era already vanished - silent Hollywood - and among the DVD extras are some of the early sound experiments. A numbers of careers foundered on the actors' voices not matching audience expectations. At the sdame time it was a film shot at a time when the medium was under threat from television - innovations such as CinemaScope and 3d were brought in to combat the stay at home mentality - here Technicolor is taken full advantage of: a huge production number has a richness of colour than the black and white film would have lost (and a shout out to Cyd Charisse here).
Whilst the narrative focuses on the establishment of Selden as a star in her own right, what strikes me is how sidelined Brown is - he gets his own set piece song "Make em Laugh", but he arrives at the premiere on his own, uncheered, has the idea to help Selden and is the conscience when the studio head turns against her - but there is little sense of him being rewarded for his loyalty. He doesn't get the girl (and there's a campness which makes me ponder if he would rather get the boy anyway).
Enjoyable, although I'm not a great fan of musicals.
Totals: 67 (Cinema: 25; DVD: 40; TV: 2)
Another of the Top 100 Films - an MGM musical.
The credits say that the film was inspired by the song "Singin in the Rain", but it is hardly a straight forward dramatisation as you might do of, say, Bob Dylan ballads. It's from a 1929 film, Hollywood Revue of 1929, with later songs taken mostly from revue films of the early 1930s. In fact, 1929 is late period for the film.
Don Lockwood (Kelly) arrives at the premiere of his latest film with his Hollywood girlfriend and screen partner Lola Lamont (Jean Hagen) and explains his youth and career - although we get to see a more realistic one of vaudeville roots, accidental career as a stunt man and then silen film star. Escaping from a party, he falls into the lap of aspiring actress, Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), who is unimpressed by his acting. He runs into her again a few months on a film set but she is fired.
His next film is put on hiatus whilst the studio is rewired for sound, and when production is under way it is clear that Lamont is not up to the deal: the preview is laughed off screen. Lockwood's longterm friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor) suggests they get Selden to dub the voice.
This is a fascinating historical recreation of an era already vanished - silent Hollywood - and among the DVD extras are some of the early sound experiments. A numbers of careers foundered on the actors' voices not matching audience expectations. At the sdame time it was a film shot at a time when the medium was under threat from television - innovations such as CinemaScope and 3d were brought in to combat the stay at home mentality - here Technicolor is taken full advantage of: a huge production number has a richness of colour than the black and white film would have lost (and a shout out to Cyd Charisse here).
Whilst the narrative focuses on the establishment of Selden as a star in her own right, what strikes me is how sidelined Brown is - he gets his own set piece song "Make em Laugh", but he arrives at the premiere on his own, uncheered, has the idea to help Selden and is the conscience when the studio head turns against her - but there is little sense of him being rewarded for his loyalty. He doesn't get the girl (and there's a campness which makes me ponder if he would rather get the boy anyway).
Enjoyable, although I'm not a great fan of musicals.
Totals: 67 (Cinema: 25; DVD: 40; TV: 2)
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