Exclusive“Singin’ in the Rain” (1952): First Movie Musical

He wants her in his arms, Would you, would you? He tells her of the charms, Would you, would you? They were only friends, The story ends, He'll kiss her with a sign, Would you, would you? Forget what I told you to say, Let's do the same as they are. Tiffany? It's seven o'clock in the morning. Today's the day! And what a lovely morning! Good morning, good morning! Wait, wait, stop, stop. That's not how the trend goes. Never mind the trend. I'm keeping the twenties roaring on in my own way. Your own way? What's that? I'm singing in the rain. I'm Rebecca Brannan. And I'm Tiffany Brannan. Welcome to Real Thoughts on Cinema. A lot of you may think you don't like old movies. But maybe you've never given them a chance. I think many people are hesitant about old films because they're afraid they won't understand them. Exactly. And admittedly, watching classic films, if you have no prior experience with things from that time, can be sort of like beginning with the advanced level of a subject. One of the most overwhelming things about old movies can be the pop culture references. Absolutely. And some movies have a lot more of them than others. That's so true. For example, a few years ago, we decided to introduce a friend of ours to classic movies. And he had no experience with them. As a matter of fact, he thought movies from the 90s were old movies. Yeah, he was 23 at the time. Most 23-year-olds probably think that. And we, after some deliberation, I remember we put a lot of thought into it, we decided to show him one of our personal favorite movies, which is Babes on Broadway from 1941, with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. You probably won't know who they are, but that's all right. And just a couple of minutes into the movie, right from the beginning, I immediately thought this was the wrong one to choose because it's a musical, and the opening song is solid pop culture references from the time. I just thought, poor thing, he must be so confused. He probably doesn't understand half of what they're saying. It's like speaking a foreign language. It's true, and we probably thought he would like the movie because he's a dancer, and there's a lot of dancing in it, and it's about young people, but that movie, especially that opening number, is talking about all these things, which I would say even the average 70, maybe even 80-year-old wouldn't clearly know. Yeah. You have to have studied that time period, not just... Yeah, I know most of them from watching a lot of old movies. You just pick these things up and doing research. The things I didn't understand, you did, and then you told me about it. And so just the whole movie, I think because it is about young people, it's very current for the time, but with no previous context, it's... Can't really understand it. That's one reason why I think that period pieces are a great choice for someone's first classic film. That's a really good point. Whether you're choosing a movie for yourself or recommending one to a friend, if a movie was set in a different time period when it was first made, it's not going to take for granted that people understand the culture because the filmmakers didn't want younger generations to be excluded. If they were making a film about a time period that was maybe two, three decades earlier, some people might remember, but not everyone would, so they wanted it to be approachable for everyone. That's true. A period piece is definitely helpful. But, again, even with period pieces, you can't just jump in and pick any random movie. It's better to make sure that the movie is in a genre you already like in current films. You'll be more likely to enjoy it. Absolutely. My recommendation for a first classic film for someone who enjoys musicals is Singing in the Rain from 1952. Now, I have to admit, this was actually my suggestion, this movie, because it's one of my personal favorites. Yeah, you always loved it. I just love it. But when we rewatched it, I actually kind of thought it might not have been the right choice. Really? Why is that? It just seemed so foreign looking at it. Wonderful, but I was wondering, would our peers who aren't familiar with the time period really understand it? I know what you mean, but I have to disagree with you. When rewatching it, I still thought it was a great choice. Okay, convince me. Well, firstly, like we said, it's a period piece. It was made in the 1950s, but set in the 1920s, so it's not taking any culture for granted. Secondly, it's set in the 1920s, which is one of the most beloved decades, I would say, from the 20th century. That's true, definitely. People love replicating it, studying it, the flapper era, even if it's a bit stereotypical, the prohibition gangsters, the jazz age, and even more so now, because right now on Broadway, The Great Gatsby is very popular. That's right, the new musical. It's so popular, and that's why we're recommending this for musical fans and theater kids. I think people who enjoy this new musical take on the very famous F. Scott Fitzgerald novel could really appreciate Singing in the Rain, because it's also about the 20s, and it's a musical. So I think that it is a great suggestion for musical fans. That is true, but with the point you made, the Great Gatsby, any recent adaptation of that, it has become very stereotypical, like you said. If you go in a party city, you'll see a Great Gatsby or kind of 20s-themed things for parties, and Singing in the Rain isn't like that. It's not stereotyped at all. It's very accurate to what the time was actually like, and I think that's why I wasn't sure watching it again. It's just so classic, which I love. I would say it's sort of a classical take on the 20s, the way the actors look, the way they act, and the costuming, the style of the musical numbers, even the color tone. I just thought, I'm putting myself in the shoes of someone who isn't familiar with this, and it's just so unlike anything in modern Hollywood, modern culture. That's the very reason I recommend Singing in the Rain, because it is such a classic film, and the whole point of this series is to make people become classic film fans like we are, to help other young people develop that love for the Hollywood history, and I think you can't become an old movie fan without getting interested in Hollywood history, because you just find yourself discovering more about how they made movies and how they changed over the years, and that's one reason why Singing in the Rain is such an enduring classic, because it's about one of the most dramatic time periods in Hollywood history, the change from silent films to talking pictures around 1927, in the late 1920s, in addition to being one of the greatest musicals ever made. Yes, exactly. The story is fascinating. It tells the story of these two silent film stars, Don Lockwood and Lena Momont, whose careers are greatly threatened by the advent of sound. That's right. With the release of the film The Jazz Singer in 1927, which was the first full talkie. It was a Warner Brothers film with Al Jolson, and although it's called the first talkie, it wasn't all talking like we know now. Most of the dialogue was still silent film style. People, like, not making any sound, and then they had title cards, but the musical numbers were sung and you could hear people singing, and that was groundbreaking at the time. Exactly. So the studio for which they work decides, along with all the other studios, to shut down for a while and start out new with sound. Yes. Meanwhile, Don has fallen in love with a simple chorus girl, Cathy Seldon, much to the chagrin of his on-screen leading lady, Lena, who believes the fan magazine romance that's been built up by their publicity department. Typical Hollywood stuff. Even though he isn't actually interested in her. She doesn't seem to realize that. Their first attempt at a talking picture is a disaster at its out-of-town premiere with Lena's squeaky voice and ditzy personality and sort of Brooklyn accent, and Don's trying too hard, in addition to technical difficulties from the sound department, it just doesn't go well at all. But then Don, along with Cathy and his good friend Cosmo Brown, musical director at the studio, get the idea to revamp the movie as a musical because Don was formerly a stage performer and he sang and danced. There's only one problem. Lena, the triple threat, who can't act, sing, or dance. So Cosmo gets the idea for Cathy to overdub her speaking and singing and for Don to just dance around her in the musical numbers. The studio goes for the idea, but on one condition, that they don't let jealous Lena know about it. It's a great story and it has some great talent in it. It stars Gene Kelly, one of the greatest dancers on the screen, as Don Lockwood. First as a vaudevillian, then a silent swashbuckling star, and then a musical movie star. And he brings all his funny personality and drama and great dancing and singing. Debbie Reynolds, who was only 19 at the time, played Cathy Seldon. And that movie really established her as a star after she'd just played a few bit parts. She's so cute and perky in that and you might recognize her name from, if nothing else, that she was the mother of Carrie Fisher, of Star Wars fame. Who also made her breakout film, Star Wars, at the age of 19. That's right, it seems to run in the family. And Cosmo Brown was played by Donald O'Connor, who was a great vaudevillian in his own right when he was a little boy. And by this point, he was a great dancer and singer and just hilarious personality. Gene Hagen plays Lena Lomont and she's a hilarious comedian, perfect as the obnoxious silent film star, who doesn't seem to realize that she has very little talent besides just looking pretty on the screen. The movie was directed by Stanley Donen and co-directed by Gene Kelly. Wow. Not only for the musical numbers, but just this was the beginning of his directorial career. It was produced by the Arthur Fried Unit, which was the top production unit at MGM. Interestingly, Arthur Fried was a songwriter himself. He wrote the lyrics to many hit songs, including all but one of the songs in this movie. Wow. It was a jukebox musical, meaning the songs were just compiled from old standards written over the past 20 years. As a matter of fact, I read that the songs were selected before the story was written, so they had to build the script around the songs. That's so interesting. It does say in the opening credits that the title and story are suggested by the song Singing in the Rain. None of the songs were actually written in 1927. Most of them were written in the later 20s or in the 30s. But the only song with lyrics not by Arthur Fried was Moses Supposes. That's a really hilarious number, and in it, Don and Cosmo are at this elocution lesson. Cosmo's just watching for fun, but Don Lockwood is trying to learn how to speak properly. This is a funny take on something that silent film stars had to do, either because they had bad voices or foreign accents, and many of them did not succeed in making the transition to sound. That's right. Don Lockwood's hilarious fails at romantic dialogue in the movie are actually based on John Gilbert, who was a big silent film star, and his voice was just considered very comical when it was recorded, so that was the end of his fame. In this scene, the elocution director is giving him all these different rhymes to repeat, and he starts out seriously, but pretty soon, Cosmo starts distracting him by making faces and doing other funny rhymes, and the two fellows start doing a great tap dance number while singing riffs on this one exercise, Moses supposes his toes is a roses. It's one of the funniest numbers, but also a really impressive tap duet. They're both such amazing tap dancers. It's amazing in any dance form, I find, to see two men at the top of their game doing things side by side. I love seeing that in ballet, too. They're so athletic. It's just great to see them doing their thing together like that. Another one of the great numbers, of course, is Good Morning. The song was first introduced on film in 1939 in the movie Babes in Arms, but then it was slightly re-lyricized for this movie, and that number has gone on to be so famous. I know it's featured in That's Entertainment, the movie showing great dance scenes from classic movies. It was in an orange juice commercial for many years. Really? Just vocals, yes. I don't know if I ever saw that. That's interesting. It might have been a little before your time, but it's like, wake up in the morning with orange juice and Debbie Reynolds' voice singing Good Morning. The number features Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O'Connor. It's just fun and hilarious as they're dancing around Don's palatial mansion. At one point, they are at his bar and start doing bar like they're doing ballet class. Then they're switching each other's raincoats, and she does a little Hawaiian dance at one point. They do a great job of making this really hard number look like three friends just goofing around in his house. The end of the dance is when they all together jump onto the back of this couch and tip it over. Apparently, that shot took 40 takes to get right, which is crazy, but Gene Kelly was known for being an obsessive perfectionist, especially in this movie. Ironically, they did a lot of takes of the whole number, leading to Debbie Reynolds being completely exhausted, but in the final film, he decided to go with the first take. It's so frustrating to imagine how they felt when they realized that. But it's not surprising. Obviously, they were fresher on take number one than on take 37. Exactly. What's another number you really love from this? I really love the title number, Singing in the Rain. Can't beat that. It happens later, after the good morning scene, when Don and Kathy are now happy that they have a plan for how they're going to save his career, and he sees her home, and she tells him to take care of his throat and be careful, because now he's a big singing star, because it's raining. And he says, oh, where I stand, the sun's shining all over the place. So then he sends his car on his way, and he does this great dance in the rain, singing and dancing in the rain. And he dances around. He jumps up onto this lamppost at one point, holding out his umbrella, and it's just one of the most iconic images from film. Absolutely. Every time I see that moment, I'm like, oh, it's that image. It's such a great moment. And his dancing using the sound of taps in water, both the splashing sounds with the tapping sound effects. Yes, you can tell they overdubbed that very carefully, because taps are usually overdubbed to have a better sound, but it has that splashing sound. He's jumping up and down on the curb. The lyrics were changed a little to add I'm dancing in the rain. That's not one of the original lyrics. Oh, really? I didn't know that. No, it's just singing in the rain, but then they added a second verse. Is it true that all the songs, with the exception of Make Him Laugh, the music was all by the same person, too? Nasio Herb Brown? Yes, that is true. Which is very interesting. Obviously, he's a very prolific composer. Actually, not fit as a fiddle. That was a different composer. Oh, OK. But most of them were Nasio Herb Brown, and he was a frequent collaborator of Arthur Fried, obviously. There's a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes information about the title number as well. They used two city blocks worth of their back lot for the street scene, and they had to put black tarps over it because they were filming during the day to make it look like night, and they fitted up sprinklers for the rain. But when they first tried to film it in the late afternoon, everybody had just come home from work and was watering his lawn, so there wasn't enough water pressure to make the rain work, so they had to try it again in the middle of the day when everybody was at work and they had enough water pressure. But apparently, there was actually a water shortage at the time in Culver City, so it's impressive they were able to pull that off. You know, it's always a drought in California. Yes. And it took, I believe, a day and a half to film, and Gene Kelly was actually very unwell at the time. He had like a 103 degree temperature. So that just goes to show that he wasn't just tyrannical and mean to the other dancers like Donald O'Connor and Debra Ellis. He was just as mean to himself. He was like, get out there and dance even though you're sick. That was Gene Kelly. That's what it's like being a perfectionist. You're just as hard on yourself as on other people. And you can understand how hard it was for him being the director as well as this cast member and choreographer. We can both relate to that from our own productions. It's difficult to be the director as well as the star, but he was great, so you have to give that to him. Yes. Nobody can touch him in the talent department. Yes. He felt that Donald O'Connor needed to have a number that really featured him, and that's what brought about Make Him Laugh, which is his solo number. It's a combination of amazing dancing and gymnastic and just kind of stunts. He did one bit, like circling himself around on the carpet that I believe was done by the Marx Brothers, actually. Yeah, it looks like a Marx Brothers movie. And he ends up running up the walls, which is a trick he used to do on the stage, and Gene Kelly was like, oh, you should do that again. The number is interesting because it is amazing and fun to watch, but as a dancer, especially me, it's a little painful sometimes, like that's so physically taxing, especially if you read about behind the scenes like he was on a concrete floor and he got like carpet burns and things. And also, what we see in the movie is actually the second take. Oh. Apparently they didn't have the camera adjusted properly or something the first time, so the footage was unusable. So he went to bed for three days after filming it and then he came back and Gene Kelly told him you have to do it again. So he did it again. He was a trooper. But you never know, he looks just fresh as a daisy. Yes. Except for at the end when he's supposed to look tired, of course. Yes, it's real. What's your favorite number from this movie? My favorite number from the movie is, I understand, was Gene Kelly's favorite. Which is the Broadway melody ballet scene, really it's called. Which is the most, the biggest, most epic number in the show, Definitely. And it's interesting because it came about quite late in production. They had filmed almost the entire movie before that concept even came about. Arthur Fried felt that they should have a bigger number to equal the American in Paris ballet sequence from Gene Kelly's movie with him the year before. Oh, yes. Which was a huge success in American in Paris. Mm-hmm. So they had the idea to do this big number. And I love it because it tells a story. Yes. I always love a number that tells a story in any kind of a ballet sequence. It's not as balletic as American in Paris, of course. And it was originally supposed to feature Donald O'Connor as well. Oh. But he already had another commitment on television because he might have actually been done filming by that point. Yes. So he couldn't do it. And then they thought of using Leslie Caron, who Gene Kelly actually discovered and who starred opposite him in An American in Paris. Oh. But she was unavailable. So then they used Cyd Charisse, who was a company player. She had done some smaller parts and featured dancer parts before that. A beautiful, classically trained ballerina. And she really got into her jazzy side for this number. Gene Kelly kind of brought that side out of her. And she plays this vamp. She was made up to look like Colleen Moore, who was a famous 20s actress with the signature black... Black bangs and black bob haircut. That's Colleen Moore. Yes. The black helmet, they called her. And they did this first really jazzy number. And she's in this fabulous little green flapper dress. And then the second number is sort of a dream sequence within the ballet sequence where he imagines dancing with her on this beautiful staircase out in... It's one of those oddly-struck things almost looking like an airplane runway. That set. It always reminded me a bit of a beach. It almost has a sandy look. I know what you mean. But it's really just a dream staircase. And he had the idea to give her this 50-foot veil made of white china silk that was attached to one shoulder. And there's a moment when they've had a huge fan there. You can tell because she hits a pose and the scarf flies straight up. She says... She said in interviews that the force of the wind from the scarf almost knocked her over at that moment. But it's certainly worth it for the look. And you can see how masterfully they handle working with the veil. So I really love seeing that. I've gotten inspiration from that number for my own choreography. Yeah, the partnering is amazing. So many period pieces, both back then and really throughout Hollywood history, are inaccurate in their costumes. Yes. At that time period, in the 40s and 50s, they tended to go with modern hairstyles at least. Sometimes even almost modern clothes in works that were supposed to be set in the 20s or 30s. And nowadays, you so often see something set in the 30s and they're wearing 20s flapper clothes or the 50s and the 40s. People don't know. It is crazy how many people think flappers are from the 30s. Especially people who are old enough to know better. Yes. Why do you not know that? So Hollywood has always been really inaccurate and they've contributed to people not understanding. But I love singing in the rain because it's really accurate. I know. I was really noticing that. is so 1920s style, amazingly historically accurate. And I would say even some of the foundation garments, you can tell that the ladies are wearing the right things under the dresses. Instead of the really formed hourglass of the 50s, they go with the straighter silhouette of the 20s. Sort of boyish look which is perfect for Debbie Reynolds because she'd been a gymnast. She was very athletic. So she has a very good look for it. And the hairstyle, it's just so great and it's really a joy to see. And it adds to the overall authenticity of the movie that it really is a history lesson. If you want to know about the transition to sound, this is Hollywood telling you about it. A few years down the road, obviously all those filmmakers still remembered, even if the actors were younger. The system itself remembered and they were poking fun at themselves and then the trials they'd had. Yes. And it's a lot of fun to watch too. It's not like watching a history of Hollywood. No. You've probably noticed the outfits that we're wearing. They're not stereotypical 1920s fashion, but they are based on costumes in Singing in the Rain. My outfit is inspired by Demi Reynolds' costume in the famous Good Morning number. She wears a dress very much like this with a scarf at the neck and these charming shoes which were very common in the 20s and 30s with a little bow on them and I was very lucky to find a pair of shoes like this. And I've done my best to recreate the curled permanent wave style that was popular then. My outfit is modeled on Lena Lamont's style. She's always wearing more drapey, glamorous looks, the sequins evoking the 20s, fur with every outfit, and when they go to see the out-of-town premiere, she's wearing a hat very much like this off to the side. And the tight-to-the-head fashion was popular in the 1920s, as were the sequins, such as you see on my shoes. This look of being drapier and gathered was popular in the teens and the 20s. It's also reminiscent of several styles you see in the elaborate Beautiful Girl musical number, which is a technicolor fashion show full of colorful costumes and matching colorful stockings. An interesting side note that I read from costuming, which I think is very funny, is Sid Charisse was really noticed by Arthur Fried after being in the Broadway melody sequence, and he gave her a starring part the next year in Bandwagon with Fred Astaire, which is another really famous musical, which actually gave us the number That's Entertainment. And in it, the costume designer was asked by the director to add a flower to the shoulder of one of Sid Charisse's gowns. There's a very funny scene in Singing in the Rain where they're trying to position Lena's microphone somewhere where it won't show. Not a problem in silent films. No. And they're trying to hide it in a flower, so this costume designer was annoyed at being asked to change her design, so she said, alright, I'll put on the flower and in each one I'll put a little microphone saying I love you, I love you. The whole gimmick in Singing in the Rain is about overdubbing because of a silent film star who can't talk. And this was based on the real life struggles of people like Paula Negri, who had a foreign accent, or John Gilbert with his funny voice, Gene Arthur, Mary Astor, many people had vocal therapy and they learned to sing so that they could just know how to talk. But it's really funny that they use the answer in Singing in the Rain to overdub the voice. So the idea is they use Cathy Seldon's voice. But they didn't actually use Debbie Reynolds' voice as the overdubbed voice. For all the dialogue, and this is the funniest part, they used Gene Hagen's voice, the actress playing Lena Lamont. So, Lena Lamont was supposed to be doing Debbie Reynolds' voice, was supposed to be doing her voice. It's just ridiculous. And for years I didn't know that, but I thought, Debbie's voice sounds so low there. It's amazing how dark she's making her voice sound. But I said, yeah, it's not her voice. And for Good Morning, and she does a number where all I do is dream of you, they used Debbie Reynolds' singing voice. But, for the song that Lena's supposed to be singing in the movie, Would You, it's not Debbie Reynolds' singing voice either. It's a lady named Betty Noyes. And they also used her voice for the final number with Gene Kelly when they sing a bit of You Are My Lucky Star. If you listen close you're like, yeah, that's not her voice. Yeah. So it's really funny. But at the premiere, when Lena insists on going out and making a speech, revealing her voice to the audience, they ask her to sing. So then they have Cathy stand behind the curtain and sing Singing in the Rain. And then it's Debbie Reynolds' voice. I was just thinking, that's funny. The audience is probably thinking, that doesn't sound like how her voice sounded in the movie. So there's so much great behind-the-scenes trivia, which can help you appreciate this movie even more, especially if you love musicals, maybe you're into being in musicals yourself. But just appreciating the levels of artistry, the funny things that Hollywood did in the 20s and the 50s and continue to do, just the crazy decisions producers and directors make. And it's great as a first-timer to just see, well, look at all the history here. Look at the depth. I want to see more with these actors. I want to find out more about silent films. I want to see more early talkies and more musicals from the 50s. Or just looking at it, if you are already a film historian, you can say, oh, look, I can tell that they're referencing Clara Bow when Zelda, the Zip Girl, is supposed to be Clara Bow, the It Girl. It just, every time you watch it, the more Hollywood history you know, the more there is to see. But it's just so enjoyable with each watch. You've convinced me that this is indeed the perfect movie for musical theater theater fans and theater kids alike. If you want to watch this movie, it's readily available in many formats. You can buy a DVD of it on Amazon or at Walmart, or it's available on all streaming platforms. You can rent or buy it on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, any place like Hulu where you buy films to stream, it's available. Sometimes it even will be on Netflix on their general watch list. So, just Google Singing in the Rain where to watch. You'll be surprised how easy it is to find it and how inexpensively you can enjoy this wonderful movie. Now, we do have to bear in mind there are some people who just hate musicals more than anything else. Yes. If that's you, don't worry, we've got plenty of suggestions for you too. One of the most enduring classic genres is the Western. And, no actor is more closely associated with it than John Wayne, also known as the Duke. Tune in next week to see which of his gun-slinging classics we recommend for people who are new to the golden era of Hollywood. Thank you for watching. Goodbye.